Which Spike Lee should I get from the Netflix?

25th Hour

Do the Right Thing is his best film, and one of the best films of the 80s

(also it is both totally funny AND weighty)

you have not seen Do The Right Thing?? see thusly!!

Sounds TOTALLY DECENT.

Do The Right Thing, Mo Better Blues

K.O. BY LOVE
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/theapplicator/Radio_Raheem_400x244.jpg

Sweet Dick Willie = laffs

D MOTHAFUCKA D

NEVER TOO HOT TO FUCK

play some Bobby Blue Bland or something

25th Hour, which is neither funny nor weighty (except for some awkward post-9/11 stuff).

Summer of Sam is pretty funny :>

I thought .2 people worldwide watched 25th Hour (which only makes me more curious of course).

25th Hour is great but it made me cry.

do the right thing see do the right thing.

The ending of 25th Hour is great but yeah Do the Right Thing should really not be missed.

Spike in general is a really frustrating director. I wish he tried harder as a filmmaker or something - a lot of times he seems to get distracted by the ideas in the film and forgets to make the film itself, y'know, actually work. Like he thinks if the film is ABOUT interesting things it won't matter if its shot/acted/written/constructed sloppily.

inside man was great i thought

he got game is underrated. ray allen is great in that.

I should see Inside Man. I kinda gave up on him after Bamboozled.

When the Levees Broke is hilarious and light

after DtRT, Jungle Fever. He's always weighty, for good & ill

Hahahaha Jordan, I ain't THAT gullible!

Yeah I know he's weighty but I didn't want to see, uh, something as fluffy as Jordan recommends.

actually, there are some funny parts to Levees.

Even thinking abt Katrina makes me want to kill of rageness.

so you'll enjoy footage of some guys telling Cheney to go fuck himself.

those guys rule so hard!

ok that sounds awesome and is most every American's dream I am sure

haha yeah that footage is great

Do the Right Thing is way above the rest and much of it is funny/humorous/enormously entertaining, but it's also weighty and not a movie to watch distractedly if that's even possible.

Mo' Better Blues is a much lesser movie but my 2nd favorite of his (I still haven't seen 25th Hour, but sorta doubt it would change my mind). Not really funny, but a trifle of a serious movie.

Jungle Fever is also good.

Inside Man is a smarter, better-acted, higher production value 2-hour episode of Law & Order, afaic.

a lot of times he seems to get distracted by the ideas in the film and forgets to make the film itself, y'know, actually work. Like he thinks if the film is ABOUT interesting things it won't matter if its shot/acted/written/constructed sloppily.

as in just about everything, I could give a shit about technique if you have no good raw materials and nothing to say. and his films are a lot more visually interesting than those of most other people from his cohort.

Inside Man = my favorite Spike in years. If only he could make some Fritz Lang genre pictures.

25th Hour gets a lot of love from ILX, I seem to recall. It was my favorite film of 2002.

Definitely Do the Right Thing.

and his films are a lot more visually interesting than those of most other people from his cohort.

who else do you consider in his "cohort" exactly...? are we talking black filmmakers that broke out in the late 80s/early 90s (John Singleton? the Hughes Bros? The Wayans'?)

and I wasn't referring to strictly visual technique - a lot of times Spike seems to forget how to write a decent character or construct a decent story arc. He has a tendency to fall back on caricatures and cliches (don't know how to end a story? have somebody die! the end. etc)

I don't care.

who else do you consider in his "cohort" exactly...?

anyone who made movies at the same time as him

inside man is pretty cool, kind of a throwback pic. it's more 'pelham one two three' than l&o.

i always really liked clockers a lot, 25th hour is great, and do the right thing is essential.

I am thinking School Daze but maybe something else wld be better? Preferably something more funny than weighty

school daze would definitely hit the spot for funny, not weighty - i've only seen it once, but i remember it being flawed but fun. she's gotta have it is beautiful, and you should see that. but yeah, if you've not seen do the right thing, rent that. its wonderful.

i also really like summer of sam, but mostly because its so manic and so very wrong.

I re-watched She's Gotta Have It a few months ago and its pretty amusing, incredibly dated visually, and has a really stupid fucking ending

pleasebabypleasebabypleasebabypleasebabypleasebaby is still funny

incredibly dated visually

i still think the colour section is astonishing, though.

yeah - I think it still works, it DOES look good but also lolz 80s

25th hour is lame; clockers is under-represented here -- it's in some ways terrible, with a dreadful s/t, but worth seeing. 'inside man' is basic by-numbers hollywood: it's okay.

overwhelmingly the answer is do the right thing.

It's at the top of the Q.

bamboozled was frustrating because about an hour in I was convinced it was gonna do for race relations what network did for tv but then it just spluttered about and mocked me with its wasted potential.

about as weighty as it gets:

4 Little Girls

Original Kings of Comedy

4 Little Girls

is awesome. is this on dvd yet?

Original Kings of Comedy

also awesome. i have feared i may die laughing while watching this movie.

