Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Violet Weed I liked the good actors in the movie, but the movie itself was just another racist movie. Trying to blame American Whites for the stupidity, race-genocide and lack of progress of American Blacks. I fought my way to survive in the world from the age of 12 when I moved from home to a big city and became a programmer. That was 52 years ago. I fought for the rights of WOMEN, no matter their ace. I still remember what it was like to take off that !@$@!!! girdle and wire-rimmed bra and throw them into the garbage, never again to wear such contrivances until my 50s when my b**bies 'requested' support, but then I was smart enough not to wear wire-rimmed bras but 'sports' bras.So the guy is an ad executive and that somehow is a crime. He wouldn't have pushed stereotyping if the customers didn't want it.But for years now I have known the truth about racism. It is American Blacks who perpetuate it by blaming whites for things WE never did. WE do not hold back blacks, WE do not MURDER blacks, WE do not impregnate black women and 'force' them to go on welfare. If I can survive on my own from 12 on, so can ANYbody. Granted I'm smarter than 99.5% of the world, oh well, still God gifts His/Her children equally, in one way or the other. Get over your 'poor little me' agenda, we ALL face stereotyping and prejudices, the worst one is pretending that MEN rule the world. NO ONE rules the world, the world 'just is' and we are nothing more than parasites living on its crust.

Nick Zbu You know, I want to like Lee. One of the great things about movies and literature is the ability to shock people. It's a childish impulse at heart, but great when you're deconstructing philosophies. In satirical cases, the childish impulse is justified by the purpose of the deconstruction. The need to expose the hypocrisy is much more than the jollies of the person doing the ripping.Unfortunately for Lee, satire requires a deft touch. Being too coy and the satire fails as a justification for the subject of the satire in the first place. Being too blunt and the satire comes off as preachy and self-serving. Lee and his work fall into the latter; he does not have the touch to do effective satire because he is too close to the subject matter. Lee has some valuable insight into matters of race (in that he never fails to remind us) and we take him at his word. Sadly, he is so bitterly one-sided that his preaching. Given his lust to bash all sides as a battle between him and THE WORLD, his movies often come off as diatribes that are disconnected from reality. The power of cinema is to put a person in a differing standpoint through prospective, and Lee doesn't grasp that. To him, it's a bigger stage for his ego and himself and we are 'fortunate' enough to pay only a meager fee to finance his house to hear this Great Oracle of the Nike Commercials speak his wisdom..which is about as intelligent as a thirteen-year old Goth girl talking about death and cutting herself.The racial politics behind Drop Squad are so pathetic--rich equals white and poor equals black--is that it makes a mockery out of Lee's MLK love. Lee never really grasps the idea of racism has a solid element of class-ism behind it. If you're black, you're poor yet humble. If you're white, you're rich and morally bankrupt. And if you're black and rich, then you're white and need to be knocked back down into being black. And with this, Lee's world of racism is complete according to this movie. And that idea is so self-hating and overly simplified that it defies logic. Are we watching an examination of race relations, or are we watching a poor little rich boy deal with his unresolved racial/class issues by endorsing the same idea of Crab Theory--see "The Corner" for more on this in a much more mature way then Lee could ever imagine or wants to--that tortured him as he was growing up? In fact, why doesn't Lee grow up and make movies a bit more textured instead of playing the game he was forced to as he was growing up? In short, Lee's "Do the Right Thing" was the alpha and omega of his career. He would never show the same maturity or grow above it ever again. In a sense, he sold out himself, and the world is lesser for it.

Brendan3 What's the lesson the film makers are trying to get across? 1. If a black man tries to succeed, he is betraying his roots. 2. All white people are bumbling dunderheads with no sense of rhythm or street savvy. 3. All white people are racist whether they realize it or not.This is the most thick headed racist film I've ever seen and the only reason it hasn't been labelled as racist by the press is that it's anti-white and many people are afraid to label that racist. Racist is racist, whether anti-black or anti-white and films like this only encourage ignorance.

Rid.X In Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin In The Sun", the character of Beneatha describes so-called "assimilationist negroes", or black men that have immersed themselves in a dominant culture while neglecting their African roots. Suffice it to say that this description can be applied to Bruford Jamison, the lead character of David Clark Johnson's "DROP Squad". Here's a movie that takes a provocative, timely idea, and completely buries it with muddled execution.Eriq La Salle ("ER"'s Dr. Benton) plays Bruford, an advertising executive determined to ascend up the corporate ladder. This involves demeaning advertising campaigns, including a satirical television spot for fried chicken that boasts a gospel choir, napkins with bible verses, and Spike Lee, who's also executive producer of this film. Along the way, he manages to ignore his cousin, Flip, who's out of work and incessantly asking for a favor from his favorite cousin.These factors prompt Bruford's sister Lenora to call on the DROP (Deprogramming and Restoration of Pride) Squad, a group of militant brothers who work to bring "fallen" blacks back down to earth. The squad, whose past targets include a politician and man of the cloth, kidnap Bruford, strap him to a chair, and proceed to torture him for several weeks.And it's at this point that the film's message is lost completely. There were moments that had punch; in particular, the friction between Bruford and squad member Garvey, played with ferocity by Ving Rhames. There's one brutal exchange when Bruford chides Garvey for not being able to make it in the real world that nearly rises above everything else onscreen. But all the while, as Bruford is being verbally and physically assaulted by the squad, it's disturbing that his civil rights never come into the equation. And since when did this kind of violence ever become productive, given their cause?All in all, a movie with a topic more deserving of stronger execution.