Rating: 
Summary: Very racist movie from a very racist director
Review: Racist drivel! Plain and simple. And in answer to another reviewer, black people DO need to wake up and realize that Spike Lee is only using you and your feelings to make himself rich and enjoy himself in the world of the so-called 'white man'....
Rating: 
Summary: 2 Stars and thats from a Spike Lee Fan
Review: I am very big fan of Spike Lee's movies, but this is the first that I really didn't like. There is no denying that Lee has a point in this movie but its the pure execution of it that makes this film so unwatchable.Almost all the film is shot on DV, which even though its the highest quality home movie equipment at the moment it still makes the film look like a home movie. Spike Lee's use of voice-over in this film is often heavy handed, going to over state a point that I'm sure everyone has already got. The music is really annoying, it sounds like the sort of rubbish that they pump in to elevators and shopping centres to try get people to relax, Only it doesn't work like that here. This film also lays claim to being a comedy, and in the opening scene Damon Wayans also over explains what satire is but because of the heavy handed nature of this script it's far from funny. The ending is also very muddled, Lee kills off people that really don't need to die for any reason. I would like to see Spike Lee try remake this film, with some work it could be very good. But being the movie it is I would say avoid it and watch something like Do the Right thing or Clockers.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic! Thought Provoking! Intriguing!
Review: Does anyone else hear Spike Lee??? A large number of people would evidently find this film distasteful due to the visual perception that's viewed initially. This film is probably the most powerful film that he's directed yet. Please don't be misled by what you may have read. This movie is something that all Americans as well as the world should witness first hand. Spike Lee delivers a cold and chilling message to mainstream America (Black & White) that reflects the perceptions of African American's in entertainment. Spike indicates that even though minstrel shows are no longer visible through mass media, The same identical traits and stereotypes exist today. Basically Lee projects to the audience that a majority of present day Black entertainment is nothing more than one conglomeration of a minstrel show. He displays that in many instances, African American television shows may have Caucasian writers, producers, and directers, who in many cases are completely oblivious to the African American experience and/or struggle. This is one of the most intriguing satires ever concepted. This movie should be appraised for what it conveys. If you have an open-mind and are actually able to perceive this movie for what it trully represents you would in turn understand what is facilitated. This movie includes Monumental performances from Tommy Davidson, Damon Wayans, Savion Glover, Mos Def, Mike Rappaport, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Paul Mooney. This movie will force you to view telivision, music, and film in more of a subjective but yet conscious way.
Rating: 
Summary: Bamboozled
Review: Bamboozle- to trick or deceive, hoodwink. I'm not quite sure why this movie has been titled as it has. Spike Lee has created a movie that has done everything but be deciving. One more hurtful part of not only America's past but also Europe's, has been placed out in the open for the world to see. Blackface.This movie has a wide aray of actors- some that you'll recognize and others that you will not. It is a dramatic documentary but it has been done so well that it is quite appealing. To be honest, I didn't like the movie until I saw it for a third time. At first it was terribly offensive. It wasn't until I saw what Lee was really trying to project to the audience that I realized how good it was. In general I'd recomend it to anyone with an openmind.
Rating:
Summary: A Flawed, Disturbing but VERY VERY important film
Review: I have watched Bamboozled several times in passing on the STARZ network and although the concept of having Blackface on TV is quite frankly preposterous today. As an African American, I see my own people sell themselves out everyday. I see people who try to climb all over each other for a dollar, selling out their friends and throwing loyalty and self respect out the window. Not just on television, that is. Yes, the ending is quite murky and unbalanced. Yes, Spike Lee borders on the unfunny sometimes with his heavyhanded wit. But this is quite possibly the first movie that properly addresses the whoredom and the selling out of our people. Bamboozled is a movie that I found very hard to watch, and it shook me up at the ending. In truth, Plenty of our things in "African American" (A term that even causes confusion) culture are derivative and not even remotely based on being African. Drug Dealing, Gang Banging, Platinum and Gold Chains, Fancy Cars, Popular Hip Hop (You know, the kind that makes money). That is all "sell out" material in my honest opinion. Yet, we have many ignorant blacks (there is a word for that that they even call each other) that identify these clearly worldly, malevolent, violent, and even dumb tendencies as being black, while labeling being educated and well mannered as being white. Being a black who has never really tried to fit in, I understand the pressure that blacks face when trying to "keep it real". In order for African Americans to evolve, we have to put down the way that white oppression has caused us to think. No Offense to Whites, but most view our booty bopping hip hop culture as a joke and see thru our religious leaders. And an Angry Educated