25th hour is great and the ending is jawdropping. you should see it (and do the right thing which is his best film still).

The second time I watched 25th Hour, I still loved "those two" sequences, but just got really impatient during the rest of the movie waiting for them.

if you like Jew Suss, you'll love Mo' Better Blues

The second time I watched 25th Hour, I still loved "those two" sequences, but just got really impatient during the rest of the movie waiting for them.

At first I loved every sequence exept Philly Hoffman and student because trim the fucking fat it's Monty's story. Now I pretty much love everything about this. Especially Barry Pepper. If he never acts again I'm still a fan. Most rewatchable Spike Lee joint.

I just saw She's Gotta Have It and was pretty disappointed. Really felt like stiff juvenalia, but that's kind of a compliment when Kevin Smith's b&w debut chatfest is the best thing he's done.

School Daze has some great moments, a great cast and quite possibly the worst fucking ending in the history of cinema.

Are there any other directors who filmed themselves playing with an actress' breasts in two of their first three movies? (I think School Daze his character's sex romp is implied rather than artfully filmed)

I think a lot of kids enrolled at USC because this was a distinct possibility in their future.

YOU SHOULD SEE SHE HAT ME

I SEE HOW SHE HAT YOU DAWG

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Duke.jpg

if you like Jew Suss, you'll love Mo' Better Blues

this never bothered me

I got a cheapo box set from Virgin and it was all rubbish except Do The Right Thing (which I know off by heart) and Inside Man (which I can't remember so it can't have been that good). Get On The Bus was pretty boring, much to my surprise.

I don't know if I have seen Levees. If not, I would like to see it.

You can tell my memory is not very good. It is because I have a small child in my charge.

Malcolm X is well worth the effort, I think.

Uh, I think you would probably know if you had seen it.

When I dismissed Get On the Bus as "didactic trash" or something in my college newspaper, I was called a racist.

All I remember from Get On the Bus is the "roll call" scene, which is great.

Get On the Bus is terrible, Alfred OTM (see also my note above abt him just killing someone off when he can't figure out an ending)

He Got Game deserves more love....the final sequence in that movie is as poetic/moving as in 25th Hour.

wasn't much fuss made about he got game this side of the atlantic, but i still think it's one of his more consistent and powerful films.

bamboozled was frustrating because about an hour in I was convinced it was gonna do for race relations what network did for tv but then it just spluttered about and mocked me with its wasted potential.

-- Edward III, Tuesday, November 20, 2007 12:53 AM

Totally OTM, it started so well and the second half completely fucked me. The further I got from the movie the angrier it made me. Don't waste your time with it.

Inside Man is OK. Not great, I'd hoped for something wonderful to redeem dude for me after I hated Bamboozled. I guess I def still need to see 25th Hour.

He Got Game is a must-see.

Just finished 25th Hour. Liked it a lot in almost every way, except for that fucking awful score -- what an intrusive load of shit. I kept imagining Tony Siragusa's character saying "Look, look, is horrible image of Ground Zero! Very sad! Let me help you cry now with music!"

I really should just go ahead and see the films of his I haven't (off the top of my head: Girl 6, Jungle Fever, He Got Game, everything since Summer Of Sam). Even when they're awful they're usually interesting. I also should see Clockers & Crooklyn again to reaffirm they're my faves.

I also should do a Worst Ending To A Spike Lee Movie poll.

He Got Game was on tv over the weekend...And it's flaws and virtues both seemed magnified to me this time...it's both better and worse than I remembered. still, I don't think Spike will ever top the last 15 minutes...from the father/son one on one to that amazing coda...

I think it just edges out 25th Hour (which seems like it's complement stylistically and thematically in the father-son relationships) as his best movie. Maybe just for those final sequences.

lol i watched he got game cause i was so psyched abt the celtics - what a horrible terrible ridiculous movie - spike suxors so hard

haha! that must be why they played it? im not denying it has major flaws...but there is something at its core that i find really powerful.

i wonder if spike will ever put together an entire great movie in this "mature" phase of his career? he can certainly put together virtuoso sequences, one might say his films are built on them.

I caught a few moments of "She Hate Me" and it looked amazing but it was murdered when it came out.

aaron copland? xp

yeah the copland definitely matters. and the movie wouldn't be the same without it.

haha! that must be why they played it? im not denying it has major flaws...but there is something at its core that i find really powerful.

