Query: spike lee joint dvd

title: Masterpieces Joints By Spike Lee: Do The Right Thing + BlackKklansman Mo Better blues DVD Bundle Feature Film pack
text: Product Description SPIKE LEE JOINTS DO THE RIGHT THING - Salvatore "Sal" Fragione (Danny Aiello) is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise. MO BETTER BLUES - From Spike Lee, the legendary director of Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Clockers and BlacKkKlansman, comes this classic drama about talented trumpeter Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) who’s obsessed by his music and indecisive about his two girlfriends (Joie Lee and Cynda Williams). But when he has to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend (Spike Lee), Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined. Stunning Ernest R. Dickerson (School Daze) cinematography and superlative performances come together in this unforgettable, breathtaking film on music and love. The stellar cast includes Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Robin Harris, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, Nicholas Turturro, Samuel L. Jackson, Charlie Murphy, Abbey Lincoln and Rubén Blades. BlacKkKlansman From visionary filmmaker Spike Lee comes the incredible true story of an American hero. In the early 1970s, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) becomes the first African-American detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Determined to make a difference, he bravely sets out on a dangerous mission: infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan. He recruits a seasoned colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), into the undercover investigation. Together, they team up to take down the extremist organization aiming to garner mainstream appeal. Product Description SPIKE LEE JOINTS DO THE RIGHT THING - Salvatore "Sal" Fragione (Danny Aiello) is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise. MO BETTER BLUES - From Spike Lee, the legendary director of Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Clockers and BlacKkKlansman, comes this classic drama about talented trumpeter Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) who’s obsessed by his music and indecisive about his two girlfriends (Joie Lee and Cynda Williams). But when he has to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend (Spike Lee), Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined. Stunning Ernest R. Dickerson (School Daze) cinematography and superlative performances come together in this unforgettable, breathtaking film on music and love. The stellar cast includes Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Robin Harris, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, Nicholas Turturro, Samuel L. Jackson, Charlie Murphy, Abbey Lincoln and Rubén Blades. BlacKkKlansman From visionary filmmaker Spike Lee comes the incredible true story of an American hero. In the early 1970s, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) becomes the first African-American detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Determined to make a difference, he bravely sets out on a dangerous mission: infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan. He recruits a seasoned colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), into the undercover investigation. Together, they team up to take down the extremist organization aiming to garner mainstream appeal.

title: BlacKkKlansman [DVD]
text: Product Description Product DescriptionFrom the manufacturer Read more John David Washington as Ron Stallworth The first African-American detective to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department, Stallworth stumbled across a newspaper ad that would forever change the trajectory of his life. In bold black-and-white was a recruitment message from the Ku Klux Klan, seeking new members. Adam Driver as Flip Zimmerman Stallworth's colleague, Zimmerman poses as Ron in face-to-face meetings with members of the Ku Klux Klan, gaining insider's knowledge of a deadly plot. Together, they team up to take down the organization whose real aim is to sanitize its violent rhetoric to appeal to the mainstream. Laura Harrier as Patrice Dumas Patrice is a committed activist and community organizer that Ron meets during his undercover work. Topher Grace as David Duke The leader of the hate group, David Duke, never suspected Stallworth's real identity or race. Read more Read more 

title: Get on the Bus / School Daze / She Hate Me - Set
text: From the manufacturer About us Sony Pictures has a long history of entertaining diverse audiences. With our vast content across all genres and platforms enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people around the world, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of what we do. Through a vibrant culture, which applauds individual talent, celebrates differences and values contributions from a diverse workforce, Sony Pictures offers a variety of resources for employees and partners. Read more Read more Purpose Dreams & Curiosity : Pioneer the future with dreams and curiosity. Diversity : Pursue the creation of the very best by harnessing diversity and varying viewpoints. Integrity & Sincerity : Earn the trust for the Sony brand through ethical and responsible conduct. Sustainability: Fulfill our stakeholder responsibilities through disciplined business practices. 

