dumb things about this movie

Your time should be spent tailgating and at superbowl parades and such things. Well, chew on some food for thought...

In '98, before LeBron, the best bballers were guys like Duncan, Hill, Shaq, who had seen at least some college ball first. KG and Kobe were still a few years away from being the best. Even Mello went for a couple years, picked up a NCAA Title, and NOW he is gettin paid (and engaged to a woman named La La. How funny!) Not so far fetched really. Too easy to 2nd guess what a guy like Jesus would do. And by find guys who look like H.S. kids, do you mean find actual H.S. kids who looked like and played like Ray Allen? Yeah right.

Remember, Hill was considered the next Jordan at the time, a cleancut dude. What's with the stereotypes about thugs from Brooklyn? Denzel was the thug when he beat down D'Andre, but Jake's a violent criminal. Jake taught Jesus not to be "just another *beep* like him. Jesus as a name is certainly a lot to live up to. Extraordinary name for an extraordinary kid who becomes an extraordinary bballer. So the name fits. The kid attracts a crowd (& women).

Sensitivity to sex in media these days is hypocritical and debatable, but sensitivity to interracial sex is just BS...you've never seen Jungle Fever? Spike made it in '91, check it out sometime. About Mrs Shuttlesworth, that is Lonette Mckee: Father is of African-American, Native-American and European descent; mother is Norwegian-American. And the whole thing about accent and skin color is irrelevant to enjoying the movie. It doesn't distract and it's easy to understand who's who, period.





Tonic Sol-fa! The panacea re-mix.

1) No way in hell would Shuttlesworth choose some fictional college over the NBA. He was a kid from the projects and would be a top draft pick. Why wouldn't he choose to go pro? No way he turns down money either. They were trying to make this kid a saint.

The whole movie Jesus was saying that he wanted to weigh his options; I'm sure he thought about the future and figured that getting an education might be benenicial in the long run. This was an ideal he was trying to get across to his sister. Why wouldn't he pick school over going pro? Big brothers have to be an example for their younger siblings. And with everyone talking money, money, money--he probably thought there was more to life than just making money.


2) Ray Allen was too clean cut for the role. No tattoos, no cornrows, no thug appeal, etc. He was supposed to be from a Brooklyn housing project. Where the hell was his Brooklyn accent?

Why does he have to be a thug? I know people from Brooklyn housing projects and they dress and act like every day is Sunday. And what is a Brookln accent? How do you define it? He sounded like anyone I know from Brooklyn.


3) Why was Denzel in jail? He accidentally killed his wife. Why not make him a drug dealer, or a bank robber? Instead, they made him out to be a saint in jail.

I didn't see them making him a saint. His morales were a bit questionable but he did come to accepting his plight. Now I did question why he went to jail but imagine for a second the investigation as to what happened: neighbors heard a bunch of screaming and yelling, Jake admits to have pushing her, Jesus's statement makes his father look more guilty. Plus being a black man in NYC doesn't help in his defense. In NYC, he was found guilty when the phone call to 991 was made.

4) Why give the character the name "Jesus?" Give the guy a normal name for crying out loud.

He was named after Earl Monroe, whose nickname was Jesus. That part was mentioned in the movie. They did talk about his name throughout the film.

5) Spike Lee must love interracial sex. He had about 10 different scenes like that in this movie alone.

I think Spike likes sex in all his movies. Watch all of his movies and you'll see a clear pattern.

6) Get some kids who look like high school students. He had men who were like 25 years old play the part of high school teammates.

Have you seen some of the kids in school these days? Some of them look to old to be in High School.

7) Jesus' said his mother would roll in her grave if he was ever with a white woman. Well it looked to me that his mother was pretty damn white herself. Couldn't they find a black actress to play the part of his dead mother?

Spike uses her in alot of his movies, mainly because she is great actress. She is of mixed race. But I found this to be ironic and not dumb as you are stating it to be. Usually Light skinned blacks take more pride and are more animated about their black ancestry because they are ridiculed on both sides about their racial affiliation. Blacks think they aren't black enough. And whites think don't consider them to be white. So for her to object to him dating a white woman is in line with what a light skin black might say. And by the way, I am black man of mixed race and I am caramel colored.

8) When Jesus was supposed to be younger and was playing bball with his father. He looked nothing like Ray Allen. The kid was light skinned. Did his skin just darken as he got older and his Brooklyn accent fade away?

When I was younger I was very ligth skinned. As I grew up I became darker. I went from my father's white skin to my mother's dark skin. So I see no problem with Jesus becoming darker. But at what point did the young Jesus have a Brooklyn accent and what exactly is a Brooklyn accent? The young Jesus I felt had a husky voice and ilder Jesus had a more smoother voice. Probably as kid he didn't like his husky voice and worked on making it sound smoother.

I didn't see any problems with what you have mentioned. I think I gave a reasonable explanation to everything you mentioned.

Spike Lee has a bad habit of wanting to write all his movies and he can be very narrow-minded at times especially regarding race and sex. There were some dumb spots in this movie but alot of what you picked as dumb were pretty normal as supposed to the stupid questions you asked. I don't think even you were dumb enough to even wonder those questions out loud. You must have just wanted to stir people up. Have you never seen a movie before in your life?

1. This is a movie, so anything could happen, even a young kid deciding to forgoe the NBA to go to college. The point is he did it for his father not for himself.

2. I'm from Flatbush, NY a suburb of Brooklyn and there are plenty of kids who play on the courts who have no tattoos or piercings. It's not a prerequisite.

3. Jesus IS a normal name, jackass. It's a common name is Latin culture. And what's a NORMAL name? Michael? John? Tyrone?

