Clockers

Starring:Lawrence B. Adisa, Lisa Arrindell Anderson, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Paul Calderon, Keith David, Sticky Fingaz, Frances Foster, Michael Imperioli, Hassan Johnson, Harvey Keitel, Brendan Kelly, Delroy Lindo, Peewee Love, Elvis Nolasco, Mekhi Phifer, Fredro Starr, Regina Taylor, John Turturro, Isaiah Washington
Studio: Universal Studios
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Based on the riveting bestseller by Richard Price, this 1995 crime drama was directed by Spike Lee with such authority and authenticity that it has the hyper-real quality of a stylized documentary. Fully capturing the thoroughly researched detail of Price's novel, the film focuses on Strike (newcomer Mekhi Phifer), a young, ambitious "clocker"--or drug dealer--who works the streets of his New York housing project, selling drugs for a local supplier named Rodney (played with ferocious charisma by Delroy Lindo). Just as Strike is struggling to get away from his dead-end life of crime, another dealer is murdered in a fast-food restaurant and local detectives (Harvey Keitel, John Turturro) consider Strike the primary suspect. In cowriting the script with novelist Price, Lee uses this murder mystery to explore the plague of guns and black-on-black crime in America's inner cities, in which drugs and death are familiar routines of daily life. The film doesn't pretend to offer solutions, nor does it dwell on the problem with numbing insistence. Rather, this taut, well-acted film takes the viewer into a world often hidden in plain sight--a world where options seem nonexistent for youth conditioned to have little or no expectation beyond a probable early death. Lee and Price are deadly serious in handling this volatile subject (which incorporates racism, powerless law enforcement, and political indifference), but Clockers is also blessed with humor, insight, and humanity. It's one of Lee's most confidently directed films, signaling a creative maturity that Lee continued to develop throughout the 1990s. --Jeff Shannon

Spike Lee Joint Collection (Clockers/ Jungle Fever/ Do the Right Thing/ Mo` Better Blues/ Crooklyn)
Average customer rating:

Spike Lee - The Man

You really get ur money's worth

Good selection!

YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!

A Fantastic Collection That Is Very Affordable

Spike Lee Joint Collection (Clockers/ Jungle Fever/ Do the Right Thing/ Mo` Better Blues/ Crooklyn)
Starring: Spike Lee Joint Collection
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000E40QC4
Release Date: 2006-03-07

Product Description

Five groundbreaking films from prolific filmmaker Spike Lee come together in this collection. Starring such heavyweights as Rosie Perez, Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, and John Turturro in career-defining roles, the films include CROOKLYN, DO THE RIGHT THING, CLOCKERS, JUNGLE FEVER, and MO' BETTER BLUES. See individual titles for descriptions.

Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com

Clockers
Based on the riveting bestseller by Richard Price, this 1995 crime drama was directed by Spike Lee with such authority and authenticity that it has the hyper-real quality of a stylized documentary. Fully capturing the thoroughly researched detail of Price's novel, the film focuses on Strike (newcomer Mekhi Phifer), a young, ambitious "clocker"--or drug dealer--who works the streets of his New York housing project, selling drugs for a local supplier named Rodney (played with ferocious charisma by Delroy Lindo). Just as Strike is struggling to get away from his dead-end life of crime, another dealer is murdered in a fast-food restaurant and local detectives (Harvey Keitel, John Turturro) consider Strike the primary suspect. In cowriting the script with novelist Price, Lee uses this murder mystery to explore the plague of guns and black-on-black crime in America's inner cities, in which drugs and death are familiar routines of daily life. The film doesn't pretend to offer solutions, nor does it dwell on the problem with numbing insistence. Rather, this taut, well-acted film takes the viewer into a world often hidden in plain sight--a world where options seem nonexistent for youth conditioned to have little or no expectation beyond a probable early death. Lee and Price are deadly serious in handling this volatile subject (which incorporates racism, powerless law enforcement, and political indifference), but Clockers is also blessed with humor, insight, and humanity. It's one of Lee's most confidently directed films, signaling a creative maturity that Lee continued to develop throughout the 1990s. --Jeff Shannon