title: NBA Street Series- Volume 5 [TM1676]
text: Product Description The fifth volume of the NBA Street Series collection features all new incredible highlights, ankle-breaking moves, awe-inspiring dunks, unthinkable passes, and ruthless rejections while following the journeys of many star NBA players and how these extraordinary athletes ended up in the NBA. This DVD is a re-issue. Product Description The fifth volume of the NBA Street Series collection features all new incredible highlights, ankle-breaking moves, awe-inspiring dunks, unthinkable passes, and ruthless rejections while following the journeys of many star NBA players and how these extraordinary athletes ended up in the NBA. This DVD is a re-issue.

title: NBA Champions 2001- 2002: Lakers (TM1669)
text: Product Description At the beginning of the 2001-02 NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers were the two-time defending champions at the end, they were an NBA DYNASTY. The daunting challenge of winning three titles in a row was put to the test in a grueling, seven-game series in the Western Conference Finals against the Sacramento Kings, that found the Lakers on the brink of elimination. This DVD release is a re-issue. Product Description At the beginning of the 2001-02 NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers were the two-time defending champions at the end, they were an NBA DYNASTY. The daunting challenge of winning three titles in a row was put to the test in a grueling, seven-game series in the Western Conference Finals against the Sacramento Kings, that found the Lakers on the brink of elimination. This DVD release is a re-issue.

title: NBA Champions 2001: Lakers (TM1668)
text: Product Description When the 2001 season began, many expected the Los Angeles Lakers to repeat as NBA Champions. But few could have predicted just how arduous their road would be. The Lakers struggled through a turbulent regular season, but in the playoffs they recaptured their championship for and defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2001 NBA Finals. Product Description When the 2001 season began, many expected the Los Angeles Lakers to repeat as NBA Champions. But few could have predicted just how arduous their road would be. The Lakers struggled through a turbulent regular season, but in the playoffs they recaptured their championship for and defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2001 NBA Finals.

title: NBA Champions 2000: Los Angeles Lakers
text: Product Description As they entered the 1999-2000 season, the Los Angeles Lakers seemed destined for greatness. After a season-long journey that tested their resolve as much as their destiny with a dramatic victory over the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals. Behind Shaquille O'Neal's dominating MVP performance, Kobe Bryant's brilliant play, Phil Jackson's unique Zen philosophy and a roster filled with championship experience, the Lakers claimed their 12th NBA title. From Mikan to Chamberlain to Kareem to Shaq, this franchise has compiled a legacy of success that is among the greatest in American sports, and in 2000 they added a new chapter. Relive the Lakers' 67 victory regular season along with their heart pounding run through the playoffs and Finals with the Official Championship Video. With this much exclusive access, you will practically feel part of the team as the Lakers march to the NBA title. Product Description As they entered the 1999-2000 season, the Los Angeles Lakers seemed destined for greatness. After a season-long journey that tested their resolve as much as their destiny with a dramatic victory over the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals. Behind Shaquille O'Neal's dominating MVP performance, Kobe Bryant's brilliant play, Phil Jackson's unique Zen philosophy and a roster filled with championship experience, the Lakers claimed their 12th NBA title. From Mikan to Chamberlain to Kareem to Shaq, this franchise has compiled a legacy of success that is among the greatest in American sports, and in 2000 they added a new chapter. Relive the Lakers' 67 victory regular season along with their heart pounding run through the playoffs and Finals with the Official Championship Video. With this much exclusive access, you will practically feel part of the team as the Lakers march to the NBA title.

title: Do the Right Thing
text: Product Description Product DescriptionFrom the manufacturer About Us Universal Pictures is an American film studio, owned by Comcast through its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal, and is one of Hollywood's "Big Six" film studios. Its production studios are at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City. Universal Studios is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Universal was founded in 1912 by the German Carl Laemmle (pronounced "LEM-lee"), Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, and Jules Brulatour. Six of Universal Studios' films; Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Despicable Me 2 (2013), Furious 7 (2015) and Jurassic World (2015) achieved box office records, with the first three (which were directed by Steven Spielberg) all becoming the highest-grossing film at the time of its initial release. Read more Read more Read more NBC Universal NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned theme parks, and a premium ad-supported streaming service. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation. 

