Python Hyena Bamboozled (2000): Dir: Spike Lee / Cast: Damon Wayans, Jada Pinkett, Savion Glover, Tommy Davidson, Michael Rapaport: Satiric view into racism and entertainment. Title represents the manipulation of this image into the minds of society. Damon Wayans plays a creative consultant at a T.V station. His boss claims to b e black because he married a black woman. He approaches Wayans about creating a program of racial controversy for ratings. Wayans scouts about and eventually turns two black street performers into characters named Man-Tan and sleep 'n' Eat for a program called The Alabama Porch Monkeys, which is both a media sensation and a controversy. Director Spike Lee highlights with images from black T.V. programs. To his previous credit are Malcolm X and Summer of Sam. Wayans creates an individual who is tired of media manipulation yet pulled by its corruption to the point where he is staring at consequences. Jada Pinkett-Smith is his voice of reason until her brother is killed due to controversy stemmed from the show. Now her sense of loyalty is altered in favor of self served justice. Michael Rapaport brings much humour as the enthusiastic forceful boss. Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson play the exploited entertainers forced to wear blackface. Their destinies prove different in this well-crafted look at racism, media and one's soul. Score: 10 / 10

ginafreeson This movie was far FAR!more insulting than any of the images of black faced media it honored by portraying...I find Spike Lee to be a tan skinned black man whom is talented some what but emotionally unstable. And I notice though I haven't see anyone address it, he really thinks lighter skinned, such as himself are better than the darker ones. Notice this is why the lighter skinned men and woman are more heroic and interesting, the darker ones are more apt to have issues. Malcolm X was the only movie he made that was up to snuff...and he couldn't sway the color thing because it was based on a real story...otherwise the LOL dark skinned Muslims would have instead been drug dealer and gang-bangers! It is so obvious that Spike lee got a hate for white men and a disdain for dark women...count how many he has dared to have in any of his movies ...they are the ones that find it harder to get work you would think he would have lend a helping hand but truly people, he do not like them...SPIKE LEE IS A INSANE MAN HE IS A SELF-HATING WHITE HATING DARK WOMEN HATING CONFUSED BIGOT!BTW the worst most disgusting part of this movie is the very unnecessary end...the way he showed all of hose black instances...it made me sicken...the NAACP along with other good people many were white also fought hard so our babies and their babies, wouldn't have to see this shyt, in a common media...they won that battle but he this idiot brings it back long after it no longer an issue even O.o i found Spike lees bamboozled the most insulting supposed to be entertaining derogatory thing I have ever saw in my 60 years, I hope that someone in the future do as the NAACP did and have it removed from available fair...so our great, great grandchildren will never even know what a Bamboozled was...I pray for this!

Rodrigo Amaro "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

Absyrd My official countdown of the "TSPDT Top 250 of the 21st Century" list has begun, and #250, Bamboozled, was up, which is easily Spike Lee's most daring and innovative film. It begins with a black TV writer (Pierre Delacroix) whose new ideas for productions are too restrained and casual, no one can relate to them, so no one cares. After an almost heated argument with his boss, Pierre decides to create the most appallingly offensive, disgustingly racist idea for a TV show, so as to show his boss that the "blacker" does not mean the better. However, his idea is accepted with great applause, and he decides to exploit his show as to gain attention from the media and let the world understand is artistic intentions.And as the show becomes a hit, Pierre is confronted with many different views and opinions, and threats from the gangsta community, regarding their intentions pop a 9 in 'is azz, along with his relationship beginning to fall downhill, and his friends and family turning against him, the poor writer has only got his money and blackface statues.Eventually, the film takes a halt and begins to drag in its own satire, it creates conflicts only to surmount its already playful exaggerations, and in a technical aspect, its pacing and editing become a bit of a mess. But the film always remains intriguing, thought-provoking, and sadly realistic at times (except towards the end). If only it had focused more on the main characters personal depth, and attempt to create less a substantial satire, I would've given the film higher pros, but gladly it took risks far and proud, with authentic execution, and that in itself is an achievement.*** (out of 4)