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Bamboozled - New Line Platinum Series

Bamboozled - New Line Platinum Series

List Price: $24.98
Your Price: $19.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Powerful Film
Review: This is is a powerful film which employs satire in its attack on the covert racism which plagues society. I applaud Mr. Lee for tackling this topic in the way he did. The movie runs like poetry and the characters are unforgetable.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Wickedly Humorous, Thought-Provoking, and Disturbing
Review: I can best describe this movie as befitting a genre that starts out funny, but gradually becomes very intense, violent, and disturbing (a la Full Metal Jacket). Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) cracked me up from the very beginning with his [false], overenunciated "Dr. Evil" accent -- I almost expected him to ask for "one MEEELION dollars" when pitching his idea for his new New Millenium Minstrel show. There are, of course, many stereotypes in this movie not limited to the characters on the show, but also including Delacroix as the white-black guy and his boss as the black-white guy who tells Delacroix that he "knows your people better than you do". The main characters of the Minstrel Show, Mantan and Sleep-n-Eat, are brilliant. Mantan is a talented tap-dancer and steals the show with his "educated feets". The jokes are hilarious because the show is so bizarre and parodies ideas that are so outdated for our time. The show is a big hit among blacks and whites alike and initially all seems like good, clean, albeit politically incorrect, humor. That is, until we realize that Delacroix, Mantan, and Sleep-n-Eat have sold out for personal profit and will pay the ultimate price for doing so. The tone of the conclusion of this movie is sad as it plays a montage of racially offensive clips from old movies and cartoons, reminding us of how harmful and hurtful these sorts of stereotypes really are. Although the subject matter is interesting, it is unclear exactly why Spike Lee chose to make a movie about it. Images of offensive toys and antiques are revived throughout scenes in Delacroix's office and the ending credits. Although these sorts of objects, along with the above-mentioned clips from old movies and TV shows, haven't been commonly seen in decades, Lee apparently felt that they still pose a threat to the perception of African-Americans, even in today's society.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not Lee's best film, but it's my favorite!
Review: Good golly, Miss Molly, you'd better see this movie! It's powerful, funny, disturbing, and will probably piss you off. Spike Lee's not too subtle here, he's going for the throat. As we all know, Lee likes to tackle racism most of the time, and this time he's got his sights on TV land. Michael Rappaport is hysterical in this. I find it hard to believe that a goofball like that would be in charge of a television station, but it's not a big deal. I do agree with the reviewers that say Damon Wayans' accent is silly. It's fake sounding and unnecessary. I'll admit it is funny at times. Also, I seriously doubt in this day and age a show like Mantan would ever get made or greenlighted, maybe only in an In Living Color skit. But, that's the point; This film is about excess, it's satirical and overblown on purpose. It starts out as a comedy, and by the end of the film gets very messed up and disturbing. Believe me, by the last half you won't find yourself laughing anymore. Please see it, pretty please.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best movies ever made
Review: This is a movie that everyone must watch. It's funny, its sad ,and it's a truthful look at the (black)face of racism in america

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great Movie
Review: In order to truly appreciate Bamboozled, one must understand the general message that Spike Lee was trying to get across. Of course the idea of the movie was not completely original. However, Lee wanted to use this plot as a venue to portray some of the injustices that blacks today are facing. He showed great restraint in not making this movie a black/white blame game. Instead, Spike Lee portrayed the fallacies of both races much like he did with blacks and Italians in Do the Right Thing.

Furthermore, this was a great movie for young blacks because it specifically attacked trends and people in the black pop culture that strengthen the negative racial stereotypes that were created in the past. Well done, Spike!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Hit! You go, Spike!
Review: This movie didn't do well at the box office, but so what? Spike Lee has created a masterpiece. I was mesmerized by his tale of upwardly mobile Black folks who got caught up in the entertainment biz, to the point of dissing their own community. While Pierre Delacroix started out with one frame of mind, by the end of the movie he had completely "sold out". Unfortunately, shows like "Girlfriend" and "The Parkers" carry on the minstrelsy type drivel that passes for Black entertainment. I'm just as guilty as everyone else though, because sometimes I find myself watching these stereotype-laden shows.