Jungle Fever
Spike Lee's 1991 story about an interracial relationship and its consequences on the lives and communities of the lovers (Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra) is one of his most captivating and focused films. Snipes and Sciorra are very good as individuals trying to reach beyond the limits imposed upon them for reasons of race, tradition, sexism, and such. Lee makes an interesting and subtle case that they are driven to one another out of frustration with social obstacles as well as pure attraction--but is that enough for love to survive? John Turturro is featured in a subplot as an Italian American who grows attracted to a black woman and takes heat from his numbskull buddies. --Tom Keogh

Do the Right Thing
Spike Lee's incendiary look at race relations in America, circa 1989, is so colorful and exuberant for its first three-quarters that you can almost forget the terrible confrontation that the movie inexorably builds toward. Do the Right Thing is a joyful, tumultuous masterpiece--maybe the best film ever made about race in America, revealing racial prejudices and stereotypes in all their guises and demonstrating how a deadly riot can erupt out of a series of small misunderstandings. Set on one block in Bedford-Stuyvesant on the hottest day of the summer, the movie shows the whole spectrum of life in this neighborhood and then leaves it up to us to decide if, in the end, anybody actually does the "right thing." Featuring Danny Aiello as Sal, the pizza parlor owner; Lee himself as Mookie, the lazy pizza-delivery guy; John Turturro and Richard Edson as Sal's sons; Lee's sister Joie as Mookie's sister Jade; Rosie Perez as Mookie's girlfriend Tina; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee as the block elders, Da Mayor and Mother Sister; Giancarlo Esposito as Mookie's hot-headed friend Buggin' Out; Bill Nunn as the boom-box toting Radio Raheem; and Samuel L. Jackson as deejay Mister Señor Love Daddy. A rich and nuanced film to watch, treasure, and learn from--over and over again. --Jim Emerson

Mo' Better Blues
With Mo' Better Blues, the story of a young trumpeter's rise to jazz-world stardom, Spike Lee set out to counter Clint Eastwood's cliché-ridden biopic of Charlie Parker in Bird. But the final product, a slick, glossy drama (with hip-hop jazz provided by Gangstarr no less), is just as superficial as the numerous Alger-esque stories of music stardom to which movie audiences are accustomed.

Denzel Washington gives a typically charismatic performance as the trumpeter in question, as does Wesley Snipes as his sax-playing rival. And as with most Spike Lee films, there are numerous solid performers in small roles such as Bill Nunn, Latin-music star Rubén Blades, and comedian Robin Harris. One character, however, attracted unwanted attention: John Turturro's role as an unscrupulous music-industry exec. Critics called the Turturro character, who is at once money hungry, swarthy, and perpetually shrouded in darkness, a classic anti-Semitic caricature. But the charge seems almost irrelevant in Spike Lee's cartoonish, overstylized world of impossibly hunky jazzmen, curvaceous hangers-on, and incessant bebop. --Ethan Brown

Crooklyn
Spike Lee's semiautobiographical, 1994 film about the good and bad times for a Brooklyn family in the '70s has passion and nostalgic good feeling, but it is also a mess of random reflections and arbitrary storytelling. The centerpiece of the movie is a little girl (Zelda Harris) who views the ups and downs of her parents' experiences (mom and dad are played by Delroy Lindo and Alfre Woodard), and who navigates the life of her neighborhood. Lee tosses in a lot of '70s detail (watching The Partridge Family) and other diversions (Harris's journey through suburbia), but he has no master sensibility controlling the flow of it all. The film is more wearying than anything, although bright spots include Lindo's fine performance as a talented man suffering from irrelevance. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Spike Lee - The Man.......2007-06-20

They could have put a movie on the other side of Crooklyn :(, Im still extremely satisfied. This is a piff collection. Spike did a great job capturing the essence (the lighter side) of emotion of every day life living in relative poverty like he did in Crooklyn. Watching these movies made me feel as if I were an invisible character.