title: Kobe Doin' Work: A Spike Lee Joint
text: Product Description Spike Lee calls the shots as he takes you up-close-and-personal with Kobe Bryant, the NBA's Most Valuable Player of 2008. Experience unlimited access as 30 cameras follow Kobe's every move in one of the most important match-ups of the 2007-08 season. Miked to hear his every word, Kobe puts his leadership skills to the ultimate test as the Los Angeles Lakers take on the San Antonio Spurs for the Western Conference title lead. From locker room prep and strategy talks to the dynamic action of the big game itself, KOBE DOIN' WORK is the NBA superstar as you've never seen him before: intense, uncensored and totally real! Product Description Spike Lee calls the shots as he takes you up-close-and-personal with Kobe Bryant, the NBA's Most Valuable Player of 2008. Experience unlimited access as 30 cameras follow Kobe's every move in one of the most important match-ups of the 2007-08 season. Miked to hear his every word, Kobe puts his leadership skills to the ultimate test as the Los Angeles Lakers take on the San Antonio Spurs for the Western Conference title lead. From locker room prep and strategy talks to the dynamic action of the big game itself, KOBE DOIN' WORK is the NBA superstar as you've never seen him before: intense, uncensored and totally real!

title: 2008-2009 NBA Champions: Los Angeles Lakers
text: Product Description Each year, the NBA finals create unrivaled levels of action and drama, and this production takes viewers courtside to experience all the excitement. With highlights, interviews, and insights into the successes and failures of each team in the 2008-09 season, this is one collection that will add an extra level of enjoyment for any fan of the game. Product Description Each year, the NBA finals create unrivaled levels of action and drama, and this production takes viewers courtside to experience all the excitement. With highlights, interviews, and insights into the successes and failures of each team in the 2008-09 season, this is one collection that will add an extra level of enjoyment for any fan of the game.

