Watch Bamboozled For Free

Very well executed

Captivating movie !

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Now, here are two films I remember watching many moons ago, and for some strange reason was compelled to watch again. Of both, I remember slightly unusual techniques and styles, feeling more like home movies than big-budget films. But, neither is particularly big-budget; both controversial in their own way and quite experimental, designed to create emotion more than they are to entertain. Both, therefore, are not great films, but interesting ones nonetheless, perhaps not fully getting their ideas across, but based on good ideas.Starting with 'Slam', we see young Raymond Joshua living in D.C., working as a small-time drug dealer, occasionally writing the odd verse of poetry. Caught in a gang-land shooting, he sees himself arrested and trapped with the choice of going to prison or going to prison on a drug possession charge. Angered and frustrated, he again finds himself trapped in the middle of a gang dispute in prison resulting in him letting out his grievances in the form of poetry in the prison yard.If you like, 'Slam' is a musical; not so much a film, but a vehicle to showcase the talents of the cast as poets and emcees. Much of the cast are poets and/or rappers appearing in a debut acting role, or one of their few and had a big hand in the writing. Saul Williams plays the lead role, with Sonja Sohn, Bonz Malone and Beau Sia taking up supporting roles, among others. The acting and story, therefore, are never fully polished, with writer/director Mark Levin known more for his documentaries than feature films.The story moves on a little too quickly in parts and character motivation is not always fully explored, beyond William's character. But with the low-budget feel, this has that trapped-in-time quality, feeling isolated from the rest of the world. There is nothing Earth-shattering here, but some interesting social comment and, at times, powerful performances.Spike Lee's 'Bamboozled' is a satire of modern television and what those watching the 'idiot box' have come to expect on the small screen. Damon Wayans plays Pierre Delacroix, a sit-com writer criticised by a 'more black than black people' network executive for writing shows that are 'too white,' featuring 'white people with black faces.' Pushed to deny the existence of a middle-class African-American, Delacroix works to create a show so 'black' as to shock America into realising the stereotypes that are portrayed on every day television. Ticking-off every racial stereotype imaginable, he creates 'Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show'. Amazingly, the show is a success, working only to further stereotypes rather than destroy them; leaving Delacroix viewed as a sell-out. Success and fame are predictably the downfall of those involved resulting in tragedy.'Bamboozled' is an interesting film for Lee to have made at the time; rising in his career and choosing to make a film that is quite low on a number of things. To start, the cast is low on out-and-out actors – and you can include Damon Wayans and Jada Pinkett-Smith within that – using rappers and comedians in many roles. It is also a film low on any nice Hollywood gloss and sheen – an effect probably desired considering the subject matter. The one thing it is high on is camera numbers, using numerous handhelds to take shots from various angles, such as audience reactions to a new breed of minstrel show. This creates a claustrophobic and documentary-like feel to the film.But being a satire, the film is more about the point it is trying to make; the use of footage from old television and film portrayals of African-Americans throughout and montaged at the end highlighting this. References are made to various moments where art and politics have collided, as well as using real-life figures vocal in such areas.But ultimately, 'Bamboozled' ends up a little messy in final execution. The lack of any real acting talent leaves performances a little wooden, as well as the characters they portray a little too extreme, notably the Mau Mau, led by Mos Def, who feel a little unrealistic despite Mos Def's usually charismatic on screen performances. A little too much can be rammed down your throat at times, with all imagery and dialogue geared towards one thing.Neither 'Slam' nor 'Bamboozled' will ever be regarded as great films, nor will they probably be remembered by many. But both are interesting examples of more creative film-making. Big budget effects, state-of-the- art camera-work and even actors are not required, as long as the film is based on a strong idea and purpose. They are portrayals of writers, trapped in different situations as they struggle to overcome stereotypes, relying on the talents of their non-acting casts. Well- executed at times or not, both still offer more than the endless big budget sequels and re-makes that make-up the majority of box office takings.politic1983.blogspot.com

