J-Hud, Samuel L, Dave Chappelle, Wesley Snipes, John Cusack, Nick Cannon, Common, Jeremy Piven, and undoubtedly he'll add more. And it's being shot by Matthew Libatique, one of the best cinematographers alive.

Does Spike have another great movie in him?

>Does Spike have another great movie in him?

...but I don't know if it's this. He definitely still has great movies in him though. I just don't know if a Lysistrata is going to be one of them.

I was really hoping this would be a documentary, because "When the Levies Broke" was so impressive. I don't have much faith in Spike's ability to capture the culture of Chicago through a fictional script. I would have preferred real lives, real stories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysistrata#Plot

I don't see anything humorous about taking the tragedy of what's happening in the streets of Englewood and using that title to describe his comedy. If that's the movie he wants to make, then fine. But I don't think the title is appropriate.

coming of age type shit. Speaking from my own knowledge, I never heard the term "crooklyn" before, and it didn't give me a negative view of Brooklyn. The term "Chiraq" has been sensationalized because of all the violence in Chicago. If Spike wants to make a family friendly movie about Chicago, fine. But it's being publicized as a way to draw attention and shed light on the crisis here. It's been very polarizing, because no one seemed to know what the damn movie was about.

But my initial gripe still stands on his writing.

This will be a disaster. And I love Spike. Nothing about this sounds good though.

there is no trailer. there isn't even a plot that has been revealed

Gonna be a while before there's a trailer.

Most intriguing rumor about the plot is that it's an adaptation of the Greek comedy (from almost 2500 years ago!) about women withholding sex from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing them into peace.

at that.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson


"One of the most important things in life is what Judge Learned Hand described as 'that ever-gnawing inner doubt as to whether you're

all his characters have distinct New York voices and mannerisms. I don't see how he'll be able to capture the culture of Chicago residents.

sometimes it pans out and sometimes not
i'll see
~~~~
When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices. Live so that when you die, you rejoice, and the world cries.
~~~~
You cannot hate people for their own good.

Looks better than I thought it would be. Cautiously optimistic, but it could definitely work.

http://www.avclub.com/article/classical-political-trailer-spike-lees-chi-raq-227879

Looks like the tone lurches all over the place. Degree of difficulty in pulling something like this off is about as high as it gets. Even if it fails miserably, it looks incredibly fascinating and ambitious. Can't wait to see this shit.

In that it's a really interesting concept that very few people could pull off. And I honestly don't know if 2015 Spike Lee can (Bamboozled had it's own problems, but I'll still watch it whenever it's on because it's so fascinating.) But I'm really curious to see if he can do it.

I was like, "Ok, this could be interesting. Wait, this movie looks good. Now it seems like a different movie which I don't want to see. Yeah, not into this. Was that John Cusack? Man, Spike's really sticking with this movie I don't like. But I like a lot of these actors. Oh, so that was just Cusack. Oh, well, maybe this could be interesting. CUSCACK'S PLAYING A PREACHER?!" And then I lost consciousness.

he got so many big name actors to trot out what looks like dog shit material. This looks like it'll be worse that She Hate Me. I literally felt like I was losing my mind while watching that flick and given the serious nature of what's still going down in Chicago, it'll be tough for me to watch this.

I wonder if the situation were reversed and there was insane gun violence in Brooklyn and a Chicago born and bred director tried to take this approach to the same situation in Brooklyn how Spike Lee would take it.

When modern era Spike eased off the super-serious gas pedal and has fun with a concept, he churned out a good movie in Inside Man.

Two things make me scared though.

1)Cramming a narrative/parable about chicago teen violence with a bunch of 30-40-and 50(woah, Wesley snipes) year old actors. Seems wrong.

2)Considering Spike's big problems with women potrayals I hope he's able to pull off the 'No pussy until the violence starts' narrative without fucking it up.

and teens will be the soldiers. Like how it always goes.

This looks good. I think it will be on Amazon Video by the end of the year so I will watch it then.

The OG gang chiefs are gone. Gang leaders now often top out at early 20s. Many are even younger.

This fact alone is a major reason why the gang violence in Chicago is so bad. If Spike missed this, the film isn't even worth watching.

