Review of He Got Game (1998) by Gordon R — 21 Mar 2008

Lee's third collaboration with Denzel is yet another good film about a man trying to reconnect with his son after killing his wife. And they do this through...basketball! I popped in this dvd at two in the morning wholly expecting to fall asleep during it and finish it the next day, but damn it all if it didn't keep up till four thirty that morning. Any movie that can keep a tired person awake is a movie worth watching. Spike makes would could have been caricatured characters real. Denzel does a fantastic job of making us sympathize with a killer (accidental though it is) who pushes his kids really, really hard. All the actors involved really put their best foot forward. The cinematography is fun to look at to, with plenty of great compositions and vibrant colors. The only thing that threw me off was the weird score that permeates the picture. Odd choice there, but it doesn't distract too bad.

Bottom Line: He Got Game is a Spike Lee joint worth smokin'. Pretty chronic shit you could say.