ROTTEN TOMATOES: Total Recall: We Rank Spike Lee's Joints

Total Recall: We Rank Spike Lee's Joints

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School Daze (1987)
Tomatometer: 55%

After breaking new ground for black filmmakers with She's Gotta Have It, Lee opted to spend some of his recently earned capital on a story drawn from his experiences at Morehouse College. The result was School Daze, a movie that, despite sharply dividing critics, provided early career boosts for stars Tisha Campbell and Laurence Fishburne (not to mention Kadeem Hardison, Darryl M. Bell, and Jasmine Guy, all of whom went on to join the cast of the Cosby Show spinoff A Different World). It also provided a window into Lee's Method-friendly approach to filmmaking; behind the scenes, he duplicated the class lines portrayed onscreen by purposely putting the actors portraying the "wannabes" in better hotels than the "jigaboos." Lee's tactics sparked an unscripted on-set brawl -- which Lee had the shrewd foresight to film. Unfortunately, most critics were unimpressed with School Daze, echoing the sentiments of the Washington Post's Rita Kempley, who deemed it "an arrogant, humorless, sexist mess."

more info...	Clockers (1996) Tomatometer: 67% Based upon Richard Price's best-selling novel, Clockers is a gritty, complex portrait of the ravages that drugs bring to the inner city. Strike (Mekhi Phifer), a teenage drug dealer, is tasked by his boss (Delroy Lindo) with killing a fellow member of the organization. But when the murder goes down, it's Strike's brother Victor (Isaiah Washington) who takes the rap -- which baffles homicide detective Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel), Meanwhile, Strike looks to escape his life of crime, but remains in fear of the repercussions of his actions. Bolstered by excellent performances (the interplay between Phifer and Keitel is excellent, and Lindo oozes menace), Clockers is one of Lee's most underrated films -- it's tense, morally complex, and sad. "Clockers uses unexpected narrative turns to accentuate the themes of lost innocence and uncultivated potential, and affirms that tragic melodrama is not a prerequisite for emotional impact," wrote James Berardinelli of ReelViews.

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(1-20 of 45 posts) | Reply

jokerboy1991 writes:
on Sep 24 2008 05:42 PM

Lee is great, even though She Hate Me was terrible. I would definitely say Do The RIght Thing is his best, then 25th Hour, then MALCOM X, then Crooklyn, then Summer of Sam (underrated), then He Got Game, then Clockers, then Mo Better Blues, and then Jungle Fever. Even though sometimes I dont think he knows how to end a movie, but he has made some great stuff, and he is kind of a racist. I hope Miracle at Saint Anna is good but I wouldn't be suprised if it wasn't because Spike has never done a big movie like it. Oh and Inside Man was really good, and that is a movie how he didn't know how to end too!

(Reply to this)

tomwaitsjr writes:
on Sep 24 2008 05:50 PM

Spike Lee is fantastic. Clockers is very under-rated.

Great Job in including 4 little girls. I was woried that it may not have made the list.

When "Do the right thing" opened up in my area, there were actually police at the theaters for the opening night! This was similar as to when Dennis Hopper's "Colors" came out and there was some rioting. . .

(Reply to this)

Salty Gritts writes:
on Sep 24 2008 06:17 PM

There is no doubt that Spike Lee is a good director and Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X are films that will be revered forever as classics. However, for me Lee is very hit or miss, when hes on hes on and its great but when he misses he misses hard. And it looks like Miracle at St. Anna is going to be his worst miss yet unfortunately, I was really looking forward to it, but now not so sure.

(Reply to this)

Matanuki writes:
on Sep 24 2008 06:37 PM

In reply to this comment (#2044821)
What was wrong with the ending to Inside Man? And She Hate Me was... terrible? I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that one. Girl 6 is probably the only one of his films that I really didn't like, but, admittedly, I only saw it once on a really bad night. I'm really looking forward to Miracle at St. Anna. All I can say every time I think of it is "It's about damn time!" I keep telling my friends to see it at least two or three times, just in the interest of throwing money at it. I won't even dignify the 'he's a little racist' comment.

(Reply to this)

Zed'sDead writes:
on Sep 24 2008 06:57 PM

I love Spike Lee's films. I could honestly say that Girl 6 and Crooklyn were the only ones that I didn't care for though. And to him being racist, I don't see that at all. He has a bluntness to some of the statments that he makes in his films, but all of the racial situations that occur in his films are all based off of events that black people experience or did experience at one time, on a daily basis.

(Reply to this)

jokerboy1991 writes:
on Sep 24 2008 07:17 PM

In reply to this comment (#2044867)
The last 10 minutes really dragged and I kept thinking, Why dont they cut it here?!? I did think She Hate Me Sucked, the only thing I liked about it was John Turturro and Monica Belluci.

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The OUTLAW writes:
on Sep 24 2008 07:37 PM

I marvel at how little credit Lee gets for the volume of truly good movies that he's put out. He's one of the greatest directers of our time. I just seems that he's underappreciated because he is normally trying to convey some message in his movies.