Black Man or a TRULY educated Black Man is ostracized, even in his own community. This post is not meant to be racist nor inflammatory but to state the plain and simple truth. Most Blacks are viewed as lazy, frivilous, and unimportant welfare cases unless we can run a 4.3 40 yard dash or dunk a basketball. Spike Lee has made a movie that ALL blacks need to watch and comprehend. In closing, I have a simple question. Would Soul Train be on network TV if it were a strictly caucasean show? Some will disagree with me but Spike Drives Home a Very Valid Observation. Delacroix is the Educated Black who I kind of sympathize for mostly but he knows what he is doing and he rejects the "black" way of living. Damon Wayans and his accent (Kinda like I talk) is viewed as sounding white. But he enunciates every word and is proud to be a black man who has made it. Later in the movie, He makes the fatal mistake of making a show so distasteful that the autointoxicated American community wounds up enjoying the show. He is so far removed from the black community that he does not see the beauty and realness of it. Jada Pinkett Smith is strong in this movie as the witting but unwilling participant. She makes the fatal mistake of following the money while rejecting her own brother's cause (This is rampant in our communites) DISLOYALTY to your own family. Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson show human side to the buffoonery. They are well meaning and poor, but their mistake is thinking that material wealth will provide spiritual wealth and that they will not remain puppets of the system that they are in. Mos Def is good also but he is Hateful and Angry in the Movie. Spike Lee understands that Hatred is not the way to fight ignorance. Education and Love are the way.
Rating:
Summary: "Close to Home"
Review: Reading many of the so-called "reviews" of Bamboozled is a very instructive commentary on today's uninformed and a-political scene. All one needs do is spend any portion of a day watching TV's clownish commercial depictions of African-Americans shilling everything from gym shoes to chicken to realize that Spike Lee has again hit home in his steady and consistent commentary on exploitation. Spike should be celebrated for his efforts! As he said in "School Daze".....WAKE UP!!
Rating:
Summary: Comedy film noir - surprisingly worthwhile
Review: Starts silly but becomes compelling a more film, a comedic film noir...with sensitive topic and ending. Can be about many emotion and topics but I saw it as a historical slice of black history. That laughs and entertainment was frequently found through the stereotyping of black population by black and white alike; and what effect the revival of the historical period no matter what the purpose carried highly emotional and extreme reactions from many sides of the issue and upon different aspects of the population when aroused again. The movie itself called for a straightforward black writer who was unhappily working for arrogant, narcissistic network manager who wanted save TV network. He demands this talented black writer deliver a hit by targeting "his people". So the Ivy leaguer decides to deliver a bomb to the contrary to pay back the boss for th eabuse and attitude by writing and, apparently producing and directing as well, what should have been a tremendously objectionable weekly black minstrel TV revival show all done in "black face." Rather than bombing and embarassing the network employer the show takes on cross cultural cult status amd soars hrough the roof ratings. The acting is very good and the tap dancing is great. A sfor the ending I would have preferred something a bit longer and not as disjointed - more conclusive. It just needed "more" because the part about "Mantan" just snuck up on me. The post-movie pictures were very interesting and perhaps would have made a more interesting movie they were utilized more throughout the film. Overall a worthwhile film to watch; surprisingly good.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful and Terrible
Review: Spike Lee's Bamboozled is a beautifully filmed, thought provoking and terribly flawed film. The moviegoer is left questioning the impact of mass media in shaping racial attitudes and stereotypes, yet at the same time wishing the film hadn't developed the way it did. Oh Spike! Many will call this film of yours too heavyhanded, too angry, too unwilling to forgive the racist characterizations of blacks in American cinema, but this is not the problem of the film. In fact, these are the strengths. A film examining the racist film history of the United States is long overdue. The flaw of the film, however, is in the development of the story. Where in the beginning of the film the audience is able to empathize with the characters and even find credibility in the far fetched television show "Mantan: New Millenium Minstrel," towards the end of the film the plot line unravels and loses control of itself with absurd twists and turns. Disappointingly so, the film turns from biting satire into ridiculous melodrama.
That said, the conscious audience will take pleasure in Lee's beautiful and innovative use of digital camera's, as well as Lee's quick and pertinent rips at the current use of stereotypes to market goods to minorities. The final five minute clip of spliced together, flat out racist scenes from American cinema is horribly impressive and indelible. This clip is made even more effective as Lee ends the film with Mantan (Savion Glover) in full and grotesque blackface, smiling for the camera. However flawed the story line may be and however annoying Damon Wayan's accent may be (a character device gone bad) this film is so thought provoking and so innovative in it's photography it is definitely worth viewing.
