He Got Game 1998

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Washington is so consistently effective an actor that it hardly needs be said that his excellent performance as the beleaguered Jake carries the film. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: The wildly uneven script includes both disciplined, lively riffs and amateurishly artificial exchanges. Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: Lee may never have the narrow focus to sustain a film on storytelling alone, and he may never need it. What he has here is an explosion of spectacular gambits and a great high-concept hook. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: 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 more

David Edelstein, Slate: [Lee] gets a charming performance from Allen, who, in his acting debut, occupies his pedestal with grace and diffidence. Read more

Entertainment Weekly: Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: A two-hour air ball. Read more

David Denby, New York Magazine/Vulture: 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 more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: At the end of Mr. Lee's movie, all you feel is the distraction of Mr. Lee's stylistic exhibitionism, without which, I concede, he might not be regarded as a genius in some quarters. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: An effective companion piece to Hoop Dreams and Blue Chips. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: He Got Game is Lee's best film since Malcolm X. Read more

Gary Kamiya, Salon.com: He Got Game is a little too sappy to be a great movie, but it puts the ball in the hole. Read more

Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle: Washington's Jake Shuttlesworth looks tough and hard, an odd but refreshing turn for an actor long associated with handsomely heroic roles. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: Most scenes play too long, with a surplus of ideas, textures, tones and characters, and after 134 minutes it's clear Lee's problem with closure hasn't gone away. Read more

Emanuel Levy, Variety: Lacking the moral indignation and militant politics of Lee's former work, this vibrantly colorful father-son melodrama is soft at the center, but it's one of the most accessible films Lee has made and Denzel Washington is terrific. Read more