The Screen Addict | Sugar Hill

Wesley Snipes had an unfortunate run in with the law some years ago, and actually went to prison for almost three years. More proof that in the US you can get away with almost anything, except for screwing up your tax returns. Uncle Sam will ALWAYS nail you right to the wall for that.

Since his release in 2013, the actor has been quietly rebuilding his career with mostly low-budget indies like The Recall (2017) and Armed Response (2017).

More recently however, the former Superstar of The Nineties appears to be completely back on track with cool performances in Dolemite Is My Name (2019), Coming 2 America (2021) and as Kevin Hart’s older brother in the Netflix Mini Series True Story (2021).

Snipes was one of my heroes growing up, and I am truly happy to see him shine on the silver and smaller screen once again.

If I had to pick one Snipes favorite, I would cheat and select a triple bill of White Men Can’t Jump (1992), The Fan (1996) and definitely Demolition Man (1994).

I’ve been planning to do a piece on this Snipes - Stallone extravaganza for a while now, but I am postponing it because I wanted to highlight another fan-favorite first.

When I was revisiting Mario Van Peebles’s New Jack City (1991) recently, I suddenly remembered there was a second Wesley Snipes Urban Gangster-Flick that was released around the same time.

Two years after NJC, Snipes played another drug kingpin in the Crime Drama Sugar Hill (1993). The film didn’t have the same lasting socio-cultural impact as NJC did, but it is a pretty satisfying watch nonetheless.

It’s interesting to see that the two films share many similar story beats, NJC just does so more effectively.

There is also a thematical connection between SH and another great Crime Thriller Snipes made a good fifteen years later – the underappreciated Antoine Fuqua flick Brooklyn’s Finest (2009).

A triple bill of NJC, SH and BF – not necessarily in that order – would make a pretty awesome film-night as well, come to think of it!

SH even paid tribute to the granddaddy of all Gangster films by casting The Godfather (1972) alum Abe “Tessio” Vigoda as a New York crime boss.

Seek this title out, if you can find it. Independently financed and distributed, SH was not handled by a major studio and it might therefore prove difficult to find a DVD or streaming option. In BeNeLux, my friends at Dutch FilmWorks – who, coincidentally, also brought us BF – handled the release, so physical media should be available.

Solid recommend

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Twitter (X): Robin Logjes | The Screen Addict