The basic premise of the film is witty enough that I would think most people would want to see it just upon hearing about it: a modern-day minstrel/coon-show intended as satire becomes a big hit on TV. There are so many ways for this premise to be so right, but most of what Spike Lee did with it was unfortunately so wrong.Just to be positive, I'll start with what I did like: I enjoyed how he was unafraid to be self-referential.... it seems like every major player here is referenced. Spike Lee is mentioned by name, Damon Wayans has a line about "In Living Color", there's reference to Will Smith (his wife Jaida Pinkett Smith has a major role), there's reference to Mos Def (or at least use of the term), and so on. Which, if you're going to make a film like this, you have to show up without your makeup too if you know what I mean.I thought Savion Glover was really excellent as Manray/Mantan (renamed in honor of Mantan Moreland). His dancing, his charisma, and his dark energy were perfect for the part. I thought Smith came off pretty well as an intelligent and motivated woman, although she couldn't hold together her part in the ending because the logic of the character had broken down which was Lee's fault and not her's.So we're getting into the bad there, possibly already the ugly. OK let's start with the big target: Damon Wayans. About 10 seconds into the movie I strongly suspected that he was going to sink the film. 5 minutes later I was certain. This guy can be excellent, sometimes, but he really only registers on screen in one dimension if you know what I mean. This film and this character required more of him than he is capable of providing even for a director like Lee. He got the Delecroix character perfect, and it would have been fine for a sketch or a character part, but the inner person that the surface Delecroix is hiding does not show up in Wayans' performance.Now, it should probably be a generalized rule of satire that you should not begin a satire with a stated definition of what "satire" is. Because if you do that, then you had better be making a satire of satire itself and I don't think even Spike Lee would aspire to that much less achieve it. There are many points in this film where the satire breaks down and I really think Lee is very poor at this form of storytelling. For example, the two "sponsors" commercials that he shows, the spoof of Tommy Hillfigger and the malt liquor thing, are much MUCH too broad and register into the area of farce instead of satire. They have no edge. It's satire for dummies. He literally has the Tommy Hillfigger-esque character saying stuff like "buy these clothes, spend your money and never get out of the ghetto." And of course he can't pronounce "ghetto" correctly. Oh god, Spike, that's a reg'lar knee slapper! It's all sickeningly broad. The malt liquor spot makes Ben Stiller's "Booty Sweat" mockommercial in "Tropic Thunder" look like Aristophanes by comparison.Same message all over the place with this movie: nice ideas Spike, but tone it down a bit. In terms of tone, this movie is flying all over the place in an infuriating way, especially as it eventually develops into this dramatic story that the rest of the picture doesn't support. I couldn't buy any of the things that were happening at the end, that any of the characters had actually reached that point naturally. I didn't think Savion Glover's character would walk away from the show, I didn't think Mos Def's would actually get off his drunk ass and do something like that, I wasn't feeling Wayan's rage at these icons of minstrelry. I just didn't buy the resolution for any of those characters. The only way I could understand it and possibly re-evaluate this film is if I could see the whole ending as some kind of satire of dramatic films. But I didn't think I was supposed to be laughing during those scenes. It seemed like he wanted it to be more serious than it needed to be, more dramatic and violent than the story really called for in the first place.One other thing: I didn't think they made the show funny enough that it was believable how it became a big hit. If I had been cracking up at the routines, then I would have started to feel guilty myself and the movie would have gone to a whole other level. But since it's just a bunch of stale vaudeville routines, it's hard to believe what you're seeing on screen. The whole thing sounds like the most insane greatest Dave Chappelle sketch ever, except that unfortunately it was written by Spike Lee instead so it's constantly reverting to a tone that's alternately ministerial, professorial and documentarian instead of satirical. Just for a random totally unrelated example, one of the reasons why "Spinal Tap" really works and is a fantastic satire of the whole rock scene and rock documentaries, is because the actual rock/metal music in the movie is just good enough that you could imagine somebody liking it, but just bad enough that you can laugh at it.

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.

An obvious challenge to Spike Lee's Bamboozled starts with the opening scene of Pierre Delacroix's broad accent. Like an old VHS tape, there is something about the sound of Damon Wayans voice that hurts the ears and makes us wonder if Lee was intoxicated while Wayans was shooting his scenes. But as the film progressed, I realized the magnitude of the brutal, pompous accent. In this film, racial identity is at the forefront of its message while Lee successfully incorporates the theme of one's own identity as a human being. While we see blatant racism being practiced by our own black protagonist, we soon understand that this is all possible because he never really knows who he is as a result of society's attempt to tell him who he should be: a bumbling black man who can entertain white folk.Halfway through the film we find that Pierre is not really Pierre. His name is Peerless, the son of Junebug, a black comedian who tells his son to not sell out to Hollywood because they will change who he is in order to make money. Pierre's problem is, he has no grasp of a true identity, therefore he has had to create his own persona to please his white executives.On a more humorous note, Mos Def plays a black hip hop artist to refuses to be called by his "slave name" Julius Hopkins, and instead wants to be called Big Blak Afrika. Again the idea of black identity in a white society is explored.In the end, we realize, in some part, why there is an identity crisis among African Americans when we see the montage of racially charged cartoons, films, and TV shows which pigeon hole blacks into stereotypes. This scene more than any other scene in the film made me ashamed and saddened by America's tendency to entertain through exploitation. Lee readdresses the foundation of racism that has already been created in our society even though many have already forgotten these images.