Show the Player


Updating

Mo' Better Blues

movies like this
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
LESSMORE
Any
TIME
ANYRECENT
Any

top fans

X
Register now to get news and recommendations filtered for your tastes.
Love this movie? Then rate it now and become a fan!
Something wrong with this clip?
Something not quite right?You need to be logged in to use this feature.Log-in now, or register for The Filter.
Mo' Better Blues (1990)
Director
Genre Drama
Xbuy/download
choose from the following online stores...
Your rating
X
Register now to get news and recommendations filtered for your tastes.
Average rating 100%
Hi there! Rate this film and register to get personalised recommendations!

Mo' Better Blues overview

Spike Lee's 1990 directing effort is a jazz film, the story of a fictional trumpeter named Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington). He leads a quintet at the Beneath the Underground club with a flashy saxophonist named Shadow Henderson (Wesley Snipes). Though Shadow takes a few too many solos, everything seems fine in Bleek's life. Trouble soon arises, however, and he is forced to make decisions regarding both his best friend Giant (Spike Lee), and his relationships with two women. Giant, his manager and old pal, is addicted to gambling and often gets roughed up by thugs looking for pay back. Bleek is the only member of the quintet who wants to keep him as manager. The trumpeter's woman problems concern trying to decide between two girlfriends who both love him: a schoolteacher (Joie Lee) and a singer (Cynda Williams). Spike's father Bill Lee scored the film, with contributions from Branford Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Abbey Lincoln and Ruben Blades (who plays Giant's bookie). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

News & Reviews

Mo' Better Blues News & Reviews

"It?s tight, suspenseful, funny and packed with great music."
4 out of 54 out of 54 out of 54 out of 54 out of 5
03 February 2008
"At least a half-dozen movies are struggling to get out of the ambitious but maddening hodgepodge that is writer-producer-director Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues. "
"In Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues, the young Brooklyn jazz trumpeter Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) enjoys a life of laid-back hedonism. "
4 out of 54 out of 54 out of 54 out of 54 out of 5
"Spike Lee's film on the life of a jazz musician features some wonderful music, but in its slapdash construction and melodramatic hokiness, it does little to illuminate the nature of the profession it attempts to explore. Lee, whose father was a noted bass player, has an unquestionably vast knowledge of the jazz idiom and the kind of life that g..."
2 out of 52 out of 52 out of 52 out of 52 out of 5

comments

Mo' Better Blues comments

There are no related comments yet