You really get ur money's worth.......2007-05-14

I really like this collection, even though I thought it should have included his first work, school daze, instead of Clockers, u get five dvd's for the price of 1.

Good selection!.......2007-03-21

The only reason I gave it 4 stars and not a 5 is because not everyone will be happy with all 5 Films in this Collection. Point blank is that this a must get. You cannot beat the price for a good selection of quality American films. Very satisfied!

YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!.......2007-03-16

5 CLASSIC FILMS BY ONE OF THE BEST AFRICAN AMERICAN DIRECTORS OF ALL TIME FOR $20.00! IF YOU THINK THIS ISN'T A GREAT DEAL THAN OBVIOUSLY THERE IS A PROBLEM! MO BETTA BLUES IS ONE OF THE MOST WELL PUT TOGETHER PIECES AND IF YOU ENJOY THE FILMS I SUGGEST LISTENING TO THE ACTUAL SOUNDTRACKS.

A Fantastic Collection That Is Very Affordable.......2007-03-12

There are a few artists who come to mind - Peter Max, for example - who strongly believe that their craft should be accessible to fans at any income level. Simply, art is solely not defined by its high price tag.

With the release of the Spike Lee Joint Collection (Clockers/ Jungle Fever/ Do the Right Thing/ Mo` Better Blues/ Crooklyn), the legendary film maker is making a very strong statement in the movie industry on producing an extraordinary product at an affordable price.

This is Economics 101 at its simplest, five movies for the cost of a couple of movie tickets at most theaters. It is as much a collection for fans of Lee's career as it an outstanding sampler for those just getting into his style.

And it begs a very important question; if Lee and Max - along with others - can do it, why isn't this practical approach done industry-wide within the arts?

Average customer rating:

Awesome movie...
Average Spike Lee drama
AMAZIING!!!
"You are sellin' your own people death!"
CLASSIC GANGSTA MOVIE; 4.5 STARS

Clockers
Starring: Lawrence B. Adisa , Lisa Arrindell Anderson , Thomas Jefferson Byrd , Paul Calderon , and Keith David
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Crime | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Crime & Criminals | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Murder & Mayhem | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | African American Cinema | Genres | DVD | Video

General | African American Cinema | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: 0783230443
Release Date: 1999-01-05

Amazon.com

Based on the riveting bestseller by Richard Price, this 1995 crime drama was directed by Spike Lee with such authority and authenticity that it has the hyper-real quality of a stylized documentary. Fully capturing the thoroughly researched detail of Price's novel, the film focuses on Strike (newcomer Mekhi Phifer), a young, ambitious "clocker"--or drug dealer--who works the streets of his New York housing project, selling drugs for a local supplier named Rodney (played with ferocious charisma by Delroy Lindo). Just as Strike is struggling to get away from his dead-end life of crime, another dealer is murdered in a fast-food restaurant and local detectives (Harvey Keitel, John Turturro) consider Strike the primary suspect. In cowriting the script with novelist Price, Lee uses this murder mystery to explore the plague of guns and black-on-black crime in America's inner cities, in which drugs and death are familiar routines of daily life. The film doesn't pretend to offer solutions, nor does it dwell on the problem with numbing insistence. Rather, this taut, well-acted film takes the viewer into a world often hidden in plain sight--a world where options seem nonexistent for youth conditioned to have little or no expectation beyond a probable early death. Lee and Price are deadly serious in handling this volatile subject (which incorporates racism, powerless law enforcement, and political indifference), but Clockers is also blessed with humor, insight, and humanity. It's one of Lee's most confidently directed films, signaling a creative maturity that Lee continued to develop throughout the 1990s. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Awesome movie..........2006-07-14

Clockers is one the best movies I've seen covering life on the streets of Northeast America. Movies like Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society cover the streets of LA but people who kno the streets of the northeast (NYC, Trenton, Philly) do not relate to palm trees and spacious project homes. In the Northeast, people are tightly packed into high-rise projects or row homes. They co-exist with different ethnic groups, all struggling to make it out. Spike Lee does a great job collaborating with author Richard Price in coming up with a superb script. Growing up in an urban environment, I was instantly attracted to the film by its pure street dialogue. Mekhi Phifer makes the street dialogue seem as authentic as it can get.

Average Spike Lee drama.......2006-04-09

Wow.. to start with I had to turn on English subtitles to watch this movie in English. Even then it was hard to puzzle out what was said in this film half the time. I'm not a big fan of Spike Lee films - they're too stereotypical and portray people in a negative light.
'Clockers' could have been a gripping detective story while also exposing the drugs and violence which black youths find it so hard to escape from. But that isn't enough for Lee who stuffs his film with so many half-developed ideas that it becomes tiresome to watch.
Lee seems at one point to be commenting on the influence of violent music videos and video games, but when he fails to develop this line of reasoning, it's clear these sidetracks are only a means to fill the film with his intrusive visual fireworks. Many scenes serve no dramatic purpose and the bloated film is a good deal longer than it needs to be.
The is just like the old gangster movies of yore, the endings just seem too unbelievable to what was shown before. And just like that you get a mediocre movie.

AMAZIING!!!.......2005-12-06

This movie is absolutely incredible,(espeecially for a "spike Lee joint"!). WATCH THIS MOVIE!!! If you like commercial hollywood cinema you probably won't like this film, but this is truly quality filmaking. The movie just flows. The best thing about the movie is the acting! Absolutely incredible! MEKHI PHIFER's performance is the best I have ever seen (along with Derek Luke in Antwone Fisher)- Performance of a lifetime, his facial expressions are priceless! If you don't end up liking this movie then you don't appreciate good acting. The cinematography is also beautiful. The film is not overly moralistic, nor preachy or patronising like most of Spike Lee's work tends to be. THIS IS A WORK OF ART!

"You are sellin' your own people death!".......2005-02-18

"Clockers"(1995) really blind-sided me.

Spike Lee can't necessarily claim to be the most subtle filmmaker, in fact he seems dead-set on attaining and retaining the title of "auteur," taking that extra step to inform the viewer that it is *indeed* a Spike Lee "joint." Fans of his films know exactly what I mean. And, of course, his showmanship is evident. But collaborating with famed novelist Richard Price for a gritty indictment of black-on-black crime, the inner-city crack plague, and the oddly symbiotic relationship among drug-dealers and police in the Brooklyn Projects, has resulted in (if not his best, then) certainly his most mature film to date.

Listen, I like Spike, I've kept up with every movie of his so far, excluding "She Hate Me". But even a seasoned veteran such as he can get better with literary influence. So much so, that the story in "Clockers" completely overrides Spike's typically gimmicky visual tricks and (this is why I'm most proud of this film) his unabashed preachiness he seems to need to constantly insert in his projects. The biting dialogue is there: "Black man say he didn't do sun-in, you don't believe him. Black man say he DID do sun-in, you still don't believe him." However, Lee manages these thematics seamlessly into the plot's progression with a curious mixture of intuition and force.

Lee shifts the focus of Price's novel from Rocco to Strike, a young African-American "clocker" (round-the-clock crack dealer) looking to rise in the drug-trade ranks, run by his makeshift mentor Rodney Little (a blistering, cunning performance by Delroy Lindo). Rodney -- persuasive as all hell -- asks/tells Strike to off a worker in a fast-food restaurant for limiting Rodney's dealing options. Hours later, the guy is dead but the crime is not shown. When Strike's older brother Victor (Isaiah Washington) confesses to police, hardened Detective Rocco Klein (suitably dependable Harvey Keitel) doesn't buy it and begins to suspect Strike instead.

As the investigation deepens, unexpected character traits emerge. Strike -- initially seeming hard, ignorant, and aimless -- actually wears that very facade to mask the fact he's really a scared kid unsure of a future. This fear and stress that accompanies his job has manifested physically as a bad stomach ulcer that makes him double over and expel blood through the latter half of the film. Victor -- the apparently virtuous, job-holding, mannerly, father-of-two -- eventually reveals a dangerous level of resentment and hatred buried deep but slowly working its way to the surface.

