Grade: B+

Verdict: This explosive and often explicit “hood” movie is, in its own distinctive way, an excellent family-values film.

Details: Starring Tyrese, Ving Rhames and A.J. Johnson. Directed by John Singleton. Rated R for sex, violence and profanity. Two hours, 9 minutes.

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Review: Director John Singleton returns to “Boyz N the Hood” turf with “Baby Boy." It isn't as good as its powerful predecessor, but it comes close enough.

The film opens with an arresting image: a young African-American male curled up in a giant womb, umbilical cord and all. “The black man has been forced to think of himself as a baby,” the narrator states. “What does a black man call his close acquaintances? Boys. What does a black man call his place of residence? His crib.”

Take 20-year-old Jody (MTV VJ and recording artist Tyrese ). He still lives with his single mother, Juanita (Spelman grad A.J. Johnson), in his old room, which is cluttered with teen stuff like pop-star posters and model planes. He spends a lot of his time hanging out, sleeping and watching Popeye cartoons. His idea of a job is selling stolen clothes to customers at a beauty salon (“You're an earth tone,” he jives.)

But none of that is Jody's real problem. He may behave like a teenager but he's already fathered two children with two different women, Yvette and Peanut.

You could say that, likable as Jody is, the word “responsibility” is not a big part of his vocabulary.

However, his cozy, infantilized life is about to change.

First, there's Juanita's new live-in boyfriend, Melvin (Ving Rhames). Then there's the Yvette situation. When her ex-boyfriend and no-good jailbird Rodney (Snoop Dogg) shows, Jody is forced to confront how he really feels about Yvette and their son.

Singleton bravely raises some uncomfortable questions. Why are so many young black men fathering kids they can't support or edging into violence they can't handle? Further, are sex and shoot-outs the only ways they can assert their masculinity?

“Baby Boy” has its slow parts, its obvious parts, its egregious parts. But it's also a film that can take you to a place no other summer movie can.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Cox News Service