She Hate Me

With She Hate Me, Spike Lee has gone so far off the rails that one wonders if he can ever come back. After committing so many lame brained blunders in one film you are forced to wonder, "How can he redeem himself?" I know, how about a completely half-assed DVD edition of this completely full-assed movie? She Hate Me is, at least, two entirely different films in one. Plot one involves the protagonist Jack Armstrong (played by Anthony Mackie) blowing the whistle on his company's illegal Enron-esque wheeling and dealing. Not surprisingly the evil corporation sets out to frame Jack. The complete absence of detail and continuity guarantees that this tale of one man fighting the system is a bewildering polemic. Plot two grows "logically" out of plot one: Young executive ends up broke and persecuted so it's inevitable that he would start to impregnate lesbians for money. He not only impregnates them but he does it through intercourse, five at a time, making these avowed queers shout for joy once they fully engage his horn o' plenty. The acting is uncomfortable, the sex is the most unsexy since Eyes Wide Shut, the stories are either unsupported or unimaginable and there are enough flaws to indicate that something went seriously awry during production. The extras continue in the same vein. The deleted scenes are inconsequential and the "behind the scenes" feature informs us that Spike hired an actual lesbian as a technical advisor who was on the set everyday. "Yo! Don't listen to the dyke. Ladies just keep on humpin'. Lesbians love dat shit!" If the director's comments offer the occasional insight, it is immediately countered by goofy self-involved remarks that make you think he just sat there and said whatever came to mind. Yeah, She Hate Me all right. She made me watch the whole damn movie. (Columbia/Sony)