Spike Lee Joint Collection (Clockers/ Jungle Fever/ Do the Right Thing/ Mo` Better Blues/ Crooklyn)

Product Description

Five groundbreaking films from prolific filmmaker Spike Lee come together in this collection. Starring such heavyweights as Rosie Perez, Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, and John Turturro in career-defining roles, the films include CROOKLYN, DO THE RIGHT THING, CLOCKERS, JUNGLE FEVER, and MO' BETTER BLUES. See individual titles for descriptions.

Format: DVD MOVIE

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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

Customer Reviews:

Well worth it........2007-07-18

Overall I was very pleased. I didn't give it 5 stars because its missing "He Got Game", but all the rest are acounted for. Great for Spike Lee's fans.

Excellent collection of Spike's joints.......2007-07-17

Do you like Spike Lee? Enjoy his movies?

Then buy this collection, a package of his most commercial films and acting ensembles. Clockers is a riveting powerhouse; Mo Better Blues is Denzel. Need I say more?

If you don't care for Spike, this won't move you.

Great Collection.......2007-07-12

I'm on a mission to have all or as many of Spike Lee's movies on DVD and this is a great set to have in my collecton.

Spike Lee - The Man.......2007-06-20

They could have put a movie on the other side of Crooklyn :(, Im still extremely satisfied. This is a piff collection. Spike did a great job capturing the essence (the lighter side) of emotion of every day life living in relative poverty like he did in Crooklyn. Watching these movies made me feel as if I were an invisible character.

You really get ur money's worth.......2007-05-14

I really like this collection, even though I thought it should have included his first work, school daze, instead of Clockers, u get five dvd's for the price of 1.

Average customer rating:

Spike Lee hit a good note on this film
A Harlem Renaisaance for the early 90s......................
Denzel Doesn't Dissapoint
I remember seeing this film on opening night.......
Cause mo better makes it mo better.

Mo' Better Blues
Starring: Rubén Blades , Raye Dowell , Giancarlo Esposito , Robin Harris , and Linda Hawkins (II)
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
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ASIN: B0000549B2
Release Date: 2004-12-28

Amazon.com essential video

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.

Description

A trumpeter thinks his life is complicated when he must choose between his two girlfriends, but things get worse when he is called upon to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend.

Customer Reviews:

Spike Lee hit a good note on this film .......2007-06-01

This is among the most artistic and aesthetically brilliant films. Written and directed by Spike Lee, the film marked Lee's first collaboration with Denzel Washington who plays the fictional jazz trumpeter Bleek Gilliam. Also starring Lee and his regulars John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Wesley Snipes, Joie Lee, Bill Nunn, and Samuel L. Jackson plus Cynda Williams, Robin Harris, and Charlie Murphy. Mo' Better Blues is a brilliant, passionate love letter to jazz and music in all of its chaos.

I find this film rather cool and sexy. Lee and DP Ernest Dickerson use the camera in the same way that Michelangelo used a chisel to transform ugly chunks of rocks into beautiful hands and feet. Spike and Dickerson always delight and amaze me with the way the use that camera - with their creative choices for the initial set-up of the camera angle in each scene, and then with the movement of the camera through the scene. And it's difficult to argue with the musical choices. If you like the music of John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Branford Marsalis, you are going to go nuts over this biography of a trumpeter who plays that kind of music with a quintet in uptown jazz clubs. I did being that I was unfamiliar with almost half of them. If you love New York City, progressive jazz/blues, and dazzling photographic presentation, this is your film, hands down.

There is more to a movie than that. There is a script. storyline, and of course the cast which is wonderfully assembled. Beside the main cast there were nice cameos from Bill Lee, Flava Flav in the opening credits, and the late comedian Robin Harris as the club's top comedian. Other noted small performances from Charlie Murphy, Linda Hawkins, Zakee Howze, Leonard L. Thomas, and Abbey Lincoln are memorable while Samuel L. Jackson and Ruben Blades are excellent as the bookies with Jackson also playing the voice of Senor Love Daddy from "Do the Right Thing." Lee regular John Turturro and brother Nicholas bring humor as the fast-talking accountants bring some needed humor to the film. Dick Anthony Williams is great as the Bleek's caring father while Bill Nunn and Jeff "Tain" Watts are excellent in their brief roles as the rhythm section of Bleek's band. Cynda Williams is excellent as the seductive, hungry Clarke whose lack of attention leads her to having an affair with another man. Joie Lee is wonderful as the more mature, down-to-earth Indigo who seems like the only woman who can ground and confront Bleek and his ego. The great weakness of the film would be Lee's story is completely conventional. I didn't see anything new here that I haven't seen in earlier movies like "Young Man With a Horn," except that the experiences are specifically filtered through the urban middle-class black experience.

This is not an "important" film like the ones that made Spike Lee famous. It doesn't hammer away on social themes; there's no activism; there's no politics; there's no social injustice. There aren't any white villains. There aren't any white heroes, either. It is simply a story about a man and his surroundings. It must generally reflect portions of the middle class black experience, and it must specifically reflect some of Lee's own loves and hates, but there's no attempt to change the world, or even to remind the world that it needs changing. It's just a story about people who love jazz and New York City, told by a filmmaker who simply justifies that.