>2)Considering Spike's big problems with women potrayals I hope
>he's able to pull off the 'No pussy until the violence starts'
>narrative without fucking it up.

1. The situation with the violence in Chicago is entirely too serious of a concept to joke around with. For all of his work with Bamboozled....the trailer appears to be turning the youth of Chicago into a caricature in and of itself. The shit going on on the South Side is too current and too important to crack jokes about. I didn't see anything promising or redeeming in that trailer.

2. The biggest issue I've had with Spike is his writing. It was okay when he was younger because he was still "current", so the novelty of seeing hip-hop sensibilities on the screen overshadowed any issue I had with his character development. However....watching this trailer I literally CRINGED at least 4 times from poorly delivered or poorly written lines. Maybe I'm missing the tone of the movie...but I find it very difficult to believe any plot devices are going to save some of the out and out BULLSHIT I saw written in that dialogue.

3. I've said this before and I've said it again...I applaud Spike for the way that he took his shooting to the neighborhoods in question. I can tell you that niggaz on my block were about to cause a full blown riot if he didn't come out to talk to them...which is usually not his thing. So props for coming to the people with that. However...the issues between gender are too serious and too real. The tone of this film feels downright irresponsible.

Yes I know the 1st point and the 3rd point are essentially the same thing...but that shit was so important to me, I had to say it twice.

>1. The situation with the violence in Chicago is entirely too
>serious of a concept to joke around with. For all of his work
>with Bamboozled....the trailer appears to be turning the youth
>of Chicago into a caricature in and of itself. The shit going
>on on the South Side is too current and too important to crack
>jokes about. I didn't see anything promising or redeeming in
>that trailer.

I mean, do you honestly think Spike is "cracking jokes" about what's going on in Chicago or treating it as a caricature?

It's possible to deal with serious subject matter with something other than a serious tone. Satire/comedy is one of the most powerful weapons in a good artist's toolbox. When it's done right, it probably cuts deeper than most dramas. Anti-war satires have been around forever. (Dr. Strangelove, MASH, etc.) People looking hard enough could see Scorsese's anger in Wolf of Wall Street even though it had a comical/sprawling tone. There are countless examples of this. Something like Dear White People could have easily been a drama and told the same story, but it shrouded its cutting observations/commentary in comedy/satire.

>2. The biggest issue I've had with Spike is his writing. It
>was okay when he was younger because he was still "current",
>so the novelty of seeing hip-hop sensibilities on the screen
>overshadowed any issue I had with his character development.
>However....watching this trailer I literally CRINGED at least
>4 times from poorly delivered or poorly written lines. Maybe
>I'm missing the tone of the movie...but I find it very
>difficult to believe any plot devices are going to save some
>of the out and out BULLSHIT I saw written in that dialogue.

I don't know that you're getting the tone of the movie one way or the other since you haven't actually seen it yet. At least wait until you see it to criticize the writing and tone. Pretty hard to make that judgement based on a 2 minute trailer with scenes chopped up, taken out of context, and re-arranged.

>3. I've said this before and I've said it again...I applaud
>Spike for the way that he took his shooting to the
>neighborhoods in question. I can tell you that niggaz on my
>block were about to cause a full blown riot if he didn't come
>out to talk to them...which is usually not his thing. So props
>for coming to the people with that. However...the issues
>between gender are too serious and too real. The tone of this
>film feels downright irresponsible.

I definitely respect where you're coming from with this, but it seems like you're equating a non-serious tone with a non-serious treatment of the subject matter. I'd be shocked if Spike is less than deathly serious in his actual anger about what's happening in Chicago, and I'd also be really surprised if that anger doesn't come through in the movie, crazy tone and all.

like...walk out of the theater awful.

Me...I can deal with fantasy or even comedy if the writing is on point.

Some of these lines were LAUGHABLY bad. I'll list them.

1st...the Samuel Jackson narration was unbelievably bad.
2nd..."every man here got a man banging and slanging...fighting for the flag risking that LONG zip of the cadaver bag" HORRIBLE
3rd..."all to the Bang Bang...(BANG BANG!!)" You cannot intend for me to take this dialogue seriously
4th...Nick Cannon acting hard......I'll let that sit there so you can digest it
5th...the whole "I will deny all rights of access or entrance" dance move shit? No nigga...just....no
6th....Who still uses "OOOOOOOH SNAP!!!!" when they are responding to something?

