Man, that film is bs, should i really belive Rodney Little f'ed up Strike's car like that in front of police station? And not one cop saw that and stop/arrest him? Yeah, right. And what about Strike getting away free when it was all his fault. He's the one who told his brother some bs story about Darryl Adams, he brainwashed the kid and f'ed up his future and he was selling death to his ppl. And at the end he just ride away into sunshine. Helluva happy end.

In the fall of 1995, I found myself in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan (on a weekend leave from college) highly anticipating the newest Spike Lee film. Later that night, I viewed it in a large cineplex with possibly 20-25 screens. There were other action films, comedies, and dramas that I could have chosen from, but I had to see Lee's latest outing. He was a controversial director back then and still reins as one today. In the 90's, his films were a bit more mainstream than they are now. To me, they were like events. And after watching the trailer for Clockers, I knew I had to get to a viewing on opening night. Slightly disjointed, messy at times, yet totally absorbing, Clockers remains one of Spike Lee's most interesting and most forceful cinematic feats. It holds a varied cast of actors known and unknown (I'm just speculating but I think a lot of the people on screen were plucked off the street without any acting experience thus adding to the film's realism), a plethora of varied styles of directing, a fantastic opening credit sequence, and a massive need to get its message across. With most of Spike's films, you generally see a sort of sporadic narrative. Clockers has this but it still manages to be a solid helping from the Brooklyn- rooted director. Produced by legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese and based on a novel of the same name by Richard Price (he wrote the screenplay as well), Clockers tells the story of a small-time drug dealer named Ronald "Strike" Dunham (played by Mekhi Phifer who at the time, had never acted in a film before and got picked out of 1,000 people in an open casting call). He works with a bunch of other fellow dealers who are labeled "Clockers" (they are basically 24 hour drug pushers). When "Strike's" brother Victor Dunham (played by Isaiah Washington) is accused and confesses (in self defense) to murdering one of "Strike's" rival dealers working at a fast food restaurant, "Strike" is then somehow caught up in the whole investigation. He's pulled in different directions and has to take sides. This is based on his relentless pursuers being a morally concerned cop named Rocco Klein (played by Harvey Keitel who gives a Harvey Keitel-like performance) and a parasitic drug lord named Rodney Little (Oscar caliber stuff from Delroy Lindo). A couple of things to note about this film: the acting by the entire cast down to the bit players, the supporting players, and the leads is sensational in every way. Second: the drug solicitation scenes that are featured at various intervals are disturbingly real and authentic. As you view them, it feels less like you're watching a movie and more like you're experiencing real life as it happens. Registering at a running time of just over 2 hours, it's safe to say that there is a lot of movie to take in with Clockers. This vehicle is a character study, a drug flick, and a murder mystery all in one. You have a meaty script by Richard Price (he wrote The Color of Money and Ransom), a searing musical score from Terrence Blanchard (he's Lee's right hand man when it comes to musical scores), and an extremely dark- hued look from cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed. In essence, Spike Lee has every resource possible to flex his directorial wings. This is in my mind, one of the strongest turns he has ever put in as a director. His technique is exuberant. You get a lot of slow motion scenes (set to music of course), a shot that pans over the view of one of the film's most pivotal moments (a protective murder of a burnt out drug addict by a young boy), some solid jump cuts (at the beginning during one of the drug deals), and high energy flashbacks that are quick and to the point. A lot of the film's best sequences are not only set to Blanchard's score, but also to a mixed pop soundtrack with songs from Seal, Crooklyn Dodgers, Chaka Khan, and Rebelz of Authority.In conclusion, this is a heavy urban crime drama with powerfully realized, individual scenes. Clockers is no doubt, a solid interpretation of Lee's rather large body of work. He tries hard to be a good storyteller and sometimes slips a bit. But somehow someway, he still gets the job done here. The film's last ten minutes, which feel subdued, project a bit of a relief from all the chaos that came before it. They faithfully channel a feeling of radiant hope. This reassures the viewer that an exercise this depressing and melodic, can still end on a positive note. With that said, Clockers for me, was definitely worth a re-viewing. It's a Spike Lee Joint that "clocks in" as something I would wholeheartedly recommend.

Although I have only seen a few of Spike Lee's films, I am already beginning to place him very low on the ladder of the best directors alive today. Clockers fails, in my opinion, because the film's premise is lacking substance to begin with; the story is lackluster to the max. On top of this, where the film had its opportunities to reel in the audience emotionally, it instead dropped the ball. Moments where energy, tension, and suspense were supposed to effused were disappointingly overridden with anticlimactic slumps in action. The choking scene in the car as well as when Mekhi is being beat up in the park, with their odd selection of music, seem unfulfilled in their potential to capitalize on emotional appeal.I will say the denouement is shot with expert precision. Lee's patented cinematographic maneuver, the double dolly, is on full display. Moreover, his use of low-key lighting in some specific scenes that illustrate the proliferation of drugs inside the projects are done in a professionally haunting manor. Unfortunately, these instances are rare, overshadowed by the weak portions previously discussed.With regards to Lee's film style in Clockers, I like to point out two of his techniques that I find terribly annoying: 1) Those stupid circling gliding shots around characters when they are talking. 2) His persistent use of intense music to compliment serious(at least Lee thinks they must be) scenes. When put together, these two devices serve to create the ultimate exaggeration of the weight a scene carries in this film. Doing a flashy gliding pan across the park accompanied by pounding sound while Tyrone's mother yells at Mekhi and his boys about his haircut is a little excessive. Instead, I think Clocker's would benefit from a greater variation in the levels of stress and emotion we experience in each scene. This way, when the film actually does come to a TRULY significant moment, the audience will become more invested in the action.P.S. I don't think anyone from the projects would actually where a complete Arizona wildcats uniform. Just the jersey, not the shorts.

Let me say that I just finished the novel, and have only just watched the film.I try not to be one of those people who reads a book, watches the movie, and then tears the latter apart, but there are some significant issues that come to mind when considering this adaptation.1: There is just too much music and scoring.Thus the whole thing feels artificial, or like an after-school special come to life with ghetto undertones. I'm not quite sure why Spike Lee would have chosen this presentation, though perhaps it was to create an expected emotional bond with his audience that he felt was lacking due to the large ensemble cast, or maybe he didn't trust the performances of his actors. Regardless, the overall effect cheapens the drama and removes all the real life consequence the story and characters naturally possess (as written).2: The acting comes across as preachy.Consequently, the whole film seems like it trying to prove a point (and nothing else). On the one hand, it's saying to the kids growing up in the projects that, "This is no way to live. Let me show you how." And on the other, it's reaching out to the dominantly white congress, senate, electorate & bureaucracy, and trying to show these people the human cost of their ignorance, bad public policy making & flawed humanitarian ideals and voting.So the thing is, Richard Price's writing is excruciatingly realistic, and his novel, though not without its genre tropes, is equally exacting, and poignant.This film, however, feels like a very well-hearted effort to render the former, but that gets lost in way too much ideology.