(Reply to this)

Matanuki writes:
on Sep 24 2008 07:50 PM

In reply to this comment (#2044913)
A film with both Dania Ramirez AND Kerry Washington, and here you say John Turturro was one of the only things you liked? That actually inspires sadness in me.

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Matanuki writes:
on Sep 24 2008 07:51 PM

In reply to this comment (#2044927)
You hit the nail on the head, Outlaw.

(Reply to this)

dystopiandweller writes:
on Sep 24 2008 09:06 PM

Sure, he's had terrible movies, but Spielberg and Kurosawa made some bad films too (I can't stand "Dreams"). Doesn't make them any less great. Spike Lee is absolutely talented.

From what I'm hearing, though, St. Anna seems to be a miss..

(Reply to this)

jokerboy1991 writes:
on Sep 24 2008 09:20 PM

In reply to this comment (#2044943)
Ok it wasn't terrible terrible like an F, but I did find it kinda bad and not believable. I felt it was messy, was it suppose to be about how bad black people can be treated or was it suppose be a pro-lesbian movie. I thought it was messy, also Kerry Washington?!? Sure she is smoking hot, but name some GREAT movies she has been in, and I thought Tuturro was the best in it because I thought he had this coolness to him in it.

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Jen Yamato writes:
on Sep 24 2008 10:03 PM

Well, Miracle at St. Anna is a definite misfire, but I don't think it deserves a 19 percent Tomatometer. I was really looking forward to it based on the trailer - one of the best trailers of 2008, I'd argue -- but after watching it I'm baffled that Lee went so wrong. The negative reviews so far are pretty dead on (tonally schizo, too heavy handed, too much going on, some things that don't make sense, without giving anything away).

(Reply to this)

knowingtoast85 writes:
on Sep 24 2008 10:40 PM

Spike Lee has a tendency to take a nuke to a hammer fight with his films. Sometimes, going overboard serves his story very well and energizes the proceedings; in other instances the audience can't get footing on the characters. Regardless, he always pursues new, different and interesting material and remains one of our generation's most important filmmakers.

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John Z. Delorean writes:
on Sep 25 2008 06:06 AM

The only Spike Movie I can't sit thru is Bamboozled. Summer of Sam and Clockers are criminally slept on flicks and I actually liked She Hate Me alot. Do The Right Thing and Inside Man are probably my favorites but Clockers and He Got Game are the ones I go back and watch the most.

(Reply to this)

Matanuki writes:
on Sep 25 2008 06:44 AM

In reply to this comment (#2045068)
I'm gonna have to reserve judgment on 'Miracle' until after I see it. Like John mentioned below you, 'Bamboozled' was another of his films that was poorly received. But I absolutely loved it! Other poorly received films that I absolutely loved, not by Spike, were 'Lady in the Water' and 'The Fountain'. So something tells me 'Miracle' will go down smoothly for yours truly.

(Reply to this)

Matanuki writes:
on Sep 25 2008 06:47 AM

In reply to this comment (#2045011)
I'll name two, Joker. 'The Last King of Scotland' and 'Ray'.

(Reply to this)

Zed'sDead writes:
on Sep 25 2008 09:57 AM

I know this is an immature statement, but She Hate Me has like, the BEST sex scenes EVER!!!

(Reply to this)

Matanuki writes:
on Sep 25 2008 10:13 AM

In reply to this comment (#2045790)
lol. Just means you got a pulse, Zed. Long live the living!

(Reply to this)

javyb1980 writes:
on Sep 25 2008 10:32 AM

Matanuki I never thought I would meet a person who actually liked "Bamboozled", I didnt like it all and everyone who I have commented with about it has had bad things to say. Just couldn't get into it, Damon Waynes was really annoying in that movie.

(Reply to this)

Matanuki writes:
on Sep 25 2008 10:45 AM

In reply to this comment (#2045815)
Indeed he was annoying, but he was supposed to be. I guess what I liked most about 'Bamboozled' so much was the very real point it made about the modern day mistrel show. Once upon a time, art that came out of the black community was progressive and geared towards advancement and spiritual uplift, was more than anything about disproving the negative assumptions being trumpeted by those who hated and subjugated us. Proof, in fact, for non-racist whites just as intellectually damaged as we were and are a community by all the false cultural representation and demagogical propaganda that had flooded the marketplace for so long and so prolifically. Nowadays, all the negativity of the least common denominator stands in stark contrast of that progressive spirit, suffocating it, and dampening it all beneath the gratuitous noise of "bling this, ho that, bi.tch what what, n1gga n1gga."

It's disgusting, and I'm ashamed of. So are many others. So is Walter Mosley, so is Aaron McGruder, so, I'm sure, would James Baldwin be if he were still with us. This is the cultural outrage that Spike Lee's film represents. And I can't help but love that unflinchingly.

(Reply to this)

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