Spike is a genius. One day he will get his just desserts. I'm a big fan, and look forward to the next thought provoking film from one of the greatest directors of all times.

Racism is not going away, and it is good to see that some Black directors are not hiding their heads in the sand from this controversial subject.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Black Remake of "Network" Doesn't Entirely Work
Review: The brilliant satiric writer, the late Paddy Chyefsky, wrote "Network" which swept up some major Oscars back in the 1970s. In addition to having a killer script, that film also had career best performances by Faye Dunaway and Peter Finch plus top drawer performances by Robert Duvall, William Holden and Ned Beatty. Spike Lee chose to adapt that movie for this movie except make it Afriocan American/black based. He wrote it himself. Although he is a brilliant director, he is not the writer that Chyefsky was and probably should have hired someone who was on that level as his writer. That is the major problem with this film. It is missing the devastating, precise bite of the satire in "Network" and it doesn't have the absolutely knockout cast that "Network" did to deliver those lines either. I can never understand why directors choose absolutely brilliant films to remake. It seems to me that it would be wiser to pick a film that wasn't well made the first time. At least the viewers wouldn't be comparing the two throughout their viewing as I found myself doing here. For anyone who doesn't know the plotline of "Network," the plotline of both it and this film is what happens when a network puts on a new show that is deliberately made to be as in poor taste and as atrocious in concept as can be. It becomes a huge hit, as it does here, as it did in "Network" and before these two films as it did in "The Spring Time for Hitler" show in the "The Producers." This film does have marvelous music throughout, which is true of every Spike Lee film. You can't go wrong with any of the soundtracks from his films.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Truth Hurts
Review: I grabbed Bamboozled off of the video store shelf after passing it several times. After viewing it I was nearly in tears. What I saw in this highly provoctive satire, is nearly every segment of the Black community being portrayed. There is Damon Wayans, a Black television write/producer who is not comfortable in his own skin. He hates his Blackness and makes great efforts to seperate himself from what he sees as negative aspects of his color. In one scene Damon's character is unable to reconize Willie Mays' picture. Then there is Jada's character. A Black woman, highly efficient, highly professional but not taken seriously. She struggles to reconcile what she faces each day to her deeply rooted sense of what is right. There are the street characters,(Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson) struggling and wanting success so badly that they can justify even putting on black face to make money. The Mau Mau's blinded by their own pain and rage. Attempting to cope by getting high and access verbage, not able to recognize the absurdity of their actions and sayings. In the midst of all of this is the white owned media, in this case CNS (personified by Michael Rapaport). It is uncaring, its only concern is beating the competition for ratings.

This is a film that is disturbing, but I find that truth is often disturbing. This film will disturb both blacks and whites. It disturbed the hell out of me, because I saw parts of myself in this movie, and that is always disturbing. I do feel that Spike was a bit heavy handed with his characters in the ending, but that's Spike. I love this movie. Would I recommend it, yes. That is most emphatically yes. But view it with an open mind. This is not a feel good movie, this is not a self affirming movie. This is a brutally frank movie and I am sure Spike has and will continue to catch a lot of flack for it. What I find really amazing is that Spike is so brutally to the point in this movie but he still makes you laugh.

This movie shows us how the media has Bamboozled us, not only Blacks, but all Americans. It shows how the media can shape our opinions and modify our sense of what is right and what is wrong. How the corporations exploit our weaknesses and insecurities. The acting is brilliant, one of Damon's most powerful performances.

If you want a mindless film, then this one is not for you. If you want a feel good movie which hypes our system and reaffirms our way of doing things, pass this one up. But if you want a brutally frank statment of media exploitation and of its power to persuade, then this is a film for you. I personally vote it as one of Spike's best, it is definately my favorite of his works.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This Spike flick is the money
Review: Yo,,,it's money, check it out....Mos Def is funny G

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: PLEASE stop this man before he makes another movie!
Review: I have no idea how Spike Lee got where he is. This film has everything - BAD directing. BAD writing. BAD editing. BAD acting (What IS Damon doing, a bad imitation of Richard Pryor doing an imitation of a white guy?). BAD filming to begin with - I have home movies that look better. There go a few hours that I'll never get back.


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