Bamboozled: Critic Reviews

Visually drab and ultimately done in by a heavy- handedness no prettier to ponder.

The shortfall in Bamboozled stems from Lee trying to encompass too much, with too many subplots and a far from optimum choice of targets.

A seriously schizophrenic work made up of two incompatible movies.

Poor Mantan Moreland and Hattie McDaniel and all the rest are made to take the rap in this movie for contributing to a legacy of racist degradation. One would think, given what they were up against, that a bit more sympathy might be shown to these people.

It's a movie that both entertains and provokes -- would we expect anything less from Spike Lee?

This is basically sloppy, all-over-the-map filmmaking with few hints of self-criticism and few genuine laughs.

If Mr. Lee meant to bring back blackface entertainment as a metaphor for the current black performers he finds obnoxious, he has miscalculated.

At his best, Spike Lee is too brave to be subtle.

You won't look at race onscreen the same way again.

Provocative Spike Lee movie for older teens.

Lee, in his least commercial film, shoots for controversy but loses focus.

Spike Lee's shotgun attack on the treatment of blacks in television and the blurring of image and identity is a brilliant rant that digresses into repetitive sermonizing.

A particularly painful mess, because it begins so well and has such promise.

...where most of us in his audience will lean forward to hear a whisper, we turn away from a shout. Oh, how Bamboozled shouts.

Lee's satire on American TV is an intriguing failure.

The director's new masterpiece is a summation of nearly everything he has learned as a filmmaker, and about black culture, but he doesn't feel the need to beat the audience over the head for each lesson he's trying to impart.

Lee's basing the movie in satire was a smart move because in it he can push the envelope harder than drama or straight comedy would have allowed.

He hammers his point home until the viewer is emotionally beaten into submission and manipulated into a consenting stance.

Spike Lee has made one of the few films in the year 2000 that is actually about something, and for that he deserves great credit.

Extremely heavy-handed satire from director Spike Lee -- disturbing and thought-provoking but ultimately lacking a sense of focus.

A passionate movie bursting with ideas, but it's also a huge mess.

Spike Lee's back, with a vengeance.

Empty-headed and unspeakably undisciplined... [the] question bears asking: Has Spike Lee -- the living, breathing antithesis of subtlety -- gone completely insane?

It is an inspired but difficult film that poses many questions and takes almost everyone to task, yet offers few suggestions as to what is to be done with this infamous legacy.

By relaxing and opening up his approach just a little he could have said much more.