C'mon....stop acting like this trailer didn't give enough ammunition for it to show...if nothing else....horrible writing. You're insulting my intelligence.

>Some of these lines were LAUGHABLY bad. I'll list them.
>
>1st...the Samuel Jackson narration was unbelievably bad.
>2nd..."every man here got a man banging and
>slanging...fighting for the flag risking that LONG zip of the
>cadaver bag" HORRIBLE
>3rd..."all to the Bang Bang...(BANG BANG!!)" You cannot intend
>for me to take this dialogue seriously
>4th...Nick Cannon acting hard......I'll let that sit there so
>you can digest it
>5th...the whole "I will deny all rights of access or entrance"
>dance move shit? No nigga...just....no
>6th....Who still uses "OOOOOOOH SNAP!!!!" when they are
>responding to something?


Well, it's very obvious that none of that shit (literally, none of it) is even remotely intended to be "natural" dialogue.

Again, pretty hard to defend or attack any of this shit wholeheartedly without actually seeing the movie...

I'd have liked to see a more modern, natural adaptation but it seems like Spike is going for more stilted, theatrical, and poetic lines. Not sure how much dialogue will be in verse but I did notice that bang bang line and Chapelle's line both rhymed.

except modernized.
Now he could have gone the route of Romeo and Juliet or Much Ado about Nothing and kept the original prose. My understanding is that he did use several text as it was in the poem.

>4th...Nick Cannon acting hard


I thought it might've been MBJ for a moment but...jeah I'm worried now

>I mean, do you honestly think Spike is "cracking jokes" about
>what's going on in Chicago or treating it as a caricature?

I loved the nostalgia of the whole Lindy Hop period...and when he got serious he got really serious.

None of the writing I heard in the entire 3 hours of Malcolm X was as bad as the lines I heard delivered in this trailer.

D

I'm going to give it a shot
With an understanding that spike is too ham fisted for something this current

You are way too close to the subject matter frankly
I felt that on The Wire
Stayed far away not from Baltimore but watched the corner and some of that shit is triggering for me living through east NY in the 70s and Bushwick in the 80s
Same with Narcos w not a single damn Colombian in the cast
Fuck that show frankly

This feels different and I have enough distance from the subject matter
I'm going to try... understanding all of the above
And frankly I still don't blame you
Yes wait until seeing the actual movie but your misgivings are well founded
Satire from within the community is one thing
Spike is not from Chicago
He's an artist w an opinion though so *sigh*

Instead of seeing narcos I went w BSR to see a Doris Salcedo retrospective
She gave much needed perspective on how to address the reality of horrid situations without being a bull in a China shop
Maybe...dunno go check out the theaster gates or an artist you feel understands the issue before seeing this
~~~~
When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices. Live so that when you die, you rejoice, and the world cries.
~~~~
You cannot hate people for their own good.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/new-and-more-serious-trailer-for-chi-raq-released-and-spike-responds-20151106

In Response to Criticism, Spike Lee Release New & More Serious Trailer for 'Chi-Raq' + Addresses Misunderstanding

Shadow and Act
By Sergio | Shadow and Act
November 6, 2015 at 11:03AM

The much anticipated first trailer for Spike Lee's "Chi-Raq" released earlier this week did what it was supposed to do - it got people talking. And man did they talk! In fact, they can't and probably won't stop talking about it until the film is out.

However, it appears that, perhaps public reaction to that first trailer was not quite what Spike was especially looking for. The trailer's very broad approach and in your face attitude had many criticizing it, arguing that it makes the film come off as if it's some insensitive, tasteless comedy about the very serious problem of urban violence scarring not only Chicago, but many other cities across the country.

And so, in response, Spike himself has recorded a video specifically to take on those complaints, and also recut and released a new trailer that is definitely more serious in tone.

Watch it below, starting with Spike addressing the issues regarding the original trailer and how he feels it has been misinterpreted.

He obviously wasn't going to treat this situation lightly.

the trailer. Doesn't seem sure of himself.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

Movies I need y'all bastids to see so we can discuss:

Five Star - https://goo.gl/jBHbVv
Appropriate Behavior - http://goo.gl/isCzTM
Ma

the only thing he's flip-flopping on is the marketing strategy.

