Hangin' with the Homeboys

Four Bronx likely lads - two black, two Puerto Rican - start their Saturday night by being booted out of a salsa party, and end up, one battered car and several battered egos later, wiser guys. It's one of those films in which the lessons of a lifetime are learned in one night, but it all works to brisk comic effect. The guys are basically cut-outs, each defined by his own tic, but they're done to a fault. There's Tom (Joyner), an aspiring actor, shiftless Willie (Doug), and shy, morose Johnny (Leguizamo). But the star turn is Nestor Serrano's obnoxious hustler, Vinnie. The film is a little too episodic, and being a buddy movie, never quite pulls the rug from under the boys' braggadocio. But Vasquez makes pointed play with some of the current movie clichés of race and sex politics, and the pace never lets up. A lot of fun, with a lot of heart, and pretty hip into the bargain.