She Hate Me (2004)

This movie is about a man who takes a moral choice for his work but forgets values in his private life. I can't relate to such upside down philosophy. So, "hate" is surely a word too harsh but I don't care about his life.Nevertheless, the story raises good questions: For one time, you see a man becoming a "sex-object" and it's great to achieve this sort of equality with women in charge. From my point of view, it's not a revolution: I always thought, that in relationships, men court but women decide! But I am not the Di Caprio / Pitt / Clooney mold, too! Thus, the truth would be that it's the sexiest who runs the relation whatever the gender! It's a tyranny of beauty then! And as depicted in the movie, nowadays, when beauty is there, money is not far away. What can we do for money? Is everything for sell? Money leads to freedom or alienation? When you see the beautiful opening credits, you wonder..For sure, Lee is a talented director and knows how to tell a story, even disturbing for your beliefs.PS: and don't forget FRANK WILLS, a man who stayed true to his principles instead of money!

That's what I found myself wondering as I watched She Hate Me. What else could account for the improbability that the same filmmaker gave us both the magnificent 25th Hour and this dreadful film?I won't dwell on the details, but to summarize: The film has two main plot lines. One paints a cartoonish picture of corporate corruption at a pharmaceutical company, complete with "business talk" as mis-imagined by a writer who clearly has never worked in such environments. Ellen Barkin and Woody Harrelson waste themselves in these scenes.The second plot line is where this train wreck gets truly sad. Jack Armstrong, our protagonist, agrees to impregnate his ex-fiancée (Fatima, who has since come out as a lesbian) and her lover for money. Fatima decides to refer other lesbians to Jack for the a cut of the fee. We are expected to believe that nearly every one of these gay women elects to be impregnated via intercourse with Jack, rather than by artificial insemination. Along the way we are subjected to a truly embarrassing fantasy confrontation between Watergate security guard Frank Wills and most the the upper echelon of the Nixon White House.The saddest aspect of She Hate Me is that so many talents (John Turturro, Ossie Davis, Isiah Whitlock), none greater than the wonderful composer Terence Blanchard, were wasted on a script that is at once ridiculous and insulting to the viewer.Spike, get some therapy.

I guess the first thing you should know is that this is a Spike Lee film. The very name wards off a number of people; I'm not one of them. I don't get warded off of a film just because of the director (unless it's Uwe Boll).The second thing you should know is that this is a good movie. You should know this up front because everything else I'm going to say is going to make it sound bad. But that's because of what the movie is.Most movies have a single point. An underlying purpose that the writer/director/etc is trying to get across to the audience. Large films may have 2 points.There's enough raw material in this film to be 3 separate 2-hour movies. The primary premise, a man being paid to impregnate a number of lesbians, is just the tip of the iceberg. You're going to see everything from racism to shadows of Enron; to Mafiosos; to prostitution (seen from a very strange angle); to a truly unexpected, extended homage to the security guard who caught the guys in the Watergate hotel. Subplots disappear for extended lengths in the film, only to be resurrected and dramatically change where the film is going.It shouldn't hold up, and as a regular movie it doesn't. But this isn't a movie; what it is is about a year's worth of a man's life. Now, life doesn't work like a movie. People don't deal with just one singular issue inside a year. A year is filled with numerous issues, some that disappear for months only to return and really screw you over. And, for John 'Jack' Armstrong, this was a very unique year indeed.If you look at it as one year's worth of interesting clippings from the incredible life of Jack Armstrong, it's a different film. This man is thrust into a whole bunch of crap that he has to deal with. Issues from his past come out, and he has to deal with them. It does still have a solid, overarching story arc that does get resolved in the end.The main problem is that cinema really can't effectively do what Spike Lee is trying to do. Not in its 138 minute running time.However, I think this film works best as a conversation starter. As a way to bring up numerous issues and sort of lay them all out there for people to start talking about. In some ways, it's effective in the direction that Se7en is (though not in nearly as strong a way), in showing you how apathetic society has become about various inequities, corruption, and so forth. With the exception of environmentalism, this film touches just about every societal issue to some degree.

OK, so I went to see this movie because of Monica Bellucci, however, I am a Spike Lee fan. This movie just went from bad to worse and I didn't even know what hit me. The script was not coherent, it flow wasn't smooth, and I really didn't get anything out of the movie but a scene of bewilderment for having to sit through that. People say there is a meaning in this movie but I just couldn't get passed the bad storyline. However, not to trash Spike to much, this movie defiantly obtained a cult status, so if the plot interests you this movie just MIGHT be for you, cause its definitely wasn't for me ... in fact I can say this movie was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. So thats it, it gets 3! On a side note, Spike Lee redeemed himself in Inside Man.