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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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He Got Game
Buena Vista Pictures
FILM:
MPAA 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.
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Spike Lee
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Spike Lee
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: September 2, 2003
Video: January 15, 2002
Theatrical: May 1, 1998
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
136 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
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.
88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Lee uses visual imagination to lift his material into the realms of hopes and dreams.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
This is essentially a familiar story told with consummate skill.
70
Slate
David Edelstein
Uneven, ludicrous, but--oh man!--fun to watch.
70
Newsweek
David Ansen
Flaws and all, this may be Spike's most purely enjoyable movie, and his best looking
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
50
Film Threat
Tom Meek
Lee makes a great looking film, though the soap box message about greed becomes exhausted and overplayed early on.
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.
50
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
The problem, sadly, is that the whole amounts to less than the sum of its parts.
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.
 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.
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