In a watershed year for black filmmakers, Singleton has made the punchiest feature debut in recent memory. Those who complain that [Spike] Lee's characters tangle up his plots will savor Singleton's flawlessly crafted edges.

...Boyz N The Hood is Singleton's impassioned blueprint for survival. If that sounds didactic, it is. But it's also disturbingly real, in a way that Hollywood movies have seldom been before.

Singleton fails to make Tre's dilemmas reach out and really touch the viewer, failing to inject his material with the dynamism for which it's crying out; halfway through, the film still feels as if it is trying to get started.

Singleton is exploring a world he knows very well. Because of that, "Boyz N the Hood" gives each viewer the feeling he has an insider's view.