Roger Ebert gave the movie praise for its cast's performances, director Doug McHenry's "lyrical touches" to the poetic aesthetics of Bobby Smith, Jr.'s script and its willingness to tackle dramatic themes that "New Jack City" and "Sugar Hill" also explored, concluding that, "It's not some little plot-bound genre formula. It's invigorating, how much confidence it has, and how much space it allows itself." Deborah Young from "Variety" praised the performances of Whitaker, Payne and Woodbine, and the visual settings created by McHenry and cinematographer Francis Kenny but felt the film's script "stumbles into a lame love story and ends in a conventional shootout and bloodbath."