Chi-Raq

I want more movies like this

Chi-Raq_720p(480P)

source: Chi-Raq

What an awful movie...what was he (Spike) thinking? The context of the movie had the potential to have a profound impact on black culture and America..but to focus on women withholding sex to get their men to stop the violence is totally ridiculous. Someone please tell him to stop making movies about black folks..Tyler Perry would have taken the same subject matter and had the nation coming together to solve the problem. But Spike Lee move focused on black women bodies...the movie was lazy and unimaginative..and just plain bad..I was embarrassed..felt sick on my stomach..etc..etc..STOP MAKING MOVIES ABOUT BLACK FOLKS...Do some comedy or something...

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

This one is definitely not without its flaws. The editing and pacing of it is messy, sometimes very uneven. I wasn't familiar with the source material from which this is inspired by, but I found it to be really addictive in its ability to grasp one's attention. I think the ensemble cast works well, even if the tone of the film requires them to be very loud and over-the-top, to the point that the film itself becomes a little exhausting. Some of the performers aren't as good as others, and sometimes it becomes very evident. However, it's also one of those films that is kind of difficult to resist. If you let it sort of wash over you, it will work in splendid, even magical ways, I just wish it was more consistent as a whole.

The enormous number of low ratings here -- without a review -- is troubling. Who's afraid of Spike Lee? He's been a provocateur from day one, and when I see one of his films, I'm reminded of Faulkner's saying that all great novels are shipwrecks. All Spike Lee joints fail too, but they fail in a fabulous, provoking, brilliant manner that no other films by a living person seem to manage. Let's go back to Spike's equally brilliant and offending film Bamboozled, and the opening words, in a V/O: "Satire. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity." And that's what Spike does, at his best. And this is one of his very best: a scatter-shot, no-holds- barred, old school Greek comedy, with Jackson's "Dolmetes" as its one-man chorus -- in short, a provoking work for our times.

The Good: Director Spike Lee manages to find some creative ways to deliver important messages throughout the film. What's great about the messages is that they're far from being politically correct. Whether you agree with them or not, you can at the very least respect its sincerity given the gravity of the issues being discussed. It was somewhat surreal to see that many of the people in the film were actual victims of the violence that plagues Chicago. We were shown former gang members who shared their experiences, and also some of the actual mothers that have lost their children to gun violence. Across the board, there were some solid performances given. Angela Bassett portrayed a strong force and presence in her role as Miss. Helen. John Cusack excelled in his character as a fiery, activist, Chicago preacher. Jennifer Hudson captured a small portion of what it may look like to be a parent of a victim to gun violence. Teyonah Parris (who plays Lysistrata) does a nice job in leading the film as well. If you would like to see "The Bad" and "The Reason" why you should or should not see this film, please visit www.EmansMovieReviews.com for the entire review.

It's a story about what can happen when females unite and use their power to change the world (using a male point of view concept) as a group of women from Chicago start a revolution by denying their gangbanging boyfriends sex unless they stop the war on the street that earned their neighborhood the nickname Chi-Raq. Spike goes over everything from Black lives matter, to gun control, to the War in Iraq, to feminism, to the confederate flag, etc... It was a well done blend of social commentary just putting a stamp on everything important since 2012. It's an old school style Spike Lee Joint somewhere in-between School Daze and Do the Right Thing as Spike takes the story out of Brooklyn and into a different hood. It was beautifully shot, great cinematography that I have not seen in Spike's joint in a minute. The movie's dialog was intriguing, an elegant cross between Shakespeare and hip hop. This movie proves that Spike still has what it takes to tell a very powerful story. He uses great visuals, sexuality and humor to get an important message across. This Joint felt like watching Spike's ultimate fantasy for America and it was a great experience.

While the movie touches on many problems that Chicago faces, in my opinion it misses the most important one: THE WAR on DRUGS. You can blame gun shows, the NRA, lack of education, etc, all you want, but the fact of the matter is and will remain that the violence isn't because of guns...the huge incarceration rate is not because of guns...it all stems back to the war on drugs. Guns don't kill people, violent gangs do and they do it because of the money associated with the black market drug trade. Violence, gangs and turf wars are the direct result of the drug trade. Drug dealers rule the streets because the economic opportunities are terrible in the inner-city and because so much can be made from the drug trade. Poor youth see more opportunity in that criminal world than in going to school. So will eliminating the war on drugs solve the problem? Probably not, but it would be a big step and do a lot to take the power away from the gangs and it would keep the police from arresting black males in epidemic rates. I could go on and on about how terrible the War on Drugs is for the black community but this is simply a review and I wanted to convey my disappointment that this is not brought up as a substantial issue.