I remember seeing this in theater 24 years ago and I remember the emotions this film evoked. I just watched it again tonight and I had the exact same emotions.

With heist movies we always want to see the thieves get away. I don't know if it's because we sympathise with them because they may have a tragic backstory, or if we hate big banks/billionaire corporations, or if we are living vicariously through the thieves, but we root for the "bad guy" in heist movies. So, why should "Set it Off" be any different?

Four girlfriends from L.A.-- Lena "Stony" Newsome (Jada Pinkett), Cleopatra "Cleo" Simms (Queen Latifah), Francesca "Frankie" Sutton (Vivica A. Fox), and Tisean "Tee Tee" Williams (Kimberly Elise)--were just existing in the ghetto. When three of the four women had something tragic occur in their lives they decided to rob a bank so that they could leave the 'hood once and for all.

This movie was excellent. The protagonists were very much anti-heroines of a very atypical sort. They were Black women from the 'hood, and one of them was even gay. They were social losers from the start, so they weren't supposed to succeed in anything--legal or extralegal.

Sure, the tragic events that struck them were a little thick, but nothing that happened to them was unbelievable. Simply take a poll of those who live in the projects or in ghettos and you'll find several people who can easily identify with one of the four main characters.

If I were to take exception with this movie for anything it would be the one supercop scene. That would be the bank cop who decided to jump in between Cleo, Stony, Tee, and the REAL cops. It made no earthly sense. Detective Strode (John C. McGinley) was doing a fine job talking the women into surrendering and out of nowhere Paul Blart Mall Cop dives into the picture firing shots at the women killing Tee Tee. It was the only WTF moment of the movie and it's stench lingered for a couple of scenes.

Then "Set it Off" quickly flipped the page from that obvious plot device to give us some heart tugging tragedies that were as poetic as they were painful. I don't know if we can say that "Set if Off" was the 90's anthem for Black women, but it sure was a good candidate.

Director F. Gary Gary treats the the plight of a quartet of blue-collar African-American women with great sympathy in "Set It Off." Each of these women have experienced adversity first hand and the idea is that they have been dealt a bad hand by destiny. One woman prostitutes herself to ensure that her brother gets to go to college, but she finds out later that her efforts were for naught. Another woman is implicated in a bank robbery simply because she knew the man who robbed her bank and didn't follow the procedures that she had been drilled in. Another woman is a single parent who has to work one job to pay the babysitter. Finally, the fourth member who is the least sympathetic is a lesbian who has been restoring her car since the seventh grade. These closely-knit friends take their lumps but decide that whatever a man can do, they can do better. Consequently, they embark on a life of crime in this predictable, often contrived, but nevertheless entertaining crime thriller. Clearly, the moral of the story is don't rob banks. If you know somebody robbing a bank, you must behave as if you don't know them. Never, never, never--if you are a single-parent--ever bring your unattended infant to the workplace. Crime doesn't pay and "Set It Off" makes it abundantly clearly as three out of the four survive. The fourth escapes because somebody on the other side allows them to getaway. The performances are sometimes a little too over the top, especially Jada Pinkett and Vivica A. Fox. If you abhor profanity, prepare yourself for an onslaught of the F-bomb.

Bank teller Frankie Sutton (Vivica A. Fox) gets fired after the bank gets robbed by somebody she knows. Police detective Strode (John C. McGinley) suspects her involvement. She is forced to join her friends Stony Newsom (Jada Pinkett Smith), Cleo Sims (Queen Latifah), and TT Williams (Kimberly Elise) doing janitorial work. Stony's unarmed beloved brother Stevie gets killed by the cops. TT's boy has an accident and Child Services takes him away. Casual musings about robbing banks turn into reality. As they get more successful, the best friends start to clash.

This is more than a crime drama and it's the more part that I'm uncertain of. It's painfully direct that three of the four girls are given reasons to do the robberies. They are victims first before they decide to do the crimes. It's a form of female empowerment movie. I don't really buy Stony's path. She should have sued the city and the police. It's too convenient to have so many problems. There is a similarity to 'Thelma & Louise' but it doesn't have quite the same equivalence. On the other hand, I like the attempt to change up the traditional bank heist movie.