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Chi-Raq

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Chi-Raq (2015)

December. 04,2015
|
5.9
|
R
| Drama Comedy Crime
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A modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago.

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Hellen
2015/12/04

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

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TinsHeadline
2015/12/05

Touches You

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Mathilde the Guild
2015/12/06

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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Logan
2015/12/07

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

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svikasha
2015/12/08

Spike Lee's 2015 satirical musical film "Chi-Raq" is a deeply provocative film. Consequently, the film is very polarizing and audiences will either love it or hate it. But that should not dissuade people from giving this movie a try. For one, the film stars a wide range of talented black actors including Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Samuel L. Jackson, Teyonah Parris, and Angela Basset. The versatile John Cusack is also present in this film as perhaps one of the few voices of reason in the film's truly chaotic setting: Southside Chicago. When most people think of Chicago, they probably picture the Magnificent Mile, the former Sears Tower, and iconic celebrities like Michael Jordan. But as the opening song of the movie poignantly states, for many in Chicago, the stark reality is: "Boy I don't live in Chicago. I live in Chi-raq". There were 7,356 murders in Chicago in the years 2001 to 2015. That's more than all of America's casualties in both Iraq and Afghanistan. For almost two decades now, the situation in many parts of Chicago has deteriorated into a situation that resembles a true warzone.War is not a unique experience. But the current situation in Chicago deserves some serious recognition from Hollywood. This is why one can't help but appreciate Spike Lee's creative take on "Lysistrata", an ancient Greek play that presents themes that are relevant to this very day. The original Greek play "Lysistrata" was written by Aristophanes, the legendary playwright from ancient Athens. Only eleven of Aristophanes original plays still exist today. These plays formed the foundation for ancient comedy and Aristophanes has been dubbed the father of comedy for his contributions to the ancient form. "Chi-Raq" is Spike Lee's modern take on the ancient play that was originally performed during the classical era of Athens in 411 BCE. In the original play, there is a main character named Lysistrata who attempts to persuade the women of Greece to withhold sex from their lovers as a means of forcing the men fighting in the devastating conflict known today as the Peloponnesian War to stop fighting. The Peloponnesian War is most notable among ancient conflicts because it was a conflict where Greeks broke their own religious beliefs and cultural taboos to wage total destruction on each other. The situation strongly resembled black on black violence today. The original Peloponnesian War was fought between Athens and Sparta. In "Chi-Raq", the main conflict that Lysistrata is trying to stop is a never-ending gang war between two black gangs in Chicago, the Spartans and the Trojans. Samuel L. Jackson is ever-present throughout the film as Dolmedes, a narrator of sorts who seems quite amused at the events happening around him. Lysistrata essentially brings Chicago's men to their knees. At times the film can be too political and too satirical. The lyrics and rhymes can feel absurd at times. But the film brings up a lot of profound points. For one, it recognizes that the problem goes beyond Chicago. As Lysistrata's mentor and caretaker mentions, "It's not just about Chicago. What about Bodymore Murderland? Killadelphia, City of brotherly murder? Bucktown. Brooklyn, New York". It is easy to pick on Chicago when presented with the statistics, but gun violence is a national problem. The problem has just coalesced by wreaking havoc on the Windy City."Chi-Raq" is a worthy attempt at social activism. John Cussak delivers a solid performance as a priest who offers the wise words, "bullets ain't got no names. No eyes. That's right, they're just designed to take lives. Like they'' take yours soon, son. Three places you're gonna end up: County Morgue, County Hospital, or County Jail. The people downtown don't give a **** about you. You're in the system. You in jail. And you won't make bail. And it's privatized now to capitalize. No more insurance card, no more family to feed, you're hanging from a tree. You're not even costing them money. You're making them money. And Nobody's gonna hear your ****ing 'cause this is a new legal form of lynching". The film reminds the audience that the underground economy exists in Chicago because banks and government institutions don't want to loan money to poor people. This is widely evident by seeing the stark difference between downtown Chicago, with its pristine subways and high-rising skyscrapers, and Chicago's South Side where graffiti and deterioration rule the day. At the end of the day, an investment needs to be made to fix the poverty. "We go from third rate schools to first class high tech prisons". But this doesn't mean people shouldn't take personal responsibility. If there is one thing that can be taken from the movie, its that there is a war raging havoc on the streets of Chicago. As the Liberian activist and Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee said before ending the Second Liberian Civil War, "Look, if you have any power to put stop to the war, you go and do it".

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bellacortr
2015/12/09

The Chi-Raq movie intends to deal with a very serious subject matter, but the story line is a joke. It's embarrassing and degrading to women and black Americans. The females' actual repetitive chant from the film is "No peace, no pussy!" The fact that it could not be stated on the film's promotional materials should have been a clue that it should not have been repeated in the film itself. To suggest that sex is the only or primary influence that women have is ridiculous. And to suggest that men can only be influenced by sex is likewise demeaning. If sex, rather than intelligence, controls the state of mind and actions of black residents in Chicago, their situation is indeed sad and hopeless. Quite frankly, I'm embarrassed by the trashy nature of this film.

