I’m not much of a fan of Spike Lee as a movie director though his first three movies were events in my life. Watching those movies in the theater–“She’s Got to Have It” at the Quad, “School Daze” and “Do The Right Thing” in Times Square–are experiences I’ll never forget. There was much to recommend in Lee’s early work. Those movies had vitality and humor.
But I haven’t liked one of his feature films in years (his best work has come in the documentary form).
His new one, however, looks promising:
Totally agree. Love those first three films, indifferent (at best) with the rest of his work. This one does look promising. And it's been too long since we've seen Mars Blackmon. Nice to see him playing that character again.
[1] He's not playing Mars, he's playing Mookie from Do The Right Thing. That in itself will be interesting, but unfortunately the rest of it looks rather dogmatic from the trailer. I did like the frantic camera chasing after them as they ran down the hallway and he's yelling about Jesus; how many people feel the same way when they get on certain subway trains during the day? Classic Spike.
I agree that those first 3 are special. School Daze is an amazing view of the racism within African-American culture that most whites don't know about.
But how about this movies?
Girl 6. He Got Game. Inside Man.
I think they are all fantastic.
In fact, Inside Man is one of my favorite movies. Fantastic pacing great plot twists. He gets some excellent performances out of some legendary actors (Denzel, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer).