Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: He Got Game (1998)

7/10/2021

He Got Game (1998) - Lee's basketball classic

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year + Best Sports Drama of the Year

Star Denzel Washington with a big afro and a praying gesture makes up most of this poster for Spike Lee's He Got Game

Jesus Shuttlesworth may be America's best high school basketball player, and as such he is heavily courted by colleges with deep pockets. Meanwhile his convict father is given a chance for freedom if he can convince his son to choose one particular college...

He Got Game is written and directed by Georgian master filmmaker Spike Lee (Joe's Bed-Stuy Barber Shop: We Cut Heads (1983)).

Denzel Washington (Ricochet (1991)) and young actual NBA player Ray Allen (Harvard Man (2001)) are outstanding as father and son in this film, which is first and foremost a riveting high-stakes drama, and secondly a fine basketball-saluting sports picture. Lee knows his effects, and he uses them as a master here:

Strong dramatic scenes - scored with classical music, which heightens their importance, - montages with great cultural and social insight, and a strong knack for strong images and the traps of youth. Rosario Dawson (Iron Fist (2017, TV-series)), Jim Brown (Fingers (1978)) and especially Milla Jovovich (Ultraviolet (2006)) are strong in supporting parts. Public Enemy's songs in the film are very well-made, especially the title track. He Got Game is a highly commendable film.

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Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $

Box office: 22.4 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.89 times its cost)

[He Got Game premiered 25 April (New York) and runs 136 minutes. Shooting took place from July - September 1997 in North Carolina, Virginia, Chicago, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #1 to a 7.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#3-#5), grossing 21.5 mil. $ (96 % of the total gross). The film's foreign gross numbers are not made public: The film was financed by Disney, who sold off the foreign rights, and the international gross stands at a tiny 844k $, which is still credible since US sports films, basketball and black films usually underperform abroad. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Lee returned with John Leguizamo: Freak (1998, TV special) and theatrically with Summer of Sam (1999). Washington returned in The Siege (1998). He Got Game is certified fresh at 81 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

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Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

7/10/2021

He Got Game (1998) - Lee's basketball classic

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)

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