The "homo-cide" squad are first portrayed as racist, uncaring kingpins -- not too unlike Rodney -- that laugh and joke over bodies at the crime scene. Then Rocco and his team (John Turturro and Michael Imperioli) make unexpected business deals with Strike involving crackdowns and kickbacks. Most revealing (and rather humorous) is that the large number of customers for crack in the housing project are middle-class or affluent white people.

What separates this "hood movie" from the majority are the contradictory surprises. Unexpected, yet certainly believable. Without giving spoilers, Strike's saving grace ends up being the police he always tries to avoid. He even asks Rocco (in what I believed would be the film's disastrous downfall) what made him care about some random "nigga killing," and I was ready for Spike to throw the whole flick away on Keitel's response... The response given is one of the most honest, heartbreaking, and realistic lines of screenwriting I've come across yet. Bravo, Price and Lee.

Accolades to the soundtrack. This is one of the smartest batch of tracks Lee has assembled for a film of his, and they enunciate the dreaded and narrow confines of inner-city life without drowning you in third-rate gangsta rap. In fact, all the hip-hop tracks (especially KRS-ONE's "Outta Here") are spot on the emotion in whichever scene they are played. Even the softer original tracks (Chaka Khan, Des'ree, Seal) have a gentle nobility that doesn't pander to the R&B crowd. Terence Blanchard's orchestral/jazz score achieves several great moments of genuine woe and remorse.

I find "Clockers" to be an inquisitive, audacious and Soulful piece of filmmaking. The way in which it overlaps disheartening despair, humor-within-ignorance, poignant community drama, characters that expertly shred stereotype, and a genuine glimpse of hope is a masterful feat in any regard. It's a courageous move to make when your questions don't come with answers. What is offered is the possibility of an answer, an elaborately simple one. I expected an inner-city detective thriller but walked away with a gripping emotional maelstrom that honestly reaches the level of overwhelming. Very long story short, "Clockers" is the film that I was waiting for Spike Lee to make, because I knew he had it in him. I praise and commend this achievement, Mars. Anyone interested in a drastically good film ought to hit this joint.

The DVD is barebones: trailer, production notes, bios. But the price is worth it to see DP Malik Sayeed's stark and immediate photography in the theatrical 1.85:1 ratio, and crystal clear. Decent 5.1 sound mix, as well: the music is allowed to shine.

NO MORE PACKING

CLASSIC GANGSTA MOVIE; 4.5 STARS.......2004-08-18

A DRUG DEALER IS MURDERED IN A RESTERAUNT ONE NIGHT AND THE DETECTIVE ON THE CASE [PLAYED BY THE GREAT HARVEY KEITEL] DOESN'T BELIEVE THE MAN WHO CONFESSED TO IT IS REALLY GUILTY. HE THINKS HIS BROTHER [MEKHI PHIFER, IN HIS FILM DEBUT] IS THE ONE THAT'S REALLY GUILTY. THIS WAS A VERY WELL ACTED MOVIE AND UNLIKE MANY OTHER GANGSTA MOVIES, THIS IS SHORT ON VIOLENCE! THIS IS THE KIND OF GANGSTA MOVIE THAT MAKES YOU REALLY THINK ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON AND WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN NEXT. A VERY GOOD MOVIE FROM SPIKE LEE.

Charlie Rose with Ethan Nadelmann; Richard Price; Craig Horowitz; Larry Brown; Tony Bennett (February 1, 1996)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Ethan Nadelmann; Richard Price; Craig Horowitz; Larry Brown; Tony Bennett (February 1, 1996)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose, Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

3-6 Years | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

7-9 Years | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

10-12 Years | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Charlie Rose with Spike Lee; Jack Newfield (September 12, 1995)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Spike Lee; Jack Newfield (September 12, 1995)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Description

Filmmaker Spike Lee talks about his new movie Clockers, powerful African-American images in film, the Knicks, and the statements he tries to make with his work. Then, Jack Newfield discusses his documentary Don King: Unauthorized. The book deals with King's monopoly over the boxing world, and the culture and economics of professional boxing.