12 Movies You Can Stop Watching After The Opening Scene
9. Belly
As far as feature filmmakers go, Hype Williams is one
of the best music video directors to ever live. The hip hop legend shot
unforgettable promos for artists as diverse as TLC and DMX throughout the
nineties, lensing killer videos for the likes of Method Man, Busta Rhymes, and
even the Notorious B.I.G before broadening his horizons in the new millennium and
working with Christina Aguilera, Nelly Furtado, and Beyonce at the height of their
respective careers.
That said, the best thing we can say about 1998’s crime thriller Belly is that Williams’ debut feature looks and feels like a ninety minute music video—unfortunately, that’s not a good thing. Despite a pair of great central turns from Nas and DMX, the film suffers from an over-complicated plot and an excess of style over substance.
But what style it is, with the film’s slick neo-noir aesthetic never better encapsulated than in its ice cool opening sequence, a neon-lit crawl through a nightclub which drips with effortless finesse.