Lee's film never recaptures the impact of the opening credit sequence, a grimly deglamorized tableaux of real-life crime scenes.
Clockers (1995)
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Reviews Counted:45
Fresh:30
Rotten:15
Average Rating:6.4/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 9 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Director Spike Lee examines the violent world of urban drug dealing through the eyes of Strike (Mekhi Phifer), a 19-year-old "clocker," short for round-the-clock pusher. Strike agrees to kill a... Director Spike Lee examines the violent world of urban drug dealing through the eyes of Strike (Mekhi Phifer), a 19-year-old "clocker," short for round-the-clock pusher. Strike agrees to kill a fellow employee of his boss Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), an influential, popular drug lord. But when the hit goes down, it is Strike's moral, law-abiding brother Victor (Isaiah Washington) who confesses, shocking everyone. The detective assigned to the case, Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel), doesn't believe Victor--the more that Klein, along with others in Strike's life, start putting the heat on, the more the clocker finds himself up against the wall. The question is: Who is the real killer? A gritty, realistic adaptation of Richard Price's best-selling novel, Lee's film is also one of his most highly invigorating. Shooting with a gritty, washed-out film stock, with startling moments of saturated primary color, CLOCKERS feels like a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the daily lives of a group of New York City drug dealers, featuring a star-making performance by Phifer. [More]
Starring: Mekhi Phifer, Harvey Keitel, Delroy Lindo, John Turturro
Starring: Mekhi Phifer, Harvey Keitel, Delroy Lindo, John Turturro, Isaiah Washington, Keith David, Pee Wee Love, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Regina Taylor, Brendan Kelly
Director: Spike Lee
Director: Spike Lee
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Reviews for Clockers
There is a force and focus in Lee's work, an absence of intellectual posturing and a willingness to let his material speak for itself that he has not achieved before.
The performances are strong, but the spectator often feels adrift in an overly busy intrigue.
A study of the urban dope-dealing culture and its toll on everyone who comes in contact with it, the picture has an insider's feel that is constantly undercut by the filmmaker's impulse to editorialize.
Spike Lee gets a good perfromance from newcomer Phifer as the young crack dealer, but the movie is diffuse, paying too much attention to the urban environment and not enough to the personas and dilemmas of the central characters.
Clockers is messy and didactic, but it's complex in a way that a tidy film can't be.
The result is a more sober, mournful and meditative expressionism than you'd expect. That's not to say the film isn't suspenseful, but the director's distaste for the inner city's gun culture is clear to see. Superbly acted.
A trilha sonora intrusiva acaba cansando, mas o filme se sobressai graças à complexidade de seus personagens.
Spike Lee brings a signature edge and richness to his film images, but must a filmmaker's distinctive style be so heavy that it interferes with the story itself?
Latest News for Clockers
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From director Joe Roth and screenwriter Richard Price comes "Freedomland," an apparently racially-charged kidnapping thriller that stars Samuel L. Jackson, Julianne... More...
June 23, 2005:
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