title: Spike Lee: Collection [DVD]
text: Product Description Nine Spike Lee joints. 'Mo' Better Blues' (1990) concerns a handsome and accomplished jazz trumpeter, Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington), who divides his spare time between two women: an aspiring jazz vocalist, Clarke (Cynda Williams), and Indigo (Joie Lee), a down-to-earth school teacher. 'Crooklyn' (1993) is Lee's autobiographical homage to his own youth, growing up in 1970s Brooklyn. Alfre Woodard stars as Carolyn Carmicheal, mother of five children and wife to an unemployed jazz musician. She has to struggle to hold the family together - and when she dies, the resposibilities fall to the only daughter, Troy. Denzel Washington stars in the crime thriller 'Inside Man' (2006) as tough cop Keith Frazier, who finds himself drawn into a tense hostage situation when master criminal Dalton Russell's (Clive Owen) planned bank heist goes drastically wrong. Trying to negotiate the release of the hostages, Frazier begins to realise that something isn't quite right with the whole set up, and when enigmatic Madeline White (Jodie Foster) arrives on the scene, he realises that he's stumbled onto something a lot bigger. In 'Clockers' (1995), Strike (Mekhi Phifer) is a clocker (24-hour drug dealer) who becomes implicated in the murder of a rival after a tip off. Two cops investigate, Mazilli (John Turturro) - looking for a quick solution, and Rocco (Harvey Keitel) - looking for the truth. When Strike's brother confesses to the shooting, Rocco decides to find the real killer. In the teen comedy-musical 'School Daze' (1987), Lee himself plays the lead role as a school geek determined to lose his virginity and thereby gain entry to the powerful high school fraternity. Larry Fishburne co-stars. Anthony Mackie stars in the irreverent comedy 'She Hate Me' (2004) as Jack Armstrong, a biotech executive who gets fired from his job for whistle-blowing. Unemployed and desperate to find a way to make a living, Jack accepts an unusual offer from former girlfriend and now lesbian Fatima (Kerry Washington): she offers to pay him handsomely if he impregnates her and her girlfriend. Soon, Jack is inundated with requests from the lesbian community to deliver a similar service, and his bank balance is looking healthier than ever. But things get complicated when his former employers attempts to frame him for security fraud - and the implications of his dubious fathering activities start to hit home. 'Do the Right Thing' (1989), the study of racial tensions that made Spike Lee's name, takes place on the hottest day of the year in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. The film charts the increasing tension between a black pizza delivery boy (Lee) and his Italian bosses, the local folk and yuppy newcomers, and builds inexorably to a violent confrontation. In 'Get on the Bus' (1996), a diverse group of twenty black men board a bus in South Central Los Angeles to travel to Washington in time for a protest march. They consist of a quarrelling father and son who are chained together, a devout Muslim and a pair of gay lovers. Along the way, the men endure various trials and tribulations, tackling racism and homophobia head on, and finally come to regard themselves as a band of brothers. Finally, in 'Jungle Fever' (1996), a married black architect (Wesley Snipes) begins an affair with a white temporary secretary (Annabella Sciorra) from his office, causing turmoil in their social worlds. Spike Lee plays Snipes' best friend Cyrus, who counsels against succumbing to the temptation of 'jungle fever'. Product Description Nine Spike Lee joints. 'Mo' Better Blues' (1990) concerns a handsome and accomplished jazz trumpeter, Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington), who divides his spare time between two women: an aspiring jazz vocalist, Clarke (Cynda Williams), and Indigo (Joie Lee), a down-to-earth school teacher. 'Crooklyn' (1993) is Lee's autobiographical homage to his own youth, growing up in 1970s Brooklyn. Alfre Woodard stars as Carolyn Carmicheal, mother of five children and wife to an unemployed jazz musician. She has to struggle to hold the family together - and when she dies, the resposibilities fall to the only daughter, Troy. Denzel Washington stars in the crime thriller 'Inside Man' (2006) as tough cop Keith Frazier, who finds himself drawn into a tense hostage situation when master criminal Dalton Russell's (Clive Owen) planned bank heist goes drastically wrong. Trying to negotiate the release of the hostages, Frazier begins to realise that something isn't quite right with the whole set up, and when enigmatic Madeline White (Jodie Foster) arrives on the scene, he realises that he's stumbled onto something a lot bigger. In 'Clockers' (1995), Strike (Mekhi Phifer) is a clocker (24-hour drug dealer) who becomes implicated in the murder of a rival after a tip off. Two cops investigate, Mazilli (John Turturro) - looking for a quick solution, and Rocco (Harvey Keitel) - looking for the truth. When Strike's brother confesses to the shooting, Rocco decides to find the real killer. In the teen comedy-musical 'School Daze' (1987), Lee himself plays the lead role as a school geek determined to lose his virginity and thereby gain entry to the powerful high school fraternity. Larry Fishburne co-stars. Anthony Mackie stars in the irreverent comedy 'She Hate Me' (2004) as Jack Armstrong, a biotech executive who gets fired from his job for whistle-blowing. Unemployed and desperate to find a way to make a living, Jack accepts an unusual offer from former girlfriend and now lesbian Fatima (Kerry Washington): she offers to pay him handsomely if he impregnates her and her girlfriend. Soon, Jack is inundated with requests from the lesbian community to deliver a similar service, and his bank balance is looking healthier than ever. But things get complicated when his former employers attempts to frame him for security fraud - and the implications of his dubious fathering activities start to hit home. 'Do the Right Thing' (1989), the study of racial tensions that made Spike Lee's name, takes place on the hottest day of the year in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. The film charts the increasing tension between a black pizza delivery boy (Lee) and his Italian bosses, the local folk and yuppy newcomers, and builds inexorably to a violent confrontation. In 'Get on the Bus' (1996), a diverse group of twenty black men board a bus in South Central Los Angeles to travel to Washington in time for a protest march. They consist of a quarrelling father and son who are chained together, a devout Muslim and a pair of gay lovers. Along the way, the men endure various trials and tribulations, tackling racism and homophobia head on, and finally come to regard themselves as a band of brothers. Finally, in 'Jungle Fever' (1996), a married black architect (Wesley Snipes) begins an affair with a white temporary secretary (Annabella Sciorra) from his office, causing turmoil in their social worlds. Spike Lee plays Snipes' best friend Cyrus, who counsels against succumbing to the temptation of 'jungle fever'.

