Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
66 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

He Got Game

EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures

He Got Game reviews
63
9.5 User Score:

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.

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...

90

New York Magazine David Denby

The movie is a volatile combination of ambitious mythmaking and nasty reality, and like most of Spike Lee’s work, it is also an inextricable combination of good and bad.

Read Full Review >
88

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Lee uses visual imagination to lift his material into the realms of hopes and dreams.

Read Full Review >
83

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 >
80

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 >
80

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); what’s different this time is how personally driven the story feels.

Read Full Review >
75

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 >
75

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 >
75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This is essentially a familiar story told with consummate skill.

Read Full Review >
70

Slate David Edelstein

Uneven, ludicrous, but--oh man!--fun to watch.

Read Full Review >
70

Newsweek David Ansen

Flaws and all, this may be Spike's most purely enjoyable movie, and his best looking

Read Full Review >
70

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 >
67

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 >
60

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 >
60

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 >
60

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 >
50

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 >
50

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 >
50

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 >
50

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

The problem, sadly, is that the whole amounts to less than the sum of its parts.

Read Full Review >
20

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.

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use