There was a lot of buzz surrounding Red Hook Summer in development because director Spike Lee reprises his role from the 1989 classic Do the Right Thing.  There were other elements that bode well for one of the better Spike Lee joints in recent years, including the Brooklyn setting and star Clarke Peters (The Wire).  Red Hook Summer polarized critics at Sundance (Matt gave it an “F”), which could be viewed as another positive sign, given Lee’s resume.  Both the good (the music, visual flair) and the bad (poor child actors, drowning in that melodrama) are on display in the first trailer.

Jules Brown, Toni Lysaith, Nate Parker, James Ransone, and Thomas Jefferson Byrd star alongside Peters in Red Hook Summer.  Let’s you and I wait until it opens on August 10 to make up our minds.  In the meantime, test the waters by watching the trailer after the break.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the fifth season of The Wire.  Click on the corresponding links for my reviews of Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, and Season 4.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the fourth season of The Wire.  Click on the corresponding links for my reviews of Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the third season of The Wire; here are my reviews for season one and season two.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the second season of The Wire, and click here for my review of season one.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

And we couldn’t think of a better kick-off to this feature than HBO’s The Wire.  Hit the jump for my review of the groundbreaking drama’s first season.

Spike Lee has never suffered from a lack of ambition and the most remarkable thing about his latest film, Red Hook Summer, is how it finds so many ways to be absolutely terrible.  Every seed of a good idea is smothered under the weight of incompetent directing, horrible pacing, rancid dialogue, and atrocious performances from its lead child actors.  The film vomits up banal editorials, slight commentary on religion, minor observations on modern filmmaking, and a vague sense of community.  Many of the main characters celebrate Jesus, and that carries over to the audience when you thank Christ that the movie is over.

Spike Lee‘s Red Hook Summer is one of my must-see films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.  The movie features a cast comprised mostly of unknown and all we knew about the plot was the brief logline: “A young Atlanta boy spends his summer in Brooklyn with his grandfather, who he’s never seen before.”  A full synopsis has gone online and reveals that the grandfather, Enoch (The Wire‘s Clarke Peters) is a strict firebrand preacher who “is bent on getting [the boy] to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior.”

Hit the jump to read the full synopsis and check out new images from the film.  The 2012 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 19–29^th.

Director Spike Lee is currently hard at work shooting his next film Red Hook Summer, and now it looks like the pic has a tentative release date. Details on the exact nature of the film are scarce, as we only know that it centers on an adult from New York who spends the summer in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, and Lee will be reprising his role as Mookie from his pivotal 1989 flick Do The Right Thing. Earlier today, Lee took to his Twitter and posted an image of him standing next to a garage door that looks like a mock-up of an early poster for the film with the tagline “Burning Up Da Summer 2012!”

So, straight from the horse’s mouth, it seems like we’ll be getting a new Spike Lee Joint next summer. Aside from Lee’s role, the purported cast list includes Turron Kofi Alleyne, Samantha Ivers, Limary Agosto, Heather Simms, Kalon Jackson, and Blackfilm.com adds Clarke Peters (The Wire) and Nate Parker (Red Tails) to the list. After Red Hook Summer, Lee will move onto the remake of Oldboy with Josh Brolin set to star. Hit the jump to see the full promo poster.

Early in the new year we got our first look at the teaser trailer for Treme, the upcoming series from The Wire creator David Simon.  Consisting mostly of slow pans about New Orleans, it didn’t reveal much, though the scattering of various instruments hinted at the musical nature of the show.  HBO has released a new trailer that imparts all sorts of great imagery, though it still doesn’t reveal much about the narrative–we’ll let the logline do that: the show “explores the lives of several struggling musicians and other New Orleans locals in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina”.  The new trailer rather beautifully lingers on said musicians dancing and parading through the street amid the destruction, and gives us a look at cast members Steve Zahn, John Goodman, Wendell Pierce, Clarke Peters, Khandi Alexander, and Rob Brown (among others), plus an Elvis Costello cameo.  The 1:37 clip is often reminiscent of the mostly headless “Way Down in the Hole” montages that primed the viewer for each episode of The Wire.

The show’s debut date of April 11 is now less than a month away, so get excited.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer and the full plot synopsis.

The year is 1985.  The place: a fervently eroding South America plagued by the mistrust of race due to apartheid.  Nelson Mandela is imprisoned.  The end of this political game is approaching, but how will it go down?  Secret meetings are held by opposing sides of this warring country.  Sounds like a great movie plot, huh?  The most intriguing part of the story is rooted it’s reality which took place long before such a film could be made.  More after the jump: