He Got Game
Buena Vista Pictures | Release Date: May 1, 1998 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Denby
The movie is a volatile combination of ambitious mythmaking and nasty reality, and like most of Spike Lee’s work, it is also an inextricable combination of good and bad. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Lee uses visual imagination to lift his material into the realms of hopes and dreams. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
As is often the case with Lee, though, the film left me wishing for even more scenes of casual intimacy, still the most powerful way to carry any message. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
As usual, Lee tries many kinds of stylistic effects and uses wall-to-wall music (by Aaron Copland and Public Enemy); what’s different this time is how personally driven the story feels. Read full review
80
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
Basketball, bold urban landscapes, larger-than-life characters and red-hot visual pyrotechnics are the strong points of Mr. Lee's biggest three-ring circus, not to mention the central presence of Denzel Washington. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
He Got Game seems to cheer for integrity, honesty and hard work while playing up its own cheap thrills. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Its best moments are as exuberant and insightful as anything the screen has given us this season, and its passionate concern for believable characters in a recognizably real world offers a refreshing change from the current spate of feel-good fantasies. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is essentially a familiar story told with consummate skill. Read full review
70
SalonGary Kamiya
Awkward and often downright silly, He Got Game is nonetheless heartfelt, a moving portrayal of a man who finds his long-lost son through faith, hope and basketball. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
Uneven, ludicrous, but--oh man!--fun to watch. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Flaws and all, this may be Spike's most purely enjoyable movie, and his best looking Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
As a director, Lee continues to hone his considerable craft and is unafraid to take creative risks along the way. But after leaving the scripting to others for his past few feature outings, he has returned to the word processor — and it's evident his screenwriting abilities haven't kept pace. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRussell Smith
For all his superfan's intimacy with b-ball culture, he focuses less on the sport's fascinating mystique than on generic recapitulation of how celebrity culture seduces and devours young minority athletes. Read full review
60
VarietyEmanuel Levy
Lacking the moral indignation, outrage and militant politics that marked Lee's earlier work, this vibrantly colorful film is a tad too soft at the center, and arguably the director's most mainstream movie. Read full review
60
Washington PostStephen Hunter
He got too much movie. That's the scoring total on Spike Lee's He Got Game, which ultimately must be judged a mild disappointment. Read full review
60
The New YorkerBruce Diones
The film is gorgeously shot (slow-motion basketballs spin in the air like Kubrick's spaceships), and the majestic Aaron Copland score helps some of the images to soar, but Lee's screenplay, heavy-handed and didactic, gives the actors little room to convey any real emotions. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Though too long by a good half hour, Lee's latest film packs a genuine emotional punch, largely because its polemical agenda doesn't entirely eclipse the drama. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
The problem, sadly, is that the whole amounts to less than the sum of its parts. Read full review
50
Film ThreatTom Meek
Lee makes a great looking film, though the soap box message about greed becomes exhausted and overplayed early on. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Coming from a major director like Spike Lee, this is a colossal disappointment. And a surprising one. Read full review
20
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
There's not a relationship in He Got Game that feels right, especially the one between Washington and Allen, and if that doesn't work, neither does the film. Read full review
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