Rating:
Summary: Spike Lee does it again... unfortunately.
Review: This movie is to film making as short buses are to grade schools, full of people who, as special as they are, you wouldn't trust to run with scissors. The editing and cinematography alone make this unwatchable. The filming was reminiscent of an episode of cops meets America's funniest home videos. We all remember how funny those are, right? The ubiquitous, entirely unnecessary, background music forces me to assume that the audio track was simply an NWA tape looped over, and over, and over again. The character development, oh sorry, I was thinking of a different movie. Characters in this movie are all one dimensional and thoughtless, though lightly peppered with random and pointless outbursts. Daman Wayans was particularly disappointing because he has shown such talent in most of his other movies. Instead, he spends most of Bamboozled struggling to make the best of a poorly written role in a poorly written film. Spike Lee has attempted to tackle heavy topics such as racism and discrimination by making a boring film that is better left unwatched. It's would be redeeming factor is that it is filled with overdone, but extremely underdeveloped, satire. A concept that could have been wrought perfectly in a ten minute short was painfully stretched out into a pointless, seemingly endless film. Leaving us with the poignant, though wonderfully unrelated, concept that cops take pains to kill only black people, which, true as it may be, added nothing to the plot (which was about the entertainment industry). One would be better off watching actual blackface films, such as Bing Crosby's A White Christmas. These films were not made to be satyrical, but their seriousness reveals far more about racism and discrimination than Bamboozled could ever hope.
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating ending spoils a potential masterpiecee
Review: Maybe one day America's most interesting African American director will recapture the same resonance that Do The Right Thing left with audiences. ... Why the mess-ups? He has shown time and time again that he is mature (you would have to be to tackle the complex subject of racism), and few directors are as experienced as he is, but being so passionate about communicating his opinion he resorts to getting a sledgehammer to ram his message down our throat instead of relying on the audience to decide for their self. Bamboozled haunts the mind. Racism is as prominent in the world today as it was fifty years ago, it is just more discreet... Unfortunately Bamboozled runs with the label of satire so strongly that Michael Rapaport's character ended up being sheer nonsense, a direct send up of all 'bad, greedy' producers. It's all too simple for me, and the agenda's are black and white, which is far from the truth. Where was the politics? It's not just about ratings and merchandising... Damon Wayans leads the film and is a capable actor who can entertain but Lee should never have allowed Wayans to speak his lines with that terrible accent. It is like a mixture of Ivy League geek (I am aware the character he plays comes from Harvard), stuffed nose and all devoid of bass. It is terrible and ruins some of the best dialogue of the year. Couldn't he have just used his normal voice? If I'm missing something here then someone please tell me. Jada Pinkett, although continuing to show little or no variation in her acting roles, remained strong throughout the film, although her final scene was pointless, yet not the fault of her own. The tap dancing was excellent, and Lee's ability to take people from their profession and turn them into an actor (a la the basketball player in He Got Game) is impressive. One of the film's lines 'Any black man can be an entertainer,' rings a certain truth... The ending is muddled though. People die for no reason, and goodness knows why Lee resorted to rubbing out characters that in a sense shouldn't have been there in the first place. Mos Def embodies the definition of deadpan acting, or maybe it was just his uninteresting, poorly written lines. There is certainly a sense of deja vu when the two lead dancers break away from each other, like Washington and Snipes in Mo Better Blues. Can't black people enjoy success without being unbearable? Spike seems to think not. Easily the most recognisable feature of all of Lee's joints is the aesthetic style. He is a master of capturing urban atmosphere and the surprising choice in digital cameras is in fact great, and no doubt saved him a lot of money. I loved the joke on behalf of Cuba Gooding Jr.'s acceptance speech for the Academy Award ('Show me the money,' never seemed so demeaning to the African American race). Recent films such as American History X and Black and White have failed to effectively detail the issue of race and racism. It's a shame, but someone someday will make a good film (it could even be Lee himself), and it will not only make you think 'racism, 'isn't it bad' but actually make you recognise it's ever more stealth in today's media environment. There is one scene that makes me want to watch this film again though and that is where we spend five minutes looking at a history of black representation in Hollywood movies over the past fifty years. It truly haunts you and is an important piece of film to see. A solid DVD with one of Lee's few commentaries, just rent it before you buy it.
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