He's just showing there are dramatic scenes in the film.

The problem is that the film doesn't look like a satire and still doesn't seem to have enough focus to be a satire. It might have some characters or moments that are treated satirically but it doesn't seem like there was enough commitment to the satire. Similarly, it's just bizarre to have half of the dialogue be poetic and rhyming and then half of it more natural.

It seems like Spike had a bunch of different options for how to approach the film and decided to throw them all in instead of picking one.

I have less faith in this movie now than I did after seeing the first trailer.

but Spike didn't have control over the first trailer that was released recently?

.

http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/this-terrible-new-song-from-spike-lees-chi-raq-cant-pos-1741795557

I don't think these lyrics are things he literally believes, but I have a hard time imagining how this fits into the movie without coming off as insulting.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

Movies I need y'all bastids to see so we can discuss:

Five Star - https://goo.gl/jBHbVv
Appropriate Behavior - http://goo.gl/isCzTM
Ma

I almost want to see MST3K lampoon this flick. It appears that'll be the sole way to enjoy watching this movie.

he's said as much during some promo interviews for this movie and he's quoted in the article you linked:

"He has responded, though. When asked by Chicago about his take on recent incidents of unarmed black men being killed by police in tandem with his movie about black crime, Lee said:

I’ve never tried to present myself as a motherfucking spokesperson for 45 million black folks. This is my opinion: We as a people can’t talk only about Black Lives Matter, I Can’t Breathe, Don’t Shoot, and then not talk about this self-inflicted genocide we’re doing to ourselves. For me, it goes hand in hand. Only by talking about both and addressing both can we bring change. Cops ain’t just killing us. We’re killing ourselves, too."

...and there are plenty ppl who agree w/this ^ take on the issue. plenty of them are here in Chicago and in Englewood. i'm sure plenty of them were involved in the making of this movie too.

once I saw him rapping off beat with Sam Jackson at the BET Awards

But the ChiRaq song that starts the movie was very powerful.

http://variety.com/2015/film/reviews/chi-raq-review-spike-lee-1201646052/

TL;DR - Sometimes the execution is clunky, but the message more than makes up for its shortcomings.

Spike's got something to say but the movie is all over the place. The worrisome parts are the comedy (which falls flat) and the conclusion being questionable.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/chi-raq-film-review-842766?utm_source=twitter

Go see this shit.

I will be absolutely pissed if it's not at least decent. There's such a high margin for error with this film.

SN: While I'm glad that people from Chicago are vehemently against people calling the city 'Chiraq', where was all this anger years ago when the term was being pushed around by mostly rappers. The name didn't make itself up.

>where was all this anger years ago when the term
>was being pushed around by mostly rappers.

i'm a chicagoan. the anger's been around for years. people HATE that word.

when labels were signing drill rappers.

I know people have hated the word for years.....what I'm saying is that people's response to term here is more of a kneejerk reaction.

It's been known that Spike's point with a lot of his films is to spark debate and to get people going. That's his aim here and he multiple films on his resume that have the same goal. He's not making the film to exploit the victims of Chicago gun violence. I believe that a lot of critics know that but because of the name.........they automatically came for him.

The rap industry, on the other hand, has blatantly exploited that same term for years. Where were the tweets saying don't support 'Rapper X' for calling Chicago Chiraq. Where are the blog posts and op-eds? Matter fact, where are they for Killadelphia and Bodymore....other maligned cities.

The criticism here was actually covered in the movie. But people couldn't wait....their knees were jerking.
---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

the masses using the term in ignorance are much more interesting to media outlets than the majority of us who abhor it and have never given it any respect from its' inception.

D

YEARS.

VERY impressive.
The choice of tonal shifts was surprisingly effective.
He could have made the movie about any 1 or 2 of the characters and it would have worked. But the ensemble approach was great.
If I had to note three particular performances: Nick Cannon showed up and showed out; Samuel L. Jackson is a riot as the narrator; John Cusack definitely gave the film's biggest speech - and did so fantastically. Amazing it's been so long since he's been in anything good, much less had the chance to flex his acting muscles.
This is a good fall/winter season for films, and CHI-RAQ is a good one to check for.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

As the movie ended...I was struck with how conflicted I was.

