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45
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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79
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69
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64
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69
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You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
He Got Game
EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Spike Lee
Directed by: Spike Lee
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 1, 1998
DVD: September 2, 2003
Running Time: 136 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for pervasive language, strong sexuality, some drug content and violence
Starring Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, Milla Jovovich, Rosario Dawson, Hill Harper, Zelda Harris, Ned Beatty, and Jim Brown
Denzel Washington stars as a prison inmate trying to earn himself an early release by talking his estranged son into playing basketball at the governor of New York's alma mater.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: 25th Hour 4 Little Girls Bamboozled Clockers Crooklyn Do The Right Thing Girl 6 Inside Man Jim Brown: All American Malcolm X She Hate Me Summer of Sam The Original Kings of Comedy
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New York Magazine David Denby
The movie is a volatile combination of ambitious mythmaking and nasty reality, and like most of Spike Lees work, it is also an inextricable combination of good and bad.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Lee uses visual imagination to lift his material into the realms of hopes and dreams.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
As is often the case with Lee, though, the film left me wishing for even more scenes of casual intimacy, still the most powerful way to carry any message.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
Basketball, bold urban landscapes, larger-than-life characters and red-hot visual pyrotechnics are the strong points of Mr. Lee's biggest three-ring circus, not to mention the central presence of Denzel Washington.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
As usual, Lee tries many kinds of stylistic effects and uses wall-to-wall music (by Aaron Copland and Public Enemy); whats different this time is how personally driven the story feels.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Its best moments are as exuberant and insightful as anything the screen has given us this season, and its passionate concern for believable characters in a recognizably real world offers a refreshing change from the current spate of feel-good fantasies.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
He Got Game seems to cheer for integrity, honesty and hard work while playing up its own cheap thrills.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
This is essentially a familiar story told with consummate skill.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Flaws and all, this may be Spike's most purely enjoyable movie, and his best looking
Read Full Review >Salon.com Gary Kamiya
Awkward and often downright silly, He Got Game is nonetheless heartfelt, a moving portrayal of a man who finds his long-lost son through faith, hope and basketball.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Russell Smith
For all his superfan's intimacy with b-ball culture, he focuses less on the sport's fascinating mystique than on generic recapitulation of how celebrity culture seduces and devours young minority athletes.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
He got too much movie. That's the scoring total on Spike Lee's He Got Game, which ultimately must be judged a mild disappointment.
Read Full Review >Variety Emanuel Levy
Lacking the moral indignation, outrage and militant politics that marked Lee's earlier work, this vibrantly colorful film is a tad too soft at the center, and arguably the director's most mainstream movie.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Bruce Diones
The film is gorgeously shot (slow-motion basketballs spin in the air like Kubrick's spaceships), and the majestic Aaron Copland score helps some of the images to soar, but Lee's screenplay, heavy-handed and didactic, gives the actors little room to convey any real emotions.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Though too long by a good half hour, Lee's latest film packs a genuine emotional punch, largely because its polemical agenda doesn't entirely eclipse the drama.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Tom Meek
Lee makes a great looking film, though the soap box message about greed becomes exhausted and overplayed early on.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Coming from a major director like Spike Lee, this is a colossal disappointment. And a surprising one.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
The problem, sadly, is that the whole amounts to less than the sum of its parts.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
There's not a relationship in He Got Game that feels right, especially the one between Washington and Allen, and if that doesn't work, neither does the film.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Sean K gave it a9:
Coming off a series of mediocre films to say the least, Spike Lee presents us with perhaps his best film since Malcolm X. The movie flows with a certain ingenuity that keeps the viewers locked in even when the movie and script all together sems to falter. Combined with some stunning cinematography and great acting from Denzel Washington, He Got Game's low points are surely overshadowed by its High Points and the fact that well....Spike Lee has finally given us a film worthy of seeing in theatres since Malcolm X.
Josh C. gave it a9:
"He Got Game" ranks alongside, Do the Right Thing, Clockers, Malcom X, 25th hour, and When the Leeves Broke as one of Spike's best films. A very moving and underrated movie.
Bert gave it a 10:
Easily Denzel's best performance. The soundtrack, is unbelievable. Ray Allen doesn't put in a great performance but overall the film has everything. Well shot and well cast.