title: Spike Lee Joint Collection (Clockers/ Jungle Fever/ Do the Right Thing/ Mo` Better Blues/ Crooklyn)
text: Product Description Product Description Amazon.com Clockers Based on the riveting bestseller by Richard Price, this 1995 crime drama was directed by Spike Lee with such authority and authenticity that it has the hyper-real quality of a stylized documentary. Fully capturing the thoroughly researched detail of Price's novel, the film focuses on Strike (newcomer Mekhi Phifer), a young, ambitious "clocker"--or drug dealer--who works the streets of his New York housing project, selling drugs for a local supplier named Rodney (played with ferocious charisma by Delroy Lindo). Just as Strike is struggling to get away from his dead-end life of crime, another dealer is murdered in a fast-food restaurant and local detectives (Harvey Keitel, John Turturro) consider Strike the primary suspect. In cowriting the script with novelist Price, Lee uses this murder mystery to explore the plague of guns and black-on-black crime in America's inner cities, in which drugs and death are familiar routines of daily life. The film doesn't pretend to offer solutions, nor does it dwell on the problem with numbing insistence. Rather, this taut, well-acted film takes the viewer into a world often hidden in plain sight--a world where options seem nonexistent for youth conditioned to have little or no expectation beyond a probable early death. Lee and Price are deadly serious in handling this volatile subject (which incorporates racism, powerless law enforcement, and political indifference), but Clockers is also blessed with humor, insight, and humanity. It's one of Lee's most confidently directed films, signaling a creative maturity that Lee continued to develop throughout the 1990s. --Jeff Shannon Jungle Fever Spike Lee's 1991 story about an interracial relationship and its consequences on the lives and communities of the lovers (Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra) is one of his most captivating and focused films. Snipes and Sciorra are very good as individuals trying to reach beyond the limits imposed upon them for reasons of race, tradition, sexism, and such. Lee makes an interesting and subtle case that they are driven to one another out of frustration with social obstacles as well as pure attraction--but is that enough for love to survive? John Turturro is featured in a subplot as an Italian American who grows attracted to a black woman and takes heat from his numbskull buddies. --Tom Keogh Do the Right Thing Spike Lee's incendiary look at race relations in America, circa 1989, is so colorful and exuberant for its first three-quarters that you can almost forget the terrible confrontation that the movie inexorably builds toward. Do the Right Thing is a joyful, tumultuous masterpiece--maybe the best film ever made about race in America, revealing racial prejudices and stereotypes in all their guises and demonstrating how a deadly riot can erupt out of a series of small misunderstandings. Set on one block in Bedford-Stuyvesant on the hottest day of the summer, the movie shows the whole spectrum of life in this neighborhood and then leaves it up to us to decide if, in the end, anybody actually does the "right thing." Featuring Danny Aiello as Sal, the pizza parlor owner; Lee himself as Mookie, the lazy pizza-delivery guy; John Turturro and Richard Edson as Sal's sons; Lee's sister Joie as Mookie's sister Jade; Rosie Perez as Mookie's girlfriend Tina; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee as the block elders, Da Mayor and Mother Sister; Giancarlo Esposito as Mookie's hot-headed friend Buggin' Out; Bill Nunn as the boom-box toting Radio Raheem; and Samuel L. Jackson as deejay Mister Señor Love Daddy. A rich and nuanced film to watch, treasure, and learn from--over and over again. --Jim Emerson Mo' Better Blues With Mo' Better Blues , the story of a young trumpeter's rise to jazz-world stardom, Spike Lee set out to counter Clint Eastwood's cliché-ridden biopic of Charlie Parker in Bird. But the final product, a slick, glossy drama (with hip-hop jazz provided by Gangstarr no less), is just as superficial as the numerous Alger-esque stories of music stardom to which movie audiences are accustomed. Denzel Washington gives a typically charismatic performance as the trumpeter in question, as does Wesley Snipes as his sax-playing rival. And as with most Spike Lee films, there are numerous solid performers in small roles such as Bill Nunn, Latin-music star Rubén Blades, and comedian Robin Harris. One character, however, attracted unwanted attention: John Turturro's role as an unscrupulous music-industry exec. Critics called the Turturro character, who is at once money hungry, swarthy, and perpetually shrouded in darkness, a classic anti-Semitic caricature. But the charge seems almost irrelevant in Spike Lee's cartoonish, overstylized world of impossibly hunky jazzmen, curvaceous hangers-on, and incessant bebop. --Ethan Brown Crooklyn Spike Lee's semiautobiographical, 1994 film about the good and bad times for a Brooklyn family in the '70s has passion and nostalgic good feeling, but it is also a mess of random reflections and arbitrary storytelling. The centerpiece of the movie is a little girl (Zelda Harris) who views the ups and downs of her parents' experiences (mom and dad are played by Delroy Lindo and Alfre Woodard), and who navigates the life of her neighborhood. Lee tosses in a lot of '70s detail (watching The Partridge Family ) and other diversions (Harris's journey through suburbia), but he has no master sensibility controlling the flow of it all. The film is more wearying than anything, although bright spots include Lindo's fine performance as