Strictly average movie

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Coming off a well receptive original run from 411 BC Greece, Aristophanes' play lives on because of the universal themes it projects. Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris) leads the women of Chicago from with holding sex from men until the gang wars stop and the men surrender their arms. They take over the National Guard Armory similar to the take over of the Acropolis in the original tale. Spike Lee maintained the idea of the divided chorus, but his version had more differences than similarities.In this film two gangs are at war: Trojans who wear orange lead by Cyclops (Wesley Snipes). They are fighting against the Spartans who wear purple and are lead by Chi-Raq (Nick Cannon). John Cusack plays a preacher/priest in the community. The dialogue is mostly poetic, much in a rap style. The issues go deep and is supportive of Black Lives Matter, painting everyone in South Carolina as racists. It is also anti-NRA and the politics of the film is the cause for both the love and the hate. Most of the politics is presented in a funeral eulogy delivered by John Cusack who wasn't poetic. Drugs are alluded to, but are not considered a major problem.Samuel L. Jackson plays Dolmedes who narrates the story and gives us the Greek background. Spike Lee has managed to find clothes that don't look good on Jackson as well as poetry he can't master. Lee also uses numerous Greek names in the film, including the gang names that were not in the original play. For instance Oedipus (Wade F. Wilson) describes an unhealthy relationship with his mother.Certainly worth a view for liberals. Conservatives will most likely be less enthusiastic.Guide: F-bomb, sex, nudity. Adult themes and language throughout.

I get it: Lysistrata in modern day Chicago. But it feels like Spike needed to make some hard choices. Ancient Greek or Modern America? Both and? No. You end up with selective rhyming, female stereotypes and over-simplified gang violence...it failed as an adaptation, it failed as a realistic portrayal. So much unrealized potential here. West Side Story it is not.

Spike Lee and Kevin Willmot have taken Aristophanes' hilarious Lysistrata and turned it into a phantasmagoria of satire and heartache that asks some important questions about America's fixation with firearms and sex -- and all in rhymed couplets. When the women of Chicago go on a sex strike to protest the out-of-control violence of their city, Lee fills the screen with some indelible images and more creativity than most films of 2015. He's also blessed with an amazing cast, from the empowering Teyonash Parris as Lysistrata to Jennifer Hudson as a mother who loses her child to gang violence.Lee is the most adventurous and gifted director working in America right now. Chi-Raq is ample proof of that.

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.