School Daze

Rating:
Summary: One of Lee's Best
Review: I once heard on a TV talk show that you don't have to be a parent to know about kids. This was uttered by a single female with tons of doctorate credentials. As I listened, having kids of my own, I found her comments clinical and devoid of those fundamentals any parent experiences during daily contact with their offspring. I subsequently disregarded most of her observations with the exception of the obvious. Some things do have to be experienced. With that said, Spike Lee's School Daze had to be experienced to really appreciate the social comments being made. Being a graduate of Howard University (an Afro-American college since federal inception) in Washington, D.C., I could readily identify with the life and social levels depicted. This movie is FUBU (For Us By Us). The distinction between light skinned and dark skinned, "good hair" and "kinks", "Greeked" (Fraternity/Sorority) and outsiders, upper-class, middle-class and no-class, may be lost in an already segmented society. However, it hits home to anyone (irregardless of ethnic background) who has attended historically rooted colleges and universiies. The voluntary (and involuntary!) sub-segmentation on campus is real and extant. Spike Lee's direction, musical scenes and comedic comment, gives us a laugh at these really stupid concepts. Laurence Fishburne as usual gives an excellent performance as a politically aware student, trying to change a system that cannot be changed, and personally changing because of it. Spike Lee plays his usual "Baby, baby, pleaseee baby, baby" self-depreciating character caught-up in fraternity life but willing to play for the perceived rewards of acceptance. Giancarlo Esposito is the fraternity leader and movie antagonist bent maintaining class/segment separation. Tisha Campbell (Martin - TV show co-star) plays Esposito's "girlfriend" and gives an excellent performance as a "have" who is victimized by her own would-be ascension and maintenance of same. This movie demonstrates our society's nature for congregation by segregation as we matriculate through a "Black" college and the surrounding urban community. View this movie with an inquisitive mind and you'll find it a very entertaining movie. View it with a similar background and it will haunt you. On a lighter note, of all the musical numbers one of my favorite scenes is the talent show when Tisha Campbell belts out a soul-stirring song so strong I want to "play" (read blast) it every summer when the weather is hot, the windows are rolled-down and the world is out.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie
Review: I remember seeing this movie when I was a little girl. I loved it then and I still love it now. I used to know word by word and line by line. But if you've never seen it before. You must go and get it.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie
Review: I remember seeing this movie when I was a little girl. I loved it then and I still love it now. I used to know word by word and line by line. But if you've never seen it before. You must go and get it.

Rating:
Summary: Brings Back Memories!
Review: I saw this film when I was in fifth grade elementary school. It was great seeing it again especially after the black college experience. Mission College...hmm I was there in Atlanta, in "the bottom" and I actually went to the KFC where Samuel L. Jackson's encountered. Brilliant performances by all characters especially at the step show. A must have dvd!

Rating:
Summary: My least favorite Spike film.....
Review: I think the light-skinned/dark-skinned issue was a valid one, but I just didn't like the way it was presented here. I found it to be more annoying than anything else. Spike didn't seem to know whether he wanted this to be a drama or a musical. Not one of my favorites at all.

Rating:
Summary: A light hearted Negro movie
Review: I was just lost all through this. Do black people really discriminate against other black people? If that's true, it's ludicrous. First of all who is the weirdo with the Groucho Marx haircut. You would think he was the king of the world the way he acts. I also have no idea why Spike Lee casted himself as Urkel. I did not understand the Aunt Jemimah song either. So if a black girl straightens her hair and tries to look less black then she is a sell out? Does it mean the ideal African woman has an afro, has absolute black skin, and wears checkerboard dresses? I'm sorry but the more I watched this movie, the more I descended into a world where not only did I not belong, I did not want to be. I'm white and I got my own problems. I can't choose sides between those who are more black or more African. Personally if a man wants to wear a shower cap in public, it's a free country. I doubt Mr. Fishburne's character would have hasseled a white woman for wearing a Confederate flag bikini. But then again whites are evil I guess, that's what I learned from 'Do the Right Thing". But then again the Black man's ultimate goal is to have a white woman. That's what I learned from 'Undercover Brother'. I used to understand when everything was just black and white and that was that. Now I don't know what the heck is going on. Thank you for confusing me Mr. Lee.

Rating:
Summary: Boo-ya
Review: If you want a deep and engaging critique of important social problems facing the black community, this is NOT the movie for you. Luckily, I don't like those kinds of movies anyways. I think of this as the black Revenge of the Nerds. The whole "please wake up" lameness is especially [dumb], but I still give the movie 5-stars cuz it is so much fun.

Rating:
Summary: Boo-ya
Review: If you want a deep and engaging critique of important social problems facing the black community, this is NOT the movie for you. Luckily, I don't like those kinds of movies anyways. I think of this as the black Revenge of the Nerds. The whole "please wake up" lameness is especially [dumb], but I still give the movie 5-stars cuz it is so much fun.

Rating:
Summary: A movie with an aquired taste
Review: School Daze will be interesting to some. But after watching it; a viewer could see in two ways. One, if they went to an all-black college they might look at it with enjoyment. Or, if they didn't go to all-black college, it will make think, "Did I really miss anything?"

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: School Daze, director by Spike Lee is a film that was good for its time. This film deals with life on a black college campus in the South. The focus is the fraternity and sorority life there. There are dance numbers, colorful dialogue and the ending of the film is a typical "Lee" ending. PLEASE SEE MY OTHER REVIEWS.