4. There was a point to the interacial sex at the college that you obviously missed. Did it bother you? Plenty of directors have used it so why single out Spike? Is he only allowed to use one race having sex with each other? Is it in any of his other movies besides this and "Jungle Fever" which happens to be about (gasp!!!!!) interracial relationships?

5. Those team mates who looked over 25 were college or NBA players, like Ray Allen. And so what? Is this the only movie in history to use actors who looked older than the characters they were playing? Just about every movie does it. Either you're stupid or you're trying to pick an arguement.

6. Lonette McKee, Jesus' mother, is a black actress. Just because a black person is light-skinned doesn't meant they'll produce light-skinned offspring. You obviously stayed up late bothered by this as well, didn't you??!? And the skin tone of black people can change as they age. Most times they get a little lighter as they age. I agree that the young actor was much lighter and didn't resemble Allen much. But SO WHAT???????!!!!!!! Movie families seldom resemble each other anyway. It's the acting and storyline that counts.

Your a Retard.....RUDY GAY top Prospect in High School 2 years ago. Went to UCONN instead of going to the league.

Good points. I have no idea why people were offended by your post. Lee does have a fetish with interracial sex and he does make the white women look bad -- at the college, the prostitute at the hotel. Also, you're right about the mom -- she looked white. That was pretty wierd -- also Aunt Sally. What are you supposed to not notice this? My opinion is that this movies was terrible. It had no heart and the Ray Allen character was boring.

>>>>Well, first off, i don't know if this has already been stated because i did not feel like reading all of the posts...............but....i think the reason for Jake to be in jail for murder(although accidental) because there needed to be this deep rooted hatred for him........I mean come on he (jake) did kill his mother. The thing is, if Jake was in jail for i dunno.....say......Grand Larceny, we (the audience) might not have thought it as pressing for Jesus to help Jake's situation. And, Jesus might have gone ahead and choose the school the warden wanted becasue Jake was still his father. But Spike needed to make the plot thicker by focusing the story around the forgiveness of a father who killed his sons mother. Also, much of the movie wouldn't have taken place becasue jesus and mary would not have been living with aunt sally & them, becasue the would have had a mother. Thus making the situation not so pressing. But instead, he had to wrestle with the options before him.

>>>>And as for the whole college over Pro thing.......UHH DUHH!!!! They seduced the poor boy with money, sex, money, and menage a trois.....why wouldn't he atleast consider college.....And lets remember, going to college was not going to stop him from going to the NBA. and, to him, a (boy from the "ghetto" or the projects) what could the NBA offer in time, that g-tech was willing to offer right then. Money, cars, clothes, status (atleast somewhat, he was on ESPN), housing (nice housing) and of course, lets not forget....women.....lots of women....especially white women...yeah I said it....and as a black female im not afraid to say it, i don't live in denile....i know it's the norm. The issues of Spike making white women look like whores is just simply not true. The movie is showing what alot of black men do or want once the get a little money, (fame, status whatever.) Which is, white women!!!. Don't be fooled. And what......did you think that g-tech and many schools like it aren't willing to round up a few bucksome blondes to "have intercourse" with promising young lads in order to seal the deal.

>>>And, for the most part, everone seems to be focusing on them other who, as has been stated is 'mixded' but in this movie she's supposed to be black or atleast black and spanish.....but obviously not white, so she might approve of women of other races, just not white. You see he had no problem with his current 'girlfriend'(Rosario Dawson.) And i seem to emember he speaking a little non-engling during a few love scenes (but i could be wrong on that)

>>>>And im guessing Spike Lee didn't just make this film by going out on a limb, he had to do some research, or know somebody, that knows somebody, i mean come on, lets face it....he's been around a while...people talk. It's a
known fact that these things go on, on many college camouses around the US.

>>>Also.....saint...ha!.....haha!......ha! YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!! The boy s*****d any thing that he could, cheated on his cheating girlfriend, and other such unspeakable acts. I think the only reason he was sometimes even halfway decant was becasue of his sister.


*And, as for making white women look like whores, two words Hustle & Flow. (in that movie EVERYONE's a hoe)

patriotssbchmp02 makes stupid comments about one of the best basketball movies ever made. It shows how young black males are lost without their fathers. patriotssbchmp02 shows how he doesn't make sense claiming Ray Allen was too soft. Who is to say Ray Allen is soft and Allen Iverson is hard? Because Iverson has tattoos,conrows....Spike Lee was making the point with Jesus that all that "I don't need my father,I'm a man, I'm a thug, I'm from Coney Island...nonsense meant noting. Your lost,scared and confused and need your father, whether you like it or not. The movie pretty much had noting to do with basketball but a lost son and a father looking to help him. I bet 99% of the young black males who watch this movie wish they had a father who would have pushed them as hard as Jake pushed Jesus.BEST QUOTES EVER


(Jake and young Jesus praticing basketball 4 in the moring)

Jake "Who's up now?"
Jesus "Me and you."
Jake "That's right Me,you and Michael Jordan everyone else is sleep."

Jake "I was the one that put the ball in your crib son"

Jesus "All these entertiners and ball players claiming they found god.Get caught in a room with crack and ten woman claiming the found god, they found god alright.
Jake "Whats wrong with finding god? God forgive those who have sin."
Jesus " Has god forgiving you for killing my mother?"
Jake" I pray that he has son, I pray that he will. How about you?
Jesus"Never"(Still a scared little boy)

the use of the name "Jesus" is used to really make a point about Ray Allen's character in the film and draw similarities to Jesus Christ. everybody around Jesus wanted something from him and pressured him into going into the draft. even his uncle, who's supposed to be looking out for Jesus and his best interest, gets mixed up in his own greed. everybody expects Jesus to "save" them as with Jesus Christ.