WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
I found it a really sad state of affairs to realise that I had only properly started listening to DMX after he had died without even realising! Makes me feel worse when I thought his song X Gon’ Give It To Ya was by Xhibit instead. I’ll never profess to be a rap fan but this guy has definitely made songs I enjoy.
Beyond The Law
You know what I like about DMX’s casting in this is that it’s rare for a rapper to be cast as anything other than a criminal and this time he’s playing a detective! My issue however is that he turns out to be a dirty cop. Now, I wonder if they chose to do this as they felt even though he’s the lead detective on the case of the murder of Chance Wilson, his father Frank being an ex-cop meant that you couldn’t have two good cops on the case. Not that that makes any sense. Even for such a short film, the character of Detective Ray Munce is pretty small but this is probably because the main focus is on Frank Wilson and his search for his son’s murderer. With that in mind, I started to wonder about the whole point of DMX’s character even being included. What is weird though, for an accomplished actor like Steven Seagal, DMX’s acting seems to be better than his.
Fast and Fierce: Death Race
This film feels like a mixture between Fast and Furious and Transporter but I’m not sure if that was supposed to be on purpose. This time, DMX’s character falls into that typical role of what seems to be a criminal boss and illegal race financier. Now, don’t get me wrong, I watched Fast and Furious for the first time recently and I didn’t think it was the best film in the world, however it’s definitely better than this! Once again, because the majority of the film is focused on the race and even though his character of Davey is the whole reason Jack ends up involved in the Outlaw race in the first place, DMX has a rather small role in the grand scheme of things. Following his arrest by the Mexican police, his role becomes basically non-existent until a couple of minutes from the end when he gets shot and arrested. I don’t know if it’s the way this was filmed but his acting feels much weaker in this film in comparison to Beyond The Law. There’s no power behind his anger at Bianca for stealing the drives that would send him to prison.
Last Hour
Now, starting at the end of a film is nothing new – Tarantino does it quite a bit, however with this film it just felt really weird. Truthfully, the whole timeline feels a little all over the place. My understanding is that these men don’t know each other, so how do “Poker” and “Monk” end up at the same gambling table? DMX plays Black Jack who is a common thief and gang member, from my understanding, who seems to want better for his younger brother. Even though the plot and editing is confusing, I think this is probably DMX’s best role of the three as his acting seems to be a little bit more polished. Which is funny considering he made this earliest. The only problem with his character is that he’s a little bit of a loose cannon, almost getting them all killed by firing at the police when Monk was already trying to organise something more civil. Not too sure why he decides to quote Taxi Driver though, considering Poker is in the same room as him and the hostage. Black Jack’s death is actually quite dark as we still know who is hunting them in the house and the killer seems to move like a ghost.
Side note: No matter how weird the film was, why was Shang’s dubbing all over the place?
Honorary Mentions
Including the films above, DMX only made 14 films in total, including what I thought, based on the title, was a sequel to Fast and Fierce, which was Fast Vengeance, however he plays Detective Liddle, a far cry from the character he plays in the earlier film. It does seem though, that many of his films fall in the crime drama genre including his very first in 1998, Belly.
