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It’s all about the money and it’s all about the streets. A man’s gotta do something to make his way and these four young men are gonna shine—or at least go down fighting for the creds.

The Dough Boys, Corey (Arlen Escarpeta), Smooth (Cory Hardrict), Black (Mo), and Long Cuz (Lorenzo Eduardo) are small time hustlers who just happen to find a bigger prize to follow. When the four young men get word of a batch of counterfeit chips, they decide to take them for themselves and pull down the take.

Unfortunately Corey should have left LA with his girlfriend when she asked, because the heist of the casino chips draws Corey and his crew into the big time. Determined to get out, Corey decides to do this with his friends and then join his girl. But The boys don’t know who the chips belonged to and they have no idea that this little adventure could cost them their lives.

The Dough Boys are feeling pretty confident with their skill when prime time hustler Julian France (Wood Harris) invites them this crib for some business, but Julian has other plans. As with any good action movie four go in, and only three come out. Pros and hos are only the appetizer for a buttload of trouble that befalls the Dough Boys.

Sent away with an order to deliver $10k or die, the three remaining boys feel the pressure and as one would expect, turn on each other in the blink of an eye.

All of their posturing crumbles as they are confronted with another test. Duece, a neighbor of sorts in Corey’s building comes to the rescue, but the boys soon discover that has a price as well. Dough Boys comes to a head with a shoot out involving all manner of thugs, slugs, and the local law.

Arlen Escarpeta plasy Cory wonderfully, but the level of acting skills isn’t really kept up by his posse. This is your typical BET movie and it is a bit of a shame that they continue to put out movies that reinforce the stereotype that all young blacks are thugs. The language, the violence, and the themes may be realistic, but has it ever occurred to anyone that if they change the themes it might offer some positive influence on the people watching, instead of simply teaching them how to kill one another and feel nothing about it?

Dough Boys is not a bad film, I think it is actually fairly good, but it is a very typical film. I was not surprised by anything in it and I was not particularly moved by anything in it. I found it nearly impossible to feel any sympathy or empathy for the characters, and honestly didn’t care what happened to them.

Wood Harris does a fairly good job in his role and Sticky Fingaz never ceases to amaze me with his screen presence in view of few lines. Larger than life he does make people sit up and notice.

Dough Boys gets a nod, but a weak one. Not much different than most of the BET movies, but not the worst of the bunch.

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