a talented man suffering from irrelevance. --Tom Keogh Product Description Product Description Amazon.com Clockers Based on the riveting bestseller by Richard Price, this 1995 crime drama was directed by Spike Lee with such authority and authenticity that it has the hyper-real quality of a stylized documentary. Fully capturing the thoroughly researched detail of Price's novel, the film focuses on Strike (newcomer Mekhi Phifer), a young, ambitious "clocker"--or drug dealer--who works the streets of his New York housing project, selling drugs for a local supplier named Rodney (played with ferocious charisma by Delroy Lindo). Just as Strike is struggling to get away from his dead-end life of crime, another dealer is murdered in a fast-food restaurant and local detectives (Harvey Keitel, John Turturro) consider Strike the primary suspect. In cowriting the script with novelist Price, Lee uses this murder mystery to explore the plague of guns and black-on-black crime in America's inner cities, in which drugs and death are familiar routines of daily life. The film doesn't pretend to offer solutions, nor does it dwell on the problem with numbing insistence. Rather, this taut, well-acted film takes the viewer into a world often hidden in plain sight--a world where options seem nonexistent for youth conditioned to have little or no expectation beyond a probable early death. Lee and Price are deadly serious in handling this volatile subject (which incorporates racism, powerless law enforcement, and political indifference), but Clockers is also blessed with humor, insight, and humanity. It's one of Lee's most confidently directed films, signaling a creative maturity that Lee continued to develop throughout the 1990s. --Jeff Shannon Jungle Fever Spike Lee's 1991 story about an interracial relationship and its consequences on the lives and communities of the lovers (Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra) is one of his most captivating and focused films. Snipes and Sciorra are very good as individuals trying to reach beyond the limits imposed upon them for reasons of race, tradition, sexism, and such. Lee makes an interesting and subtle case that they are driven to one another out of frustration with social obstacles as well as pure attraction--but is that enough for love to survive? John Turturro is featured in a subplot as an Italian American who grows attracted to a black woman and takes heat from his numbskull buddies. --Tom Keogh Do the Right Thing Spike Lee's incendiary look at race relations in America, circa 1989, is so colorful and exuberant for its first three-quarters that you can almost forget the terrible confrontation that the movie inexorably builds toward. Do the Right Thing is a joyful, tumultuous masterpiece--maybe the best film ever made about race in America, revealing racial prejudices and stereotypes in all their guises and demonstrating how a deadly riot can erupt out of a series of small misunderstandings. Set on one block in Bedford-Stuyvesant on the hottest day of the summer, the movie shows the whole spectrum of life in this neighborhood and then leaves it up to us to decide if, in the end, anybody actually does the "right thing." Featuring Danny Aiello as Sal, the pizza parlor owner; Lee himself as Mookie, the lazy pizza-delivery guy; John Turturro and Richard Edson as Sal's sons; Lee's sister Joie as Mookie's sister Jade; Rosie Perez as Mookie's girlfriend Tina; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee as the block elders, Da Mayor and Mother Sister; Giancarlo Esposito as Mookie's hot-headed friend Buggin' Out; Bill Nunn as the boom-box toting Radio Raheem; and Samuel L. Jackson as deejay Mister Señor Love Daddy. A rich and nuanced film to watch, treasure, and learn from--over and over again. --Jim Emerson Mo' Better Blues With Mo' Better Blues , the story of a young trumpeter's rise to jazz-world stardom, Spike Lee set out to counter Clint Eastwood's cliché-ridden biopic of Charlie Parker in Bird. But the final product, a slick, glossy drama (with hip-hop jazz provided by Gangstarr no less), is just as superficial as the numerous Alger-esque stories of music stardom to which movie audiences are accustomed. Denzel Washington gives a typically charismatic performance as the trumpeter in question, as does Wesley Snipes as his sax-playing rival. And as with most Spike Lee films, there are numerous solid performers in small roles such as Bill Nunn, Latin-music star Rubén Blades, and comedian Robin Harris. One character, however, attracted unwanted attention: John Turturro's role as an unscrupulous music-industry exec. Critics called the Turturro character, who is at once money hungry, swarthy, and perpetually shrouded in darkness, a classic anti-Semitic caricature. But the charge seems almost irrelevant in Spike Lee's cartoonish, overstylized world of impossibly hunky jazzmen, curvaceous hangers-on, and incessant bebop. --Ethan Brown Crooklyn Spike Lee's semiautobiographical, 1994 film about the good and bad times for a Brooklyn family in the '70s has passion and nostalgic good feeling, but it is also a mess of random reflections and arbitrary storytelling. The centerpiece of the movie is a little girl (Zelda Harris) who views the ups and downs of her parents' experiences (mom and dad are played by Delroy Lindo and Alfre Woodard), and who navigates the life of her neighborhood. Lee tosses in a lot of '70s detail (watching The Partridge Family ) and other diversions (Harris's journey through suburbia), but he has no master sensibility controlling the flow of it all. The film is more wearying than anything, although bright spots include Lindo's fine performance as a talented man suffering from irrelevance. --Tom Keogh

