(2003)
3
Buzz McClain
This is another mindless shoot-'em-up from writers/directors Ed and Jose Quiroz, ambitious indie filmmakers who put the profits from previous films into the subsequent ones. Dope Game 2 isn't really a sequel to The Dope Game, which had rapper David Dyno Rocha playing an inept smuggler trying to get drugs from Texas to California, only to lose the vehicle containing the drugs and money. This one is virtually interchangeable with their police action thrillers Jack Movez and Drug Lordz, although the acting is getting a lot better and the costumes look like they come from a wardrobe department rather than the actors' closets. There are still too many scenes of phone conversations and sitting in living rooms cussing about killing. But once they get into the action, things come alive -- their vivid depictions of brutality are the most honest moments of their films. There's a lot of anger in these brothers, and if they ever discovered a way to actually say something, rather than simply depict it, they might have something. Expand the horizon; get out of the cops and robbers mode. What if the Quiroz brothers made a Western? That might be interesting.
Dope Game 2 on AllMovie
Dope Game 2 (2003)
