video review : Do The Right Thing

video review : Do The Right Thing

There are plenty of stupid things in this movie, beginning with the opening dance sequence, but the stupidest or at least most annoying are Smiley and Buggin Out. They’re characters who live in Brooklyn and are obsessively infatuated with the black race like seemingly every other black character in this movie. Smiley, who stutters whenever he speaks, is a retard. Buggin Out just acts like one. The problem with the two is that their annoying ways are played-out almost to the point of caricaturization. They come across as virtual cartoons in a movie that’s supposed to be about real life.

It’s a hot summer day and Mookie, who works as a delivery man for an Italian pizzeria, is just trying to get thru life. That’s the gist of a plot that cares more about observing characters in their everyday environment; the neighborhood of Bedford–Stuyvesant; than telling a cohesive story. At one point, the story is temporarily abandoned for an impromptu insult session. That bit too is, of course, all about race. “Tawana (Brawley) told the truth,” reads a graffiti message in a another scene. All this racial tension peaks at the end when a guy named Radio Raheem becomes the victim of police brutality.

my rating : 3 of 5

1989

video review : Get On The Bus

video review : Get On The Bus

Spike Lee invites you to Get On The Bus. Its passengers consist of about twenty men and a teenager, played De’Aundre Bonds overacting his role, headed to The Million (black) Man March; a potentially historic civil rights event held by Louis Farrakhan in Washington DC.

You don’t have to support the cause to enjoy the ride. There’s enough dynamic characterization to hold your attention for the most part. It’s when we start leaving the bus for conflict and drama during the movie’s second half that things go from good to not-so-good.

It soon becomes an emotional wreck. Imagine fist fights and father-son therapy sessions over contemporary soul music. Spike Lee deserves praise for including a new Michael Jackson song as the theme, but They Don’t Care About Us would’ve been a better fit.

my rating : 3 of 5

1996