One of my all time favorites.

Good concept, poorly executed.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film itself, like the show it portrays, is a satire. This is an important point that the below reviewer seemed to miss.One should understand that many characters (socialist rappers, Harvard sell-out, white dudes dying to be black) are themselves caricatures and stereotypes. The reason why, for example, Wayans' acting is so forced and corny is because Spike seeks to mock the idea of someone who overhauls his personality to fit in with the "mainstream" (or whatever) world. He overacts because he plays a character who is himself acting. From a comic standpoint, these characters succeed. Which, again, is a satiric device.Excellent soundtrack.

"Bamboozled" tells the story of Pierre Delacroix, a desperate African-American writer (played by Damon Wayans) that needs to create a different show to his white boss (Michael Rapaport) in order to raise the low network's ratings. His idea: a minstrel show where black actors paint their faces even blacker (remembering the times when white actors painted their faces to portray black characters because African-Americans were forbidden to act). The boss likes the idea, but Pierre's assistant, Sloan (played by Jada Pinkett-Smith in a good performance) thinks that this is not a good idea, claiming that the audiences would react badly, but she follows his project and they hire two street artist dancers to the show. They change their names to Mantan (Savion Glover) and Sleep 'n Eat (Tommy Davidson). Both of them disagree with some aspects of the show, which contains many unfortunate references to African-Americans, but they stay in the project because they're homeless and they have no money. Like Mantan says: "If I can dance and make some money that's OK!"And the show who had everything against it turns out to be a enormous success making Pierre a influential person in the TV business. But like Tom Petty used to sing, what goes up must comes down and that eventually happened when people starts to complain about the racist and not funny show. One of these people is Sloan's brother (played by Mos Def) leader of an rap group that feels that something must be done to end with the show. In the middle of all this mess are the crisis of conscience of all the characters brought to this controversial matter. Are they doing it only for the money? Self-respect worths nothing? These are some of the questions that this movie shows us. The good aspect of the movie is that Lee puts humor in situations that in real life could be very embarrassing, such as the first meeting between the dancers and the boss, when he says to one of them to dance over the table, while he laughs hysterically, or when he adds ideas to the show, considering himself to be more black than Pierre. But, on the other hand, Lee was ambiguous in saying to the viewers if the minstrel show was intended to be funny or not. When the show was showed in the first time I wasn't laughing at all, thinking that was a strange and almost pointless moment, but then I thought maybe that's the idea, racial stereotypes are only funny if you're at the other side of the audience just like the extras who were applauding to every joke. But to us viewers we're not supposed to laugh because it's not funny, it was just a way to tell that many times TV executives and writers fails to show what's funny and what's not. Many people complained about Damon Wayans french accent saying that it wasn't funny, that it was annoying, but I say that's not true, in fact, this is was a Lee's statement that really works in the movie, because Pierre was an Harvard graduated, so he wanted to pass this "white image" to his network bosses. A satire as he explained in the beginning period. The first thing that comes to the mind of many viewers of this movie is the countless references to Sidney Lumet's "Network" (specially in the notable Mantan's protest scene) showing the media power over his spectators, how producers and writers get their ideas to create a show that be appealing to all audiences many times using themes politically incorrect to guarantee high TV ratings. The main difference between "Network" and Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" is the way both stories are presented; this time we had lots of black humor and numerous real life references that wasn't showed in Lumet's work. I'm not saying that this movie is a better work than "Network", but it's a bold story that puts it very close to the greatness of many controversial movies on the subject. Spike Lee enters this decade with another great movie, but lacks the rage protest of the wonderful "Do The Right Thing" and don't have many good performances like "Malcolm X" had. 10/10

For the most part, Spike Lee is an angry filmmaker and I cannot blame his anger nor do I criticize it. With films such as Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever, he shows his passion and understanding of situations such as racial feelings between all races, not just whites and blacks as well as how outsiders view interracial relationships. Here, his target is the entertainment industry, specifically television and he cuts right to the core because he knows how important and complex this issue is and wastes no time of this 135-minute film to stuff every frame and scene with a message and relating what he has seen in this country and how he feels about it.First off, the acting is near flawless. Damon Wayans gives his best performance ever as Pierre Delacroix, a successful producer upset that he is not considered black with his fancy dress and white accent. Determined to make his case, he decides to create a minstrel show very much in the vein of those from the 1930s and 40s. However, he goes one step further and hires black actors to use blackface makeup as well as make the subject and setting the most politically incorrect setups imaginable. What he doesn't expect is the overwhelming popularity of the show complete with huge ratings and numerous critical awards.For my money, Lee almost had a great film here. The first hour is terrific, biting satire, attacking everything and anything. Lee takes no prisoners and also gives some very interesting bits about how a TV show is brought to life. But, once the show becomes a success and the people involved develop consciences, Lee's vision narrows and soon it becomes more of the angry and socially-aware Spike Lee we've seen in much better films. Being white myself, I never liked how Lee seemed to portray whites as leering fools and the true ignorant people of America as opposed to the "more commonly accepted" view of blacks. Still, his feelings were justified in Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever and earlier works. Bamboozled tries too hard and loses its mission towards the end. The end is in fact a rehash of many other movies seen before, even ones self-consciously referred to here such as Network and The Producers.Spike Lee is a gifted and fearless director and I cannot say this is a boring or uninspiring film. I was held captive every step of the way. I just wish he had picked a better and more effective way to satirize his subjects, as well as maybe broaden the horizons; only then could it really take root.

I went through equal parts of liking and disliking this movie. Enough so that I feel the need to write it out here.First the good: The message of this movie is right on. It really makes you think about portrayals of blacks in popular culture not only in the past, but in the present. How different is the dichotomy between the straight laced Tommy Lee Jones and the "hip/cool" Will Smith in a movie like Men in Black from that between the "massa" ("yes sa") and the black house servant in movies of old? So the movie is good in terms of making you think about these things. All of the scenes showing the black face performances on the "Man-Tan Show" and the montage of blacks in entertainment at the end of the movie are quite poignant, and frankly left me speechless and fixated on the television screen.The bad: The acting and script left a lot to be desired. Okay, to be fair, Damon Wayans left a lot to be desired. Has a good performance EVER come out of a Wayans brother? I understand he was trying to perform a "white" black man, but every word out of his mouth felt so forced that it was painful to listen to. Other than Wayans the acting, while not superb, wasn't terrible. The script however had a lot of problems. It felt like it was forced along too much, being made to lead to Mr. Lee's agenda rather than unfold naturally as a story. This made it feel rushed at times and completely ludicrous at others.Overall, if you want to be made to think about race in America and in entertainment, this is a good movie to pick up. However, you will have to sit through some painful acting and a lackluster script, so be prepared.