Spike Lee, doing the thing he does right....get it...it's a play on words.
Oh Spike lee, you're movies, err....joints, sorry, are always worth a good watch. "Mo' Better Blues"(1990) being a personal favorite of mine. But lets go to a year before that, to 1989 and "Do the Right Thing".
The movie follows a sorted group of characters, including pizza boy Mookie(Lee), his boss Sal(Danny Aiello), his two sons(John Turturro and Richard Edson), and the best DJ ever(played by one mister Samuel L. Jackson). It takes place on the hottest day of the year in New York City(Brooklyn to be exact). It's no surprise that a Spike Lee joint takes place in NYC, god forbid he make a movie someplace else. Of course this joint, like all his others, deals mostly with racial tensions. Because of this somewhat standard idea for him, the plot's a little thin.
The acting isn't great, but it's better than good. It's sort of "Quasi-Great", if you will. The actors are able to portray the characters they were supposed to be, and interacted well with each other on screen, but because of the thin premise of the plot it only gets so far before it becomes another "White Devil!" movie. The only character I can say was done in a manner that made me smile profoundly was Sam Jackson's character. Playing sort of the middle man and also some what of a narrator, he just comes into his role so well.
So, as with every Spike Lee joint, there's bound to be the big racial blow up at the end right? You bet there is. The only problem is, the movie still gives off that "White Devil!" vibe. I'll leave you to read the plot synopsis to understand everything in between, but needless to say a black charcter gets killed by white cops after getting into a fight with Sal and then the other black characters destroy Sal's shop, including his own employee Mookie. Problem is, I don't see how Sal did anything wrong by having rules for his store. Look, i'm not going to get into a debate about racism and ethnic devides here, just giving my two cents.
Overall, it's a good movie and well worth at least one viewing. Check it out sometime, just don't expect anything spectacular.