-- ryan, Sunday, June 22, 2008 11:53 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

eh i thought it was ponderous at its core surrounded by ray allens pouty non-acting and spikes no taste aesthetics tin eared dialog and skin deep characters - denzel had some juice but that was totally wasted

im not really the guy to be talking to abt spike lee tho - i cant believe people dont just laugh in the face of his movies - so retarded

I like a lot of Spike Lee movies, and may be one of the only champions of, say, Summer of Sam, but anyone who doesn't say Do the Right Thing is Spike Lee's best movie by a longshot is rong rong rong.

yes - incredibly terrible dialogue, stiff/absurdly hammy acting, allen's mother's voiceovers, all of those intercut scenes... there's so much ridiculousness plus the usual out-of-control misogyny (damn women mouthing off to you, making you accidentally kill them).

xpost re: he got game

omg summer of sam when the dog starts talking - the orgy - the disco - the punks

lololololololol

i will give spike this one thing - no matter how ridiculous his movies are i will still watch them - theyre pretty entertaining

the amazing thing about spike is how many box office misses he had before the last one. i mean, between malcolm x and that, none of them were commercial hits, and some we're just total flops. is he like woody allen, foreign business covers domestic failings? or is it that he keeps his movies low budget, so stakes are low.

kings of comedy did well but that's in a different category

reckon he's breaking even:

summer of sam:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162677/business

25th hour (<---studio pic)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307901/business

i remember around the time of 25th hour there was some grumbling that it was getting difficult for him to find funding

may have had something to do with bamboozled's numbers:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0215545/business

Inside Man was his best feature in ages and ages (since Malcolm X I'd say - but I haven't seen 25th Hour). very unlike most of his work.

yeah, the answer was obv. Do the Right Thing

Abbott, what'd you think?!

im stoked for the new war movie he's doing w. omar little and tony soprano and shane from 'the shield'.

that explains the clint eastwood comment!

tony/omar buddy war dramedy o plz!

i hate he got game.

He'll always be remembered (rightfully) for Do the Right Thing, but I think his finest achievement as a filmmaker is easily When the Levees Broke. Granted it is four hours long and cut into episodes, but to attempt a definitive documentary on a sprawling sociopolitical debacle like Katrina, especially with virtually no historical distance in which to contextualize it, would seem a fool's pursuit. Not only did he pull it off, but he successfully trumped his past indulgences in preachy over-exposition by all but removing himself from the equation, instead allowing the interviewed indivuduals to construct the narrative themselves and make his points for him -- all while he could have easily opted for cheap Michael Moore-isms and "fuck the man" conspiracy theories (tho the thing about the government bombing the levees was a bit of a stretch).

Easily the most "important" film I've seen in a very long time.

Since The Fog of War, at least.

The ending of 25th hour made me so frustrated and mad. Don't know why that sort of gimmickry gets love. There were lots of good bits still I thought, and the middle sequence was pretty good but I thought norton's theatrical diction sort of killed the moment a bit too much.

omg summer of sam when the dog starts talking - the orgy - the disco - the punks

Totally lost my shit when the dog walked into the room. I even started realizing what was about to happen and when it did, had to pause the DVR from laughing so hard.

The movie was marketed so hard as "Spike Lee's non-black movie", but hell, how come no one pointed out that this was his first time utilizing computer generated animated talking dog mouths?

And then I see that the dog was voiced by John Turturro. You're killing me, Spike.

I like a lot of Spike Lee movies, and may be one of the only champions of, say, Summer of Sam, but anyone who doesn't say Do the Right Thing is Spike Lee's best movie by a longshot is rong rong rong.

This kind of covers all bases, doesn't it?

I dunno, I saw Crooklyn again recently and that really holds up.

my biggest beef with summer of sam is that the talking dog is not a shiba inu

love both crooklyn and SoS (and school daze, and she's gotta have it, and...) DTR still his best though...

^^^^ exactly; "Crooklyn" is flat-out fantastic but DTRT is still his best

mo better blues is flawed, but i saw it recently and was pretty floored by the end sequence, the whole lifetime-in-fast-forward set to "a love supreme"....was reminded of it because i wondered if the beginning of "Up" was a tribute of sorts?

I think the only Spike Lee movie I've seen that I thought was bad was "Girl 6", and even that was a qualified "bad" in that I thought it achieved what it was trying to do, it's just that what it was trying to do was really, really stupid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiyDvysp1do

that man has a way with an ending

DTRT is Spike Lee's best because it's also one of the best movies period.

what is the deal with the jungle fever ending? i have never seen the movie, though i have the s/t...

honestly? just a bad ending poorly executed.

who is the crackhead girl, though? does he know her? has he never met a crack ho before?

you know, i should probably just see the movie...

its pretty terrible from what I remember (haven't seen it in 20 years)

I thought it achieved what it was trying to do, it's just that what it was trying to do was really, really stupid.

I think this applies to a fair number of his films, not just Girl 6. But that's just me.

DTRT is rightly canonized though. one of the best movies of the 80s, if not THE best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THh1pPWEoWs

that scene aside, dammit i love summer of sum

one of the best Spike scenes of all time right here. sam jackson at his best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTA3qGQouaU

jhoshea otm

that scene aside, dammit i love summer of sum

same here ... in fact, i never understood why summer of sam didn't get a better critical reception (the talking dog scene notwithstanding). or maybe i was just touched by spike lee's take on 1977 NYC punks being massive who's next fans (probably closer to the truth than even he realizes!)

an alternative to Spike (splendid film):

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2011/02/dvd-of-the-week-chameleon-street.html