Something that seems too good to be true usually is war is hell, don’t count your chickens before they hatch, or a variety of other euphemisms can be used to describe Spike Lee’s (Malcolm X, He Got Game) 2020’s Da 5 Bloods. While this is not Lee’s first venture into a historical war drama (2008’s Miracle at St. Anna), it is his first look at the Vietnam War. While a strong contender for a Best Picture Oscar nominee, Da 5 Bloods could also give Lee his second Best Director nomination (2018’s BlacKKKlansman). Its best Oscar nomination chance is Best Actor (Delroy Lindo – The Cider House Rules, The Last Castle).
Category Archives: Spike Lee
He Got Game (1998)
A few friends and I recently discussed movies we thought warranted a second watch. We debated whether a film aged like a fine wine or sour milk in the discussion. It meant if we thought a movie held up or was even deemed better years after its original release or if we didn’t believe it was all that good now when we once held it in high esteem. One of my friends said Terminator 2 aged like sour milk. Though I haven’t seen it a second time, this movie was so far ahead of its time in terms of technology back in 1991, but one I don’t doubt might be unwatchable 30 years later. The sour milk example I gave was The Great Outdoors, a movie that a 12-year-old me thought was hilarious when I watched in the theater, but one that I didn’t chuckle at once during my 2012 viewing. My example of a movie that aged like a fine wine was Apocolypse Now, a movie I didn’t necessarily love when I first saw it, but one I grew to appreciate as it and I aged. Spike Lee’s (Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing) He Got Game is a fine wine. I remember thinking it was “pretty decent” in 1998. It holds the test of time and is more applicable today, as we have seen in recent years, the sleaziness of college basketball recruiting.
BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Over seven years into my movie review website and BlacKkKlansman, this is the first Spike Lee-directed movie I’m reviewing. I actually did not realize this until I checked on his category and saw that he wasn’t listed as one of the directors in my categories list. It certainly isn’t because I don’t enjoy a good Spike Lee movie. I think it’s more than of my first 370+ reviews, more than 300 of them have been since 2010. And while Lee has certainly directed many films since 2010, I haven’t heard of nearly any of them. I did see (and enjoy) 2013’s Oldboy and am quite surprised I did not write a review on it. It is a movie that I will go back and watch again and review. But Lee is absolutely better known for the movies he directed over a 15-20 year period, starting with 1989’s Do the Right Thing and ending with 2006’s Inside Man. Shockingly, he does not have a Best Director Academy Award nomination to his credit and only has one real nomination at all (as a screenwriter for Do The Right Thing). While Lee isn’t a Steven Spielberg, he has directed a handful of movies so memorable that people can roll them out of their mouths at a moment’s notice. I mean, come on…in addition to the films mentioned, you’ve got Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, He Got Game, Crooklyn, Clockers, The Original Kings of Comedy, 25th Hour…movie after movie with Rotten Tomato scores well over 65%. These are all movies that everyone should see before they die. I mean, seriously, how does Malcolm X not earn him a Best Director nomination. It is one of the greatest films ever made. Now I’m not going to sit here and say that BlacKkKlansmanis going to earn him that elusive Best Director nomination, but certainly enough of a movie to make Lee relevant again…something, unfortunately outside of sitting courtside of New York Knick basketball games, that he hasn’t been in over a decade.
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