A Harlem Renaisaance for the early 90s.............................2007-02-13

Denzel plays a life long musician who puts his music first, while pushing his relationships with his two girlfriends to the back burner. When each girlfriend decide that they cant hang with his program, they bounce leaving Denzel and his music out in the cold.

Great Performances from Robin Harris and Cynda Williams.

Denzel Doesn't Dissapoint.......2006-05-11

This is one of my favorite movies. I just saw it last week and I decided to go get in DVD. Denzel is the greatest actor of all-time. He didn't dissapoint in this one. Very nice movie!

I remember seeing this film on opening night..............2005-02-24

and being blown away. Firstly was the music. At the time I was a real hip hop new jack swing remember that)head. Could never really get into Jazz. This film started my voyage of Discovery, which has led me to Jazz Guitar Artists. Secondly, to me, it shows a man that thought his whole world would fall apart with out his so called 'First Love'(music) only to discover that life had much more to offer him. I don't want to give a running commentary of the film, but I would highly recomend it, and you should also peep this soundtrack, and Book of the making of the film.

Cause mo better makes it mo better........2005-02-11

I am normally a Spike Lee fan. It takes some time to really get into his "mojo", but once you see the clear message and the ability to tell the story that is close to his heart, Lee is a genius. Unlike The 25th Hour or Bamboozled (two of my favorite films of his), there was no clear story in this film. I was able to understand the struggle between Washington and the choice to play well or be influenced by others, but for some odd reason Lee was never able to get the true feeling out. Washington did a decent job with what was handed to him, but you could tell that this was not Lee's favorite film. Not only did Lee direct this film, but he also wrote it. You could tell. The camera work was horrid and the writing only contributed to the decay of the film. This film was coming full circle and it wasn't going to be pretty. Lee was not 100% behind this film as he was with Do the Right Thing. Of all the films I have seen Lee direct, this was the brightest and more modest of his films. It was almost as if he created a Hollywood movie instead of one that was all his own. I don't know if he saw the money from Do the Right Thing and ran with it, or what ... but this film did not demonstrate his true talent.

For anyone out there that has seen this film, and perhaps stopped watching anything directed by Spike Lee afterwards due to this film, I suggest you give him a second chance. Don't get me wrong, I see exactly where you are coming from with this film and why you would want to put this behind you, but Lee does grow up. His work becomes more of his own, and you can see the transformation from a desire to make money to just wanting to make good films. It took me awhile to watch The 25th Hour, but when I did, it was sheer brilliance. Perhaps it was the actors, perhaps the story, but Lee crafted an amazing film out of one man's journey into the unknown. I guess that is what I was hoping Mo' Better Blues would turn out to be. This really dark journey into the life of a man that really never grew up, but instead all I got was Denzel being Denzel. He really is one of the most versatile actors of this generation, and I do consider him the Sydney Poitier of cinema, but this was not the film to showcase his talent.

Another issue that I had with this film was the use of Spike's sister playing one of the love interests. I don't know about you, and your family, but I do not think that I could have filmed a sex scene with my sister. I don't care who the actor is or how much money I am getting paid, I would never do it. It is just something that I never wish to see, but apparently that is different for Spike. He went ahead and showed the full nude image of his sister without any remorse. It was sad and it even made me blush. Also, I need somebody to answer me this. What was Flavor Flav doing introducing this film? So, I am sitting there on my couch, ready to start the film, when suddenly there is a voice from the past spelling out the studio that made this film, then he acknowledges himself. That did not build for a strong remaining of the story. Again, I felt that Lee was going for money on this film instead of actual talent. Perhaps that is how he could afford both Denzel and Wesley in the same movie without any explosions.

There were two great scenes in this film that made it worth watching through to the end. Don't get me wrong, this was a very bad movie, but there is always a diamond in every alleyway. The scene when Bleek accidentally forgets which woman he is with was mesmerizing. He continually went back and forth, weaving truth to confusion in a way that proved that Lee was actually behind the camera. It was a visionary scene that was probably lost in the shuffle due to the remaining poor scenes. The other scene that was worth watching was the way that Lee introduced and ended the film. By keeping the same pacing and direction, he was able to bring this tragic character around full circle and give him the chance to change his life. Other than these two moments, the rest of the film was pure rubbish, not worth viewing unless you are about to go blind.

Grade: ** out of *****

The Spike Lee Collection (Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, and Crooklyn)

Average customer rating:

spikes best
All great films

The Spike Lee Collection (Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, and Crooklyn)
Starring: Spike Lee
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

ASIN: B0000549B3
Release Date: 2001-01-30

Customer Reviews:

spikes best.......2006-03-17

I'm a big fan and if you are you will enjoy this all in one package its all about relationships!

All great films.......2001-05-16

These are Spike Lee's best work, with great plots and interesting characters, Spike Lee is able to make every race, color, and creed relate to these great movies. My personal favorite of the three was "Crooklyn" which is a film the whole family will enjoy.

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