title: Summer of Sam [DVD]
text: Product Description Product description SUMMER OF SAM Amazon.com It's important to note that Spike Lee's drama is not titled Son of Sam . Summer of Sam doesn't chronicle the killer as much as the times: the blistering hot summer of 1977 when the Big Apple's psyche was taken hostage by the lone gunman. We spot the killer (Michael Badalucco) in his mad ramblings, but the film centers on two friends from the Bronx: Vinny and Ritchie (John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody). Vinny and his wife, Dionna (Mira Sorvino), bury a bad marriage (he cheats at a drop of a hat) in the disco halls of the area. Ritchie returns to the neighborhood sporting punk hair, punk clothes, and a British accent that immediately infuriates the neighborhood boys oozing far too much testosterone. Cops, local mob leaders, and the guys on the street all have ideas who the killer is; neighborhood loners to Reggie Jackson (in the midst of World Series heroism) are on their misguided lists of suspects. When the film looks at how the citizens faced the fearful times, Lee scores with his energetic camerawork and pop soundtrack. Yet the film is banal in its domestic dramatics. The film takes large detours into Vinny's home sex life (stagnant) and Ritchie's extracurricular activities. One of the marriage arguments--though real and well acted--is so long and cliché-ridden you wonder if someone fell asleep in the editing booth. Add the point-blank killings and nonstop vulgarity and you have Lee's most unpleasant film. --Doug Thomas Product Description Product description SUMMER OF SAM Amazon.com It's important to note that Spike Lee's drama is not titled Son of Sam . Summer of Sam doesn't chronicle the killer as much as the times: the blistering hot summer of 1977 when the Big Apple's psyche was taken hostage by the lone gunman. We spot the killer (Michael Badalucco) in his mad ramblings, but the film centers on two friends from the Bronx: Vinny and Ritchie (John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody). Vinny and his wife, Dionna (Mira Sorvino), bury a bad marriage (he cheats at a drop of a hat) in the disco halls of the area. Ritchie returns to the neighborhood sporting punk hair, punk clothes, and a British accent that immediately infuriates the neighborhood boys oozing far too much testosterone. Cops, local mob leaders, and the guys on the street all have ideas who the killer is; neighborhood loners to Reggie Jackson (in the midst of World Series heroism) are on their misguided lists of suspects. When the film looks at how the citizens faced the fearful times, Lee scores with his energetic camerawork and pop soundtrack. Yet the film is banal in its domestic dramatics. The film takes large detours into Vinny's home sex life (stagnant) and Ritchie's extracurricular activities. One of the marriage arguments--though real and well acted--is so long and cliché-ridden you wonder if someone fell asleep in the editing booth. Add the point-blank killings and nonstop vulgarity and you have Lee's most unpleasant film. --Doug Thomas