Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 27, 2005 | | Summary | The "Black Stallion" rises again and so does his desecration......... | Content
 | Spike Lee is an excellent director and Mr. Genet is an excellent author. The film's topography shows the reality that the universe is changing. Attitudes and politics are changing.
Unfortunately, Mr. Lee had to tout the feminist and lesbian vote by not depicting why these women are using the "role reversal." If this were an autobiography, I think that the audience would see that some, not all, of the women in the film have been victims of male torture. In one scene, Fatima's live-in lover says, "I don't even feel like a woman" since she didn't get pregnant. My question, then, is "Is Fatima a male in their relationship?" Also, an additional question is "Why do these lesbian women have to identify roles in their relationships?" Why is Fatima's lover cooking dinner for both of them, after she walks in the condo with a business suit (in one scene)?
Finally, Jack is portrayed as a victim. He is not. Jack is a Wharton graduate who feels denigrated to consort to other forms of employment and/or career alternatives like: teaching, working at McDonald's, or playing nursemaid to his sick father. Therefore, he does not have to be a "stallion" sending his spermatoza into women who are paying him. Furthermore, Jack doesn't have to feed the children that he is creating. He is not the victim of rape and furthermore, he signs a "release of parental responsibility." This fact creates the stereotypical "black stallion." Jack, an educated man, becomes an irresponsible prototype of the black male who does not support his progeny. Here is where Spike shows that the black male stereoptype is alive.
The movie is worth watching so that you THINK. As ususal, Mr. Lee leaves you guessing. He does not answer the questions for you. You have to think, probe, and delve. The storyline is what makes the film receive a 5 but, if you are not in the mood for thought provocation, watch something else. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 19, 2005 | | Summary | She Hate me | Content
| This movie held my attention from start to finish. As always Spike Lee makes you think while providing Entertainment. I LOVED it! I laughed and laughed during a couple scenes. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 24, 2005 | | Summary | "Drop your drawers and let's get to work." | Content
| When "She Hate Me" begins, John Henry "Jack" Armstrong (Anthony Mackie) is a corporate executive working for Progeia--a company that is developing an AIDS vaccine. The company scientist Herman Schiller (David Bennent) has an odd conversation with Jack, and then throws himself out of the window. Schiller's suicide is connected with some shady business dealings at Progeia. Jack becomes a whistleblower and suddenly finds himself unemployed and the target of surveillance and investigation. With all of his accounts frozen, Jack is penniless. Then ex-girlfriend--now--lesbian Fatima (Kerry Washington) emerges and offers Jack $10,000 if he will impregnate both her and her partner. Jack at first resists but gives in. Soon Fatima is lining up lesbians who pay Jack $10,000 each for his services--it's a "sideline occupation for an ever-changing economy."
The first two-thirds of Spike Lee's film "She Hate Me" is pure genius. Laced with political criticism of the Bush administration and of the capitalistic nature of American society that chews up and spits out individuals, Spike Lee explores Jack's gradual marginalisation. As a corporate executive, Jack is ready to sacrifice any hopes of family to stay focused on his career. When he's stripped on his career, he's left with one only thing--his reproductive capability--but soon even that is divorced from any financial or parental responsibility. Jack is the ultimate sex object, and through hysterically funny scenes, Jack is reduced to "a cash cow." With obvious allusions to the Enron scandal and the ethical practices of major pharmaceutical companies, Spike Lee skewers those he lampoons while layering societal criticism with some of the boldest comedy I've seen in ages.
"She Hate Me" is full of terrific supporting roles--such as Don Angelo Bonasera (John Turturro)--watch for his imitation of Marlon Brando playing the Godfather--it's amazing. Woody Harrelson plays Progeia CEO Leland Powell--ever ready with the next BS story to give to the eager media. The parking garage Watergate fantasy scene will go down in film history as one of the most imaginative scenes ever made. Unfortunately, "She Hate Me" begins to be mired down with excessive, clumsy heavy-handed preachy scenes that detract from the film's overall style. The plot is too loose and too muddled, but I can forgive director Spike Lee a great deal when rating "She Hate Me." This thought-provoking film is well worth watching--displacedhuman |
| Rating | | | Date | March 19, 2005 | | Summary | A Remarkable Film You Don't Want To Miss | Content
| This was a really remarkable film and I am astonished that it didn't get more critical acclaim or advertising related to the film. It's a great movie. It's not just a film about a man who goes around impregnanting lesbians as the blurb on the back of the box kinda makes the film seem. The film stars Anthony Mackie, a new actor who portrays Jack Armstrong. At the beginning of the film it seems as if Jack has got it going on. He is the vice-president of a pharmaceutical corporation, lives in a nice apartment, and is ivy league educated. He is a brother that has it all together in every department--except in the romance department. After his company goes into a downward spiral--in which he is fingered for the downfall, he lets an ex girlfriend convince him to donate his sperm to her and her girlfriend at $5,000 a piece. When his assetts are frozen and he loses his job, he feels compell to continue to sell his sperm. With his ex-girlfriend as his manager, she gets him $10,000 a pop. This film is wonderful and thought provoking. Jack gets into a bit of legal trouble and he starts to look to his religion, his family and other factors when it comes to whether or not he will continue to sell his manhood. There were several things about this film that irked me a bit, but that is why I like Spike's films because there is always something that bothers me and makes me think. When the women went into labor the scene was so over the top and they were all screaming and hollering. However, I appreciate the details in the film. For instance, when Jack was having sex with the various women, he made love to each one of them a different way. He also developed a newfound friendship with his ex-girlfriend who left him for another woman years prior. I recommend this film to anyone who wants to see a real thought provoking film. It also has a lot to do with whistleblowing and the state of the world today. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 16, 2005 | | Summary | maybe Spike needs to start thinking of retirement... | Content
| ...up to now I've found something to like in every Spike Lee film I've ever seen, in fact I love his early work like "She's Gotta Have It" and "Do The Right Thing."
But here it really seems like Lee set out to DELIBERATELY make the stupidest, clumsiest and totally irredeemable film imaginable. Everything about it, from the first 10 minutes, just REEKS: atrociously directed actors stumbling through atrociously written dialogue, a cast of numbingly predictable stock characters, a story line that just rambles from one random unconnected schizoid digression after another and cannot decide if it's a sex farce or courtroom thriller or sociopolitical manifesto and packs about three wholesale suspensions of disbelief every five minutes---everything that could possibly go wrong does go wrong and never stops going wrong, in this absolute catastrophe of a movie.
So I confess: the only thing that kept me from bailing out on this movie after the first ten minutes was my anticipation of watching Lee's typically yummy female cast (only Woody Allen can match his talent for always casting some of the hottest women on the planet) pay to get impregnated by Anthony Mackie. On this score he only delivers once, during a flashback to the time that Mackie's character catches his fiancee in bed with another woman---the rest is pretty tame PG-13 stuff. Compared to the sex scenes in his other films, even this normally strong segment of Lee's repertoire falls flat here.
My theory: Spike Lee must've signed some ironclad contract to make X amount of films within X span of years which he cannot get out of, and "She Hate Me" is his spiteful revenge at the film studio. Too bad it's us, the innocent bystander audience, that has to pay the price. |
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