This is not a GOOD movie. Then again...it's not a BAD movie.

It's a very AMBITIOUS movie. As others have said...it's a movie that doesn't give a fuck about how you feel about its plot devices. You will deal with it or you will tune it out. Period.

That said...once you get into it...the prose isn't as cringeworthy in context as it appears in the trailers.

Sam Jackson's character is a direct nod to the 70s era "Signifying Monkey" urban griot tradition. It helps that Sam's character knows that his portrayal is over the top to the viewer...and his narration is one of the strengths of the movie. I can see people thinking he's "cooning it up" because we are often ashamed of that part of our history...but it is authentic and as such...I gave it a pass.

Nick Cannon should not have had this role. It's not that he doesn't play it well....I believe he did a decent job...but I just don't have that much suspension of belief in me. I really wish Spike had had the balls to cast an unknown because the authenticity of Chiraq (his character) is key to us buying into the authenticity of Chi-Raq (the movie)

By now...you are fully aware of Spike Lee's penchant for misogynistic images. He hasn't changed. Every major female character in here with the possible exception of Angela Bassett and Jennifer Hudson is hypersexualized...and quite a bit of it is unnecessary. You can only hide behind the "NO PEACE...NO PIECE!!" credo of the movie so much. For this to be Spike's 1st major female lead since "She's Gotta Have It"...you can see that his depictions haven't changed much....EVEN considering that he didn't pen this movie. Now that I think of it...the only female depiction Spike has ever put forward that I can clap to was in "Crooklyn"...Nola Darling at least was in control and in tune with her sexuality....Lyristrata seems forced.

I saw this with a theater full of Hoetpians...and the strength of this movie is that it pulled whatever predispositions and beliefs we had out of us. The elders were outraged at its vulgarity....The WHITE MAN IS THE DEVIL contingent were angry at the strength of John Cusack's take on Father Pflegger....The Moors found ammunition to feed their pitch for sovereignty...as were the old school Diop/Chancellor William contingent emboldened to tell us to leave the country.

I feel like this movie is important.
I feel like you should watch this movie at least once.
I feel like you shouldn't make a snap judgment on how you feel about it.
I feel like it challenges you to look at yourself and your community as a whole.

So yes....this is Spike's most important movie in a very long time.

But it is not a good movie.

It is a GOOD BAD MOVIE....and I have to honor his decision to make it.

D

>Nick Cannon should not have had this role. It's not that he
>doesn't play it well....I believe he did a decent job...but I
>just don't have that much suspension of belief in me. I really
>wish Spike had had the balls to cast an unknown because the
>authenticity of Chiraq (his character) is key to us buying
>into the authenticity of Chi-Raq (the movie)
>

This...

True to form.

Unfortunately, much may be lost in translation... It was kinda all over the place... and it was little too 'On The Nose' in some places. Spike used to be smoother than this... and less 'Pull ya pants up'.

Not a bad movie, not a good one either tho...

teyonah parris is FAF...

someone like Nate Parker or MBJ. I feel like they would've pulled that role off completely. With Nick Cannon, he's just too suited for comedy and lighter roles to be as believable as he needed to be.


---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

then for what ever creative differences he pulled out.

IRT Nick Cannon, that struck me as the intent for casting him

for example, the opening song

if that was Kanye, I don't think the stupidity would resonate as much

folks would probably just think it's the new Kanye single...?

the intent, IMO, was to make it even more explicit how most of the people that act hard, are just acting

so when Nick raps about killing, my city, etc...

its sounds f'n stoopid because it should.

The issues people covered above (Nick was great but miscast, the BET uncut era choreography, some clunky lines).

But it's nice seeing him go batshit insane at this stage of the year with such immagination. Funny enough id do a compare/contrast with this and another directors return to form this year Mad Max...at this stage of the game 70 year old George Miller's ass shouldn't be trying to kill his stuntmen in an african desert with a dude playing a guitar flamethrower. At this stage of his career Spike doing a hip-hopera with a magical pimp narrating cop killing is equally insane. He doesn't land all the shots, but the ones he nails are all net and amazing.

