The four women at the center of F. Gary Gray's Set It Off have earned a break. Francesca (Vivica A. Fox) recently got fired because someone pointed a gun at her and she got scared. Tisean (Kimberly Elise) has a little baby boy with no father and is getting her hard-earned wages jacked by the government. Stony (Jada Pinkett, before she had the Smith) has given everything, even her body, to ensure her little brother can go to college and, because of a haircut and a bottle of champagne, watched him get shot by the police. Then there's Cleo (a scene-stealing Queen Latifah), a hard-talking lesbian with a taste for crime and women with fishnets.

Out for revenge and restitution from the perpetrators of these heinous acts (a.k.a. Men), they decide to hold up a bank which, of course, begets a life of crime for all involved. Things ain't all bad though: Smoky has found love with a bank supervisor (Blair Underwood), the detective on their case (John C. McGinley) doesn't have nearly enough evidence, and all this money means better guns and tighter fishnets for Cleo's woman. Plus, they get to shoot their no-good, thieving boss.

Set prominently in the poverty-stricken projects where all four women live, rap-video director F. Gary Gray has once again found a script, like his superior The Negotiator, that blends heavy genre elements into an odd hybrid. There are moments that borrow from social realism, feminist parable, westerns, and Pretty Woman, amongst a plethora of other influences. This makes up a large part of the drama, which is sectioned-off between robberies and glimpses at Smoky's romance. In the action scenes especially, Gray remains a proficient commercial filmmaker.

The film stumbles, however, as it attempts to hold allegiance to all of its narrative threads. At an exhausting 128-minute runtime, the film is lousy with heavy-handed catharsis and stops for a sex scene between Smoky and her beau that nearly doubles as a music video. Gray and editor John Carter have a severe inability to choose what part of this hodgepodge should be skimmed down or leveled off. The result is that all the stories and situations burn themselves out before the film enters the 3/4 mark, rendering much of the ensuing action and drama irrelevant. Smoky's relationship in particular begins to grate once it becomes clear that the girls will have to rob the bank where her beau works.

Despite Gray's galvanic ability with action sequences, there are very few surprises to be found in Set It Off, and every note of sincerity it attempts to conjure up, whether it be in the form of feminist rhetoric or anti-authoritative tirades, feels forced. A sizable portion of the blame must fall to the script by Takashi Bufford and Kate Lanier, which is unfocused and filled with erratic dialogue and grimace-worthy one-liners. Gray handles many of the film's tonal shifts badly as well, especially a scene when the four women decide to pull off the last heist; though its build-up is pure drama and tension, the climactic decision is played out as a goofy Godfather parody. It's a cute but unwarranted scene of camaraderie and it speaks to the talents of the four actresses, all of whom show unwavering devotion to character. In contrast, it's Gray who finds himself unable to devote himself to a singular mood or tone for the entirety of the film.