Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Whitech It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

OutsideHollywoodLand Faizon Love in Dinner for Five, July-'02 (On Spike Lee interjecting himself into his own pictures) "...don't do that, it looks stupid, don't cast yourself...the weakest thing can be the biggest blemish." I beg to disagree with actor Faizon Love (of "Friday" fame), the biggest blemish of a Spike Lee film is it's self-righteous preachy endings.Don't get me wrong — as an American white woman, I've wallowed in buckets of liberal guilt for the past U. S. genocidal policies. But Mr. Lee does not make films for marginally enlightened white folks.And while almost all of Hollywood's directors offer up a sanitized view of the process of racism, director Spike Lee does not. I can always count on Lee to "tell it like it is", and nowhere is this more evident than in his latest cinematic effort, Bamboozled.The key word is effort, because Lee is prone to hit us over the head with his point — again and again and again. It's as though he doubts that white America is smart enough to get his message and concerned that black America may have forgotten it while climbing up the assimilation ladder.And while I may squirm at his intellectual contempt for the audience, and be irritated that he plays his usual double standard, where EVERY white character as a racist stereotype), I'm drawn to the single - minded courage of his view.Bamboozled grits and grates on every nerve and then does a deft tap-dance on our last one---stretching it for all it's worth. For everyone in this movie becomes a giant-sized stereotype. And it leaves this viewer hoping he did this on purpose, but knowing its just the same old lack of self-control.And yes — we got the point, Mr. Lee — no thanks to your sledgehammer method of directing, that blacks who play roles to serve a racist stereotype are "the enemy" and deserve only death.I've seen almost every film that Spike Lee has created --- The Girl's Gotta Have It, Malcolm X, Girl 6, Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, etc. Each movie resonates with Lee's caustic and uncompromising world view — and there's nothing wrong with this — every great director keeps making the same movie of their limited viewpoint. Yet Lee is young enough for me to wish that he can cast off the S.O.S. — Same Old Stereotype - and create something truly original.In a way, Faizon Love is right on target — for while Spike Lee is an Oscar-caliber director, with piercing insight and uncommon talent, he still lacks any objectivity to truly "direct" that vision to it's desired end.For rather than just making a point that's obvious to all, we'd rather see whats' beyond that one-dimensional image to embrace a more three-dimensional viewing experience. So while America has been Bamboozled by racist stereotyping, Lee is still playing to it.

kclaydawson Yes, Spike Lee is an excellent movie director. So are others. However, he distinguishes himself with depictions of "black" or "colored" Americans being victimized by "white" society. As in his movie "CSA," Lee dredged up the long dead corpse of slavery to remind everyone that racism abounded in America long ago. What he cannot understand is that segregation and slavery were curses on everyone. "Whites" fought a war over it while "blacks" were still selling their brothers and sisters to slave traders in Africa. The NAACP was begun by white people. So, why must he cling to the bitterness of a past that died long ago? Why not discover what America has become? Either Lee failed to understand the message of Bamboozled and CSA,or he must hate his own race. In CSA, he shows an America that never rid itself of slavery, yet still landed a man on the moon, became a global power, and was an economic giant. The only difference between our country and an America where slave-holding was mandatory was the lack of entertainers and sports. Is that what Lee believes about the races? I hate to tell him this, but there are great entertainers and athletes who couldn't't pass as black. In "Bamboozled," blacks betrayed blacks by profiting from insulting racial stereotypes. They made money by using the "N" word in every sentence. One character claimed that saying the "N" word kept his teeth "white." It certainly lined his pockets. It has lined Spike's pockets. too.So, what has Lee accomplished in this movie? I think that once again he has bamboozled us all.

dir_by_ade The film is just utterly amazing. It takes a stark look at the reality of television and how Afro Americans are viewed by way of television, film, and radio. SPIKE LEE's strongest glimpse although filtered through the lens of Satire and that of Ellen Kuras' beautiful lens it works. He brings forth a haunting nightmare of the plight of working in a realm of which you are shut out and useless for others write for you, of you and about you in general. Damon Wayans gives such an amazing performance, of the self hating protagonist that you feel sorry for. The hip hop group Mau Mau's who are highly misguided and take their voice to the furthest lengths. Yet though SPIKE is blamed for his films being too ANGRY, too BLACK, too UNREALISTIC. All false. "Do The Right Thing" was inspired by a real person killed by the police official choke. Even here a scene that seems too far fetched is sadly based in truth as MC Search is the lone survivor which is based on a real incident. Do The Right Thing is held as such an high mark upon cinema, which it deserves along with "Malcolm X." Here he just delivers a powerful voice, message, and an outcry, its just masked and covered in that haunting laughter of Pierre (Damon Wayans).