Also, everyone brought their A acting game acting even if casting/writing/direction got their their way...my fav's were Dave Chapelle as himself and Cusack as a pretty damn convincing 'black' preacher.

Everything you said. In the end, I did enjoy the film, and I am a native Chicagoan who left and is back. I read Lysistrata years ago so I get the "funny."




>The issues people covered above (Nick was great but miscast,
>the BET uncut era choreography, some clunky lines).
>
>But it's nice seeing him go batshit insane at this stage of
>the year with such immagination. Funny enough id do a
>compare/contrast with this and another directors return to
>form this year Mad Max...at this stage of the game George
>Miller's ass shouldn't be trying to kill his stuntmen in an
>african desert with a dude playing a guitar flamethrower. At
>this stage of his career Spike doing a hip-hopera with a
>magical pimp narrating cop killing is as out there. He
>doesn't land all the shots, but the ones he nails are all net
>and amazing.
>
>Also, everyone brought their A acting game acting even if
>casting/writing/direction got their their way...my fav's were
>Dave Chapelle as himself and Cusack as a pretty damn
>convincing 'black' preacher.


TheRealTPayne

I thought that character and subsequently the use of his church were taken from the real life of Rev Michael Pfleger

but yeah, the opening stat; gun homocides in CHI >>> US casualties in Afghan/Iraq wars

and Cusack takin' em to church scene

were worth the price of admission.

The film is a goddamn mess, but that scene alone is worth the price of admission.

the actors where too old, the soundtrack again didn't fit, the dialogue was hit and miss...

the acting was very well done Nick (even if miscast), JHud, Angela, Samuel, Teyonah (my gawd she is fine)

but then what was Wesley's character? or most of the other periphery characters.

Parts of the film felt like when you hear old heads talking "jive turkey" slang, except here it's rooted in the late 80s / early 90s shit

It's def better than Red Hook, still haven't got around to Sweet Blood, but I'm one of the few who loved Miracle, so I'll say it's his best work since Inside Man, and most poignant politically since... idk

~~~~
When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices. Live so that when you die, you rejoice, and the world cries.
~~~~
You cannot hate people for their own good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4SftNnceZg&feature=youtu.be

People give QT more of a pass for his flagrant use of the word than Spike for making this? ok...

Can't get sick of Spike.

Haven't seen the movie yet....But I feel like I can totally understand what he's saying here. "I"M AN ARTIST"

I guess I wanna say that Spike doesn't get artistic license because of race.

Take for example....the Kurt Cobain documentary. White guy films white guy shooting smack....nodding off with his baby on his lap....etc. Did it ever cross that filmmaker's mind that this movie is a poor representation of white people? Why do his movies necessarily HAVE to promote positive representations of his race? Bill Cosby did that very consciously and that certainly is a legitimate artistic statement and approach. Self-affirmation...positive role models...these things are important. But that can't be ALL ART. How limiting would that be if ALL art had to be like that?

Alot of the different criticisms I'm hearing about this film are just different versions of that same thing. 'He shouldn't use the word Chirac.' He's an artist. He's not making a promotional video for the city trying to drum up industry and commerce. It's not a heritage video to be shown in some Chicago landmark.

'The premise of the movie is sexist and unrealistic' It's not SUPPOSED to be a literal suggestion. Nor is it supposed to be realistic. He's making a FILM. It's a device...things artists use as a platform to explore issues and themes. I've thought Spike's movies were sexist from time to time. It's possible that this one is...still haven't seen it. But it's not the device or premise that would make it sexist....it would be his treatment of that device.

'The premise of the movie trivializes Chicago violence because it's a comedy'. Again. It's a film. I wanna mention Roberto Benigni's "Life Is Beautiful". Slap-stick comedy over the backdrop of the holocaust and it won the Oscar. I mean, it's obviously a risky endeavor for Lee.....but whether he succeeds or not....it's ART. We can't constrain people to make art for the sole purpose of positive self-affirmation.

I haven't really enjoyed much of Spike's recent work but I'm looking forward to this one. Without even seeing it...I can see that much of the criticism is based on an incredibly overbearing constraint on what a black writer/director can do. That interview is hilarious. Spike's basically looking around with his shoulders up saying 'Really? I STILL don't get some artistic license here?' And he's right.

most of the criticism I've heard before seeing the movie

holds absolutely no weight after having seen it.

most

the one criticism I can agree with is it being disjointed

and it really only bothered me in one transistion, TBH

when ol' girl heads to the armory to seduce the general

I was like, how the fok did we get here

but yeah, loved the movie

and salute to brother Spike, an incredible accomplishment IMO.

