I expected the movie to be more serious. The comedy and rhyming lines over powered the film. The storyline stopped focusing on the gun violence in Chicago and started focusing more on the idea that if women stopped having sex with the men that they would stop gang banging in return. Really cheesy movie with great potential it just focused to much on sex and not the real issues in Chiraq which is the gun violence.

The movie is very empowering to women.It shows girls can be as powerful as boys. It's has a encouraging message of if people come together they can make a change. I think it's cool one of the actors talks directly to the audience. It really helps the audience get a real understanding of what's happening in the movie. The rhyming can be sort of confusing to some people, but it's pretty easy to keep up. I personally don't really like it because it gets annoying after a while. The actors are really good. My favorite actor is Father Mike. He was the best in my opinion. There is a lot of violence in the movie, but it does somewhat accurately describe Chicago. Bless.

Spike Lee has always been one of my favorite director/producers. Most of his films are thought provoking, well crafted, and controversial. I put him up there with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Martin Scorsese. Every once in a while a brilliant director can fall short of his own talents. In Spike Lee's case that would be "Chi-Raq". "Chi- Raq" wasn't one of Spike Lee's best. This Spike Lee Joint didn't have that craftiness and theatrical savvy his other films had. To me it seems as if this film was just put together for the sake of spreading or sending a message, which there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, even if that were the case this film could have been way much better. I think this film is supposed to be a modern adaptation of the Aristophanes play "Lysistrata", if so the way the lines were delivered made the film a little corny and unbelievable. It was too far-fetched and the parts that were supposed to be funny weren't funny. One thing I did like about this film was the fact that Spike Lee kept up with his tradition of using the same actors he always use like Roger Guenveur Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, and Wesley Snipes. Wesley Snipes playing as a leader of a gang is a great idea but how he played the role of Cyclops, that didn't really fit him. Nick Cannon kind of surprised me with his role of Chi-Raq. He did a pretty convincing job playing that hard G roll and Teyonah Parris played the role of Lysistrata with just the right amount of attitude and finesse. Hopefully this film is just something Spike Lee put out there just for the sake of the message, I know he'll put some top quality material out there in again.

The newest joint from director Spike Lee, is a bizarre experiment for all to see.Told in a brash tone, preaching with a megaphone, promising to make heads roll, And influenced by the writings of old Aristophanes.Lysistrata (Parris) is the main squeeze of Chi-Raq (Cannon), A man with hopes to rap and plans attacks with and between two rival clans.There's similarities between another two households alike in dignity, Down to the the colors worn during their mutiny.So hopeless is their feud, no faction can collude to end, The violence penned and pent up in the hearts of these men.So too does Lysistrata makes her nihilism known, Until an innocent is slain by a bullet in stray.Plotting with Miss Helen (Bassett) and her sisters to atone, The ladies decide to keep their menfolk at bay.Thus swayed with a solemn oath to end the specter of death, From the streets of the City with Big Shoulders, The women of Chicago swear with resounding shibboleth, To go on sex strike until the violence is over.Much like this review, the film is in rhyme, which can grind, The gears of many not willing to meet it halfway, The characters imbue parody and are unable to find, Balance between the real and distorted morality play.Overwrought with the thoughts and ersatz of bathetic farce, There's still something radical with which few can parse; Like when the gals take the armory, like Greeks to the treasury, The choruses of men and women can't help but find, A sincere quest for peace too abstruse for the blind.Thus this film is a siren's call for peace that should be heard, Even if it is incredibly uneven in places.The sui generis of such a movie bends to the absurd, Yet the message is true thus putting me in it's good graces.There was much hullabaloo about it's offensive fantasy, Minimizing the tragedy of a besieged Windy City.I for one stopped myself from attending a screening, As Chicago is second home thus this treatment is demeaning.Yet firstly, this film is supposed to be skit and travesty, While the reasons for violence is complex, the act is absurdity! Why not have an expression that typifies the high camp of low brutality.Why not revel in the message of love, that which comes from above, Below and inside the mourning, healing hearts and souls thereof.There are many reasons to hate: revenge, opportunity, resource, religion, Politics, poverty, power, cash, race and competition.Yet there is only one reason for love.Secondly the source material is Greek in more ways than one, Comprehending the pathos of such a think piece maligned, Appropriates the fields of Thalia, Euterpe and Clio entwined.It's not the who, what, where or when but why, when all is said and done.And how strongly you feel by the tears and blood shed, When all players arrived, sheathed in white, bathed in the glory, Indemnified by a campaign ignited by Leymah Gbowee.They end in the way a comedy should, in jubilation and ascension.A better understanding made possible by an old form.In modernity and convention we're given new dimension, With which to understand what's sadly a new norm.Manipulative? Simplistic? Sexist? Maybe; Greek comedies are not exactly known for their subtlety.Neither is Lee who hungrily experiments with novelty, Blusters with the voracity of his new expression, Not bothered or concerned with the asylum of discretion.He's a maverick through and through, taking risks made bear, By a new form first fashioned by the surname Lumiere.It tries, it fails, it gets back up again and fights the good fight, Using to make right the names of Jackson, Bassett and Snipes.Is this movie acropolis or apocryphal? Watch and decide.www.theyservepopcorninhell.blogspot.com