* SPOILERS HEREIN *
Hello New York reviewers: "once a New Yorker, always a New Yorker" blah blah... Mind you, everyone feels the same about their hometown - it is just very self-centered to think New Yorkers experience a very unique otherworldly feeling about their city. So Spike Lee wants to pay a tribute to 9/11 (maybe just so people in 20 years' time can watch his film and go "hey, that's what it looked like hen they were rebuilding the site..."). Fine, fair enough... and maybe the whole I-hate-everyone scene is only there to show us how in the end, he's actually going to miss all these smiling faces that he once hated. Fine, whatever, but it's awkwardly done. And many other things are confusing and annoying: - The Ukrainian friend "had no choice"... that's weak... so it means he or someone else had a motive to denounce Monty. Nothing about that. - Jake and the student: she puts his hands all over herself one minute and is in utter shock when he kisses her the next. End of story. We'll know nothing else. It becomes completely irrelevant. - The broker and his life at work: even more irrelevant. His chemistry with Jake is non- existent for such long time pals. - The editing is majorly botched. - Spike Lee, proud defender of Afro-American cinema gives lead roles to white people and small parts to black people. Just like most Hollywood directors... I wouldn't have expected that of him...
... but what annoys me more than all that is the messed-up message of the movie: Basically, "If you're a drug dealer, don't go to jail: recreate a home somewhere else. It will be tough but you can do it." In other words: "Do not take responsibility for your actions". Maybe this is not the way he meant it, but if I understood it that way (and if I did, it means a lot of other people probably did too), then the message wan't conveyed very well.
That aside, I didn't mind the pacing at all. Many reviewers expect to be entertained with action scenes or else fall asleep. I suppose they only watch American cinema to make such statements. And the acting is fine too. Just too many loose ends...
Hello New York reviewers: "once a New Yorker, always a New Yorker" blah blah... Mind you, everyone feels the same about their hometown - it is just very self-centered to think New Yorkers experience a very unique otherworldly feeling about their city. So Spike Lee wants to pay a tribute to 9/11 (maybe just so people in 20 years' time can watch his film and go "hey, that's what it looked like hen they were rebuilding the site..."). Fine, fair enough... and maybe the whole I-hate-everyone scene is only there to show us how in the end, he's actually going to miss all these smiling faces that he once hated. Fine, whatever, but it's awkwardly done. And many other things are confusing and annoying: - The Ukrainian friend "had no choice"... that's weak... so it means he or someone else had a motive to denounce Monty. Nothing about that. - Jake and the student: she puts his hands all over herself one minute and is in utter shock when he kisses her the next. End of story. We'll know nothing else. It becomes completely irrelevant. - The broker and his life at work: even more irrelevant. His chemistry with Jake is non- existent for such long time pals. - The editing is majorly botched. - Spike Lee, proud defender of Afro-American cinema gives lead roles to white people and small parts to black people. Just like most Hollywood directors... I wouldn't have expected that of him...
... but what annoys me more than all that is the messed-up message of the movie: Basically, "If you're a drug dealer, don't go to jail: recreate a home somewhere else. It will be tough but you can do it." In other words: "Do not take responsibility for your actions". Maybe this is not the way he meant it, but if I understood it that way (and if I did, it means a lot of other people probably did too), then the message wan't conveyed very well.
That aside, I didn't mind the pacing at all. Many reviewers expect to be entertained with action scenes or else fall asleep. I suppose they only watch American cinema to make such statements. And the acting is fine too. Just too many loose ends...