I'm in Baltimore and so much of our shit is in this movie- I can understand why folks from the Chi are sensitive about this. As a base response, I have to say it was successful because it has me thinking this hard about it...but am I thinking about the message(s)??? Or am I thinking about the choices Lee made as a filmmaker???

I rented it on Amazon, since its out of theaters now, so I will watch again.

>I rented it on Amazon, since its out of theaters now, so I
>will watch again.

Thanks for the heads up. Totally forgot this was free on Amazon Prime starting this month. Will make sure to catch this weekend before the Super Bowl and see if the storyline is as silly as it looked in the previews.

theme just felt so silly to me...it took away from the seriousness of it all to me.

Teyonah though...I'm just gonna carry a ring on me for the next time I run into her

My favorite Spike flick is School Dazed and this reminded me of that same energy. It has all the Spike tones among that lack of focus where he seems he has so much to say that it seems convoluted. Sam jackson got robbed not being nominated for this. I can't remember the last time he was so magnetizing.Every time he's on screen my ears perk up and I was eating every little word.A lot like a better articulated version of senor Love daddy from DTRT. I never seen Nick Cannon act better than he's done here. No not even Drumline. I'd.I'd love to see Teyonah Parris in a more serious main role. She can be huge if given the chance. Everyone else did awesome. I believe the idea here was to deliver a serious message using parody and satire, which spike used in other of his work.Everyone from the Chi say how much they hate the word but do not see that in the movie itself characters feel the same way. When the movie ended I couldn't stop thinking about it. I feel like we're all are represented in that story depending of our POV. Some of us are Chiraq, some of us are Ms Helen, most of us are the guys led by Steve Harris character, some of us are the mayor.
I'll definitely cop the Blu Ray when it drops.

I cringed a good 4-5 times while watching this. The comedic aspects in the flick just did not work IMO.

so yeah -

maybe I need to go watch it again.....I did watch it in pieces over 3 days....

ion know bout this one......love Spike ....love the overall message or statement he was making with this one...

but the film itself??

wtf?? there were parts where "yeah this is cool" then parts where I was wondering "wtf am I watching right now"??

- have to say my initial first viewing I didn't get a good impression of it....but like I said I may need to watch it again

similar to you i saw it broken up over 2 days but i kept getting into it and suddenly no longer being into it. i have mixed feelings...love Spike and love what this was going for but i couldn't fully get into the film.

Feel like I can proudly rock my Spizike's now

as a filmmaker, this is the best thing he has made in a very long time. it looks incredible. its the work of someone throwing everything hes got into it. the energy is superb. spike still knows how to make a film look good, how to make it zip, how to pull from many different styles and hollywood genres. its also pretty crazy and unorthodox, which makes me remember how daring spike can be as a director.

but its also a jarring mess that goes all over the place in a way thats maybe worse than any of his previous messes.

if it was set anywhere else, i might be more forgiving but to set it in chicago, with the aim of tackling a real issue in that city, superimposing lysistrata onto that seems like a poor idea. all the stuff with the gangs in this was kind of silly and laughable, reducing it to some kind of west side story version of gangs, and spike even seemed disinterested in the gangs. sticking in his old 'wake up' slogans also seemed to indicate he didnt really care that much about the guys who the film is supposed to be about. if it was a fictional world, that was maybe just an analogy for chicago, it might have been easier to forgive the brashness, the blitheness, the sort of feeling of style over the reality it is meant to be depicting.

if this was a theatre production, i think it might have worked well, but on film, it just seemed too tonally WTF. he just threw everything in there, without much rhyme or reason.

im thinking if i watched it again, i might feel kinder towards it (all the rave reviews im guessing are for reasons that dont have much to do with the film itself).

still, fingers crossed this is the start of a new era for him. i dont think hes progressed at all, or learnt anything new in terms of politics from the 1980s on the evidence of this film, but fingers crossed he still has a couple of good movies left in him.