If you've not been to the good house for a while, you might feel like you've been held hostage to the word by Spike Lee. But if you've the patience, Lee has a rewarding payoff in store for you.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 9, 2019

The movie doesn't end so much as it gives up.

| Aug 7, 2018

Is faith a saving grace or a swindle?

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 7, 2018

It comes off embarrassingly amateurish at times, but other times the sentimental moments will captivate you, but only for a moment.

| Original Score: D+ | Sep 8, 2017

I still cannot fathom whatever point Lee's trying to make here, or why he would derail his not-bad summer idyll with such a nuclear bomb.

Full Review | May 3, 2015

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Mar 10, 2013

"Red Hook Summer" has so much life, so much verve. Spike Lee always makes movies you want to wrestle with, even if the rewards this time around aren't as worthwhile.

| Feb 12, 2013

... shimmers with unfocused energy.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 25, 2012

Unpolished performances are forgivable in they've got a great story to support them. Unfortunately, this is not a great story.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 14, 2012

For the most part it's all rather pleasant, if somewhat aimless.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 13, 2012

It's close to bottom-of-the-barrel Lee.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 13, 2012

There's little drama or sense of progression in the movie until the bombshell hits, and then it just whimpers along for another half-hour until the end.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 7, 2012

Lee is, as ever, a gifted image-maker, but his storytelling has gotten so lax over time as to barely register.

| Original Score: C+ | Sep 6, 2012

Spike Lee in coasting gear.

Full Review | Sep 4, 2012

Spike Lee's least crabby vignette in a decade

| Sep 4, 2012

Seems to be little but demands much more.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 1, 2012

Lee's typically paradoxical statements on race and religion muddle the narrative, and his old stylistic tricks -- saturated color schemes, characters addressing the camera -- aren't exactly inspired.

| Aug 31, 2012

When Lee preaches in Red Hook Summer, the movie bumps along, though it's reasonably entertaining. But when he decides to teach us about the human heart, it becomes a potent experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 31, 2012

Clarke Peters is an impressive force, but the story gets away from Spike Lee on this one.

| Original Score: C | Aug 31, 2012

The story is static for about 90 minutes, then rises to action, but in a way that seems impromptu, either made up on the spot or ill-considered.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Aug 31, 2012