Hancock_the_Superb TV writer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) is tired of having his TV concepts rejected by the studio. Accused by his ultra-"hip" white boss Dunwitty (Michael Rappaport) of not being "black" enough, an enraged Pierre comes up with an outlandish idea: a modern-day minstrel show, complete with black-face, musical revue numbers, racial epithets, and the most ridiculous stereotypes imaginable. He enlists the aide of his reluctant secretary Sloane (Jada Pinkett Smith) and two street dancers Manray and Womack (Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson) desperate for a buck. Pierre is flabbergasted when the network accepts the show, and then becomes a pop culture phenomenon. But not everyone enjoys the racial epithets the show provides, and the Maumaus, a group of wannabe gangstas/rappers, decide to take matters into their own hands - with tragic results.Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" is certainly an ambitious film. It is an unremittingly vicious satire of the portrayal of blacks in popular media, a topic all too open to attack from Lee's inflammatory eye. However, having set up a potentially great and scathing satire, Bamboozled ultimately fails by being just too broad and over-the-top in its target.Lee is certainly right in attacking media portrayal of African-Americans. And for the early sections, it works. The most effective is the portrayal of pop culture - namely gangsta rap and hip-hop. The Maumaus are ridiculous posers who don't even notice that one of their number is white. The TV ads for Blow Cola and Timmi Hiln!gger showcase the artificiality and toxic nature of gangsta culture. Women are hos, bitches, and sluts; the men are cool because they do drugs and kill people. Lee's double-edged sword goes after the white media (embodied by the embarrassingly patronizing boss Dunwitty) for perpetuating such images, but also the blacks who embrace it. Very few societal targets, regardless of race or position, escape Lee's critical eye. The film's use of clips from minstrel shows of the past, as well as cartoons and other caricature portrayals, as well as the commentary of Sloane, to make the point reverberate. All of this is brilliantly done, and the witty dialog and character interactions of the first half indicate that Lee has winner on his hands.But the film ultimately fails due to the methods it employs. Seriously... is there a sentient human being alive who thinks that there would be a TV audience for a MINSTREL SHOW? Black face is such an inherently, blatantly offensive concept that it's impossible to take it seriously. For lack of a better word, it's overkill. And by showing it again and again, Lee rather overdoes (and undermines) his point. We get it; this show is racist and humiliating. Wouldn't Lee have better made his point by keeping the focus on the contemporary equivalent, or at least gone about it in a more subtle manner? Of course, "Bamboozled" is a satire, so hyperbole is expected. But, there are limits to this, particularly within the media of film. Be too outlandish and over-the-top, and the point is lost. Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" works because it is a written essay, where the venom beneath Swift's seemingly earnest tone is almost undetectable. In "Bamboozled", however, we see starkly outrageous images of minstrel shows about black-faced, watermelon-eating, chicken-stealing blacks (and the black-faced fans who love and emulate them). And that image in and of itself blots out the point Lee is trying to make with such images. We don't remember that the media is demeaning towards blacks; we remember the minstrel show.The movie is also damaged by its cop-out ending, which uses violence as an easy solution to the problems it has set up. One could argue that Lee was attempting to show the detrimental effects Delacroix's show had on society. Thanks, but I'm not buying that. Whatever justice that argument has is killed by the ham-fisted, rushed way the climax is executed.The acting is uniformly solid. Damon Wayans, an actor I usually dislike, makes Pierre an intriguing character. Pierre's descent into hell - ultimately embracing the stereotypes he presents through his work - is fascinating. Jada Pinkett-Smith gives a quietly effective performance as the film's conscience, although her actions at the end seem ridiculously out-of-character. Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson are both extremely likable as two characters who slowly realize what they're doing is wrong. Michael Rappaport's hopeless studio VP is hysterical, and provides some of the film's best moments.In short, "Bamboozled" is an extremely ambitious film that starts out great, then becomes so outlandish and over-the-top its point is obscured. Regardless, one should note it is very much a point worth making.6/10