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leighabc123
2015/12/10

This was one of the worst Spike Lee movies ever! Spike Lee really haven't made a good movie since Get On The Bus! I am mad Angela Bassett and Jennifer Hudson wasted their great acting on this horrible movie! Nick Cannon haven't been good in a movie in years! And Samuel L. Jackson was pointless. How dare he used that "Wake Up!" line? That line should have been reserved exclusively for School Daze only! And the line continuously repeated by women in this movie, "No peace, no pussy." was one of the stupidest lines in any of Spike Lee's movies. I really got lost watching this movie. I wonder how resident and citizens of Chicago feel about this movie.

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dee.reid
2015/12/11

If you go back through Spike Lee's career, you'll notice that he averages at least one film a year. That's a pretty prolific and active filmmaker. It's true that Lee has delivered some true cinematic masterpieces - "Do the Right Thing" (1989) and "Malcolm X" (1992), both of which are personal favorites of mine, come to mind - but he's also delivered some misfires; but in my close estimation, he has never made a truly bad movie.Lee's best films usually have a sense of urgency to them, and seem to speak of the cultural mood of the moment; that is why "Do the Right Thing" remains his best film and was released at the right time in 1989 and people are STILL talking about it today. That same sense of urgency and timeliness is what makes his 2015 effort "Chi-Raq" the best film that he's done in years.A problem faced by Lee in his later years was a lack of a focused vision, which is why some of those films in question ran overly long and had taken attention away from the main plots of his films and re-focused on unnecessary sub-plots, which were sometimes far more interesting.That's not the case with his 2015 "Chi-Raq." "Chi-Raq" (a combination of "Chicago" and "Iraq," meaning that Chicago's South Side, particularly its Englewood neighborhood, resembles a war zone, like Afghanistan, or, Iraq) is a comedic stage play that harks back to Lee's earlier "Do the Right Thing," "School Daze" (1988), and his criminally underrated 1995 crime-drama "Clockers" (which is my third favorite film of his). "Chi-Raq" critiques Chicago's alarmingly high murder rate (which peaked in 2015 and according to statistics presented both in the film and media from the time, 55 people were shot over the 2015 Fourth of July weekend, which saw 10 of those shootings as homicides), gun violence, gang culture, black-on-black crime, sexual politics, the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality in one engaging, 127-minute feature.Essentially a modern-day adaptation of the Classical Greek comedy "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes, the script, co-authored by Lee himself and Kevin Willmott, mixes poetry and rap, which not only adds to its authenticity as one of the more original films to come out last year, but also brings the culture of the Chicago inner-city to the cinematic forefront. Using the gun violence that the city saw in 2015 as a launch-pad - and with poetic narration by Dolmedes (Samuel L. Jackson) - "Chi-Raq" surrounds Lysistrata (Teyonah Harris), the girlfriend of Spartan gang leader and aspiring rapper Demetrius "Chi-Raq" Dupree (Nick Cannon).After the seven-year-old daughter of a local neighborhood woman named Irene (Jennifer Hudson) is killed by a stray bullet in the city's latest gang shooting, Lysistrata, inspired by the 2003 Leymah Gbowee-led sex strike that ended the second civil war in Liberia and with further encouragement by Miss Helen (Angela Bassett) and street-wise local priest Father Mike (John Cusack, who preaches an inspiring sermon at a church), organizes a sex strike of her own - the women of the city will withhold sex from their men until all violence in the city ceases. This causes problems for the men of Chicago, not just Chi-Raq, but also his rival, one-eyed Trojan leader Cyclops (Wesley Snipes). Even the mayor, Mayor McCloud (D.B. Sweeney), feels the sting of forced-chastity when his biracial wife refuses to put out!"Chi-Raq" is one of Spike Lee's greatest movies because of its potent sense of urgency and timeliness. There's no question that the alarmingly high murder rate last year - and the police-involved deaths of young black men and boys such as Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Walter Scott over the last few years (and who are all name-dropped at one point in the film) - inspired Lee to put "Chi-Raq" together. But he had fun with the story. It's a comedy and a satire, and it's all quite funny, but like all good satire, it draws much-needed attention to a problem that gets a lot of negative reporting in the media, but nothing gets done about - due to indifference from politicians and the general public alike, and the idolizing of self-destructive behavior by those in the communities affected by all this.Like Lee's "Do the Right Thing," which people accused of not offering any real solutions to the problem of racism (and people even accused of inciting racial violence that would ultimately never happen), "Chi-Raq" doesn't offer any real solutions to the problems faced by Chicago's gun violence epidemic. Instead, it presents a satirical fantasy scenario where chastity results in world peace. Who knows? Maybe a sex strike could lead to peace in Chicago? I really have no idea, but hopefully someone sees the movie and is inspired..."Chi-Raq," like a number of truly great and deserving films over the years, was also grossly overlooked by the Academy this year. It goes to show the increasing loss of integrity that the Academy has sustained over the years. But I hope that in the coming years, "Chi-Raq" gets more attention and becomes regarded as one of the most important films of our time and one of Spike Lee's finest achievements.But let's remember: "No Peace, No Piece!"9/10

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