Even though he has several classics under his belt, Spike Lee has officially struck out with his latest film Old Man. While he will still garner the respect he rightfully deserves, he has left a trail of movies that tarnish his legacy.
Whether or not he can be classified as an artist who is now past his prime is still up for debate. Nevertheless, the Brooklyn representing Lee has brought a distinctive style of spotlighting race relations, key historic moments and the role of media to the big screen since 1983. This in turn has produced hits like Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X and Bamboozled.
Though we always trust Lee to bring his best, sadly that is not always the case. So this prompted us to take a hard look at his filmography and the numbers didn’t lie.
So we present the top 10 worst Spike Lee films of all time from worst to best. We are confident you’ll agree with our selections, but if you don’t let us know in the comments section.
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Photos: Universal, Fox, Variance, Sony, Columbia
10. She Hate Me (2004)
Estimated Domestic Total Gross: $366,037
Lead character Jack Armstrong falls on hard times leading him to sell his sperm to several lesbians wanting to procreate. One of the lesbians is the daughter of a mafia boss and the credibility of the film unraveled even further.
9. Girl 6 (1996)
Estimated Domestic Total Gross: $4,939,939
In his first film where Lee did not contribute to the screenplay, Girl 6 was positioned as a comedic look into the female psyche but fell way short of expectations. Additionally 6 lost its Spike Lee appeal with all the gratuitous cameos from the likes of Madonna and Quentin Tarrantino.
8. Red Hook Summer (2012)
Estimated Domestic Total Gross: $338,803
Although this was the fifth film that featured Lee’s favorite New York City borough, the only thing that was noteworthy was an appearance by Do The Right Thing’s Mookie character, who was still delivering pizza.
7. Sucker Free City (2006)
Estimated Domestic Total Gross: N/A
Originally penned to be a series, Showtime passed on Sucker Free City and it ultimately became a movie. Unfortunately it did very little to set itself aside from other films in the same genre with a very predictable plot about three young men drawn into to separate lives of crimes.
6. DROP Squad (1994)
Estimated Domestic Total Gross: $734,693
While the satorical idea of kidnapping people of color (buppies, drug dealers, politicians) who betray the community seemed like a provocative idea, DROP Squad came off as absurd with scenes of torturing the victims with Oreo cookies stuck on their face and being dressed as Aunt Jemima.
5. Kobe Doin’ Work (2009)
Estimated Domestic Total Gross: N/A
Spike got unprecedented access to Kobe Bryant for 24 hours and all we got was a documentary of very boring technical basketball commentary from Bryant.
4. Summer Of Sam (1999)
Estimated Domestic Total Gross: $19,288,130
While Sam offered up some intense cinematography, the story felt very crowded with too many subplots that weighed the film down.
3. Miracle At St. Anna (2008)
Estimated Domestic Total Gross: $7,919,117
Here Lee intended to showcase the contribution of African-Americans during World War 2 but Miracle At St. Anna only proved to be too longwinded to be a game changer.
2. Get On The Bus (1996)
Estimated Domestic Total Gross: $5,754,249
We applauded Lee for attempting to recapture the monumental moment of the Million Man March on film, the script couldn’t avoid a certain predictability that held it back from being truly impactful.
1. Clockers (1995)
Estimated Domestic Total Gross: $13,071,518
This Brooklyn based crime drama that doubled as a thriller had a very detached plot line that left viewers at the end wondering “this was a big deal?” Also what was the chocolate milk and trains about?
