MovieSorter

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Amazing Grace
Really Great 66 Points 2018

Aretha Franklin was never even that close to being one of my favorite singers. There, I’ve said it.
Diana Ross, Nina Simone & Mavis Staples all found more favor with me than did the Queen of Soul.

That’s now changed. I…

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WikChip Video The most sought-after concert film? Yes!
The Great Debaters
Great 104 Points 2007

Anti-denigration: The Great Debaters teaches us the root of ‘denigration’ and much more, especially how Wiley College’s debate team rose up to defend their rightful position as heirs to American greatness.

Every history lesson should be this entertaining: Denzel Washington sees to that, dire…

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Finding Forrester
Great 66 Points 2000

Affecting, engaging movie about the happenstance meeting of two once-in-a-lifetime talents: a legendary white novelist and a teenage black hoopster … who is also a singular literary talent. Only in Hollywood, as the saying goes. Still, with Sean Connery heading up a first-rate cast, a smart …

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End of Watch
Great 83 Points 2012

I avoided End of Watch when it came out in 2012, thinking it was just a steroidal TV Cop Show, moviestar Jake Gyllenhaal notwithstanding. Then David Ayer’s movie demanded attention, given BrianSez’s effusive review and Ayer’s recent mas…

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WikChip Video Cop Dogma in Outstanding Open Scene
He Got Game
Great 66 Points 1998

Spike Lee’s He Got Game serves as an elegy for basketball in America – its cultural transcendence, but also the avariciousness at the upper reaches of the hoops industry. The movie trawls through agents, leeches, homeboys and groupies on the make, each hoping to ride a prime-time player to Eas…

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WikChip Image Reel Hoop Stars in Real Life
White Men Can't...
Great 83 Points 1992

Ron Shelton made White Men Can’t Jump after Bull Durham and before Tin Cup. His sequence of great sports movies is thus baseball, basketball, golf. This middle one – his hoops hit – nailed the J with its title, even if the rest veers from perfection.

White Men Can’t Jump was welcom…

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WikChip Image They've Got Game.
3 Replies
  • BrettHarrison – Regarding "Wick's Review":http://www.viewguide.com/m...
  • Wick – Regarding "Wick's Review":http://www.viewguide.com/m...
  • BrianSez – Regarding "Wick's Review":http://www.viewguide.com/m...
Devil In A Blue...
Great 66 Points 1995

Devil In A Blue Dress is a twofer: a damn good neo-noir movie and an excellent 1940s L.A. period piece, from an African-American POV. Throw in a prime Denzel Washington performance and you’ve got a great movie, one that stands the test of time. Pity they never made a sequel.

Taken from Walte…

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WikChip Video Denzel on Devil In A Blue Dress
Straight Outta ...
Great 83 Points 2015

Art imitates reality in Straight Outta Compton. Actually it amplifies, glamorizes and ultimately twists reality. The art is Gangsta Rap, the reality African-American ghetto life, the artistic twists many.

Twists aside, the movie is a semi-accurate chronicle of an important pop-culture movem…

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WikChip Video Featurette: Tribute to Eazy-E
1 Reply
  • Felix – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":http://www.viewguide.c...
What Happened, ...
Great 66 Points 2015

Nina Simone’s name and presence had occasionally penetrated my consciousness and always piqued my interest. Happily, this well done documentary finally brought her consequential music and politics alive.

Dubbed the High Priestess of Soul, she was a unique and uniquely transfixing artist, fusin…

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WikChip Video Liz Garbus on her Nina Simone doc
Race
Great 69 Points 2016

“Jesse Owens, American Hero” are four words that were imprinted in my mind from an early age. Jackie Robinson stands with him as an icon of African-American greatness, and therefore of American greatness, but Jesse Owens came first, by a lot. Plus he won not just one but four Gold Medals and did …

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WikChip Video 1936 Olympics with Hitler & Jesse Owens
1 Reply
  • Wick – Regarding "Tripod's Review":http://www.viewguide.com...