Every Spike Lee Movie, Ranked
Updated 9/11/20 to add American Utopia.
Spike Lee's new Netflix film Da 5 Bloods has been earning mostly terrific reviews, but where does it rank among the veteran director's best films? In the gallery above, we rank every feature directed by Lee in order by Metascore (reflecting the consensus of top professional film critics) from worst to best.
Note that a few made-for-television films are not included because there were not enough reviews available to calculate a Metascore. These include Spike Lee & Company: Do It a Cappella (1990), Sucker Free City (2004), Kobe Doin' Work (2009), and 2 Fists Up (2016).
Hoping to correct Hollywood’s failure to recognize the contributions of African American soldiers in World War II, Lee directed this adaptation of a novel by James McBride (who wrote the screenplay) about four members of the all-Black 92nd “Buffalo Soldier” Division who find themselves trapped in a Tuscan village behind enemy lines. Even the few critics who were positive on this 2008 box office bomb found its 160 minutes excessive.
“You may begin to wonder if Lee really initiated this project or if it only fell into his hands after Roberto Benigni proved unavailable.” —Scott Foundas, Village Voice