User Reviews

You know, I want to like Lee. One of the great things about movies and literature is the ability to shock people. It's a childish impulse at heart, but great when you're deconstructing philosophies. In satirical cases, the childish impulse is justified by the purpose of the deconstruction. The need to expose the hypocrisy is much more than the jollies of the person doing the ripping.

Unfortunately for Lee, satire requires a deft touch. Being too coy and the satire fails as a justification for the subject of the satire in the first place. Being too blunt and the satire comes off as preachy and self-serving. Lee and his work fall into the latter; he does not have the touch to do effective satire because he is too close to the subject matter. Lee has some valuable insight into matters of race (in that he never fails to remind us) and we take him at his word. Sadly, he is so bitterly one-sided that his preaching. Given his lust to bash all sides as a battle between him and THE WORLD, his movies often come off as diatribes that are disconnected from reality. The power of cinema is to put a person in a differing standpoint through prospective, and Lee doesn't grasp that. To him, it's a bigger stage for his ego and himself and we are 'fortunate' enough to pay only a meager fee to finance his house to hear this Great Oracle of the Nike Commercials speak his wisdom..which is about as intelligent as a thirteen-year old Goth girl talking about death and cutting herself.

The racial politics behind Drop Squad are so pathetic--rich equals white and poor equals black--is that it makes a mockery out of Lee's MLK love. Lee never really grasps the idea of racism has a solid element of class-ism behind it. If you're black, you're poor yet humble. If you're white, you're rich and morally bankrupt. And if you're black and rich, then you're white and need to be knocked back down into being black. And with this, Lee's world of racism is complete according to this movie. And that idea is so self-hating and overly simplified that it defies logic. Are we watching an examination of race relations, or are we watching a poor little rich boy deal with his unresolved racial/class issues by endorsing the same idea of Crab Theory--see "The Corner" for more on this in a much more mature way then Lee could ever imagine or wants to--that tortured him as he was growing up? In fact, why doesn't Lee grow up and make movies a bit more textured instead of playing the game he was forced to as he was growing up? In short, Lee's "Do the Right Thing" was the alpha and omega of his career. He would never show the same maturity or grow above it ever again. In a sense, he sold out himself, and the world is lesser for it.

I only got this movie because I collect movies that are related to the beer and brewing business as part of my breweriana collection. The connection (involving the "Mumblin' Jack Malt Liquor) turned out to be very weak (although I would like one of the 64 oz bottles used as props for my collection).

What I got instead was a picture that was a little too real to have you believe it was an attempt at fiction, but too "fake" to have you believe it was real. It was just out there in no man's land.

Let's face it, whether it is alcohol and fast food or facial tissue, advertising transcends sex, religion and race and targets (exploits?) some group the product is aimed at. It is not the advertisers fault that certain groups tend to buy more of certain products. It's called exploiting a market and that's their job.

Bottom line - this is a confusing movie and I would strongly recommend giving it a "pass." unless you are a huge fan of one of the actors.

I'll admit that I didn't know of this films existence until a critically acclaimed movie critic went on a rant against it(hint: the same critic that gave Speed 2 a thumbs up). That was enough to make me go out and get it. Drop Squad will not be accepted by the keepers of Status Quo and their token friends but it will most likely be accepted by those that can see past their nose.

The story is simple enough: the Drop Squad(Drop is an acronym for Deprogramming and Restoration Of Pride) is group that kidnap ignorant sellout blacks and force them to reconnect with their culture while getting them to realize what they're doing to their people is wrong. Rocky Seavers(Vondie Curtis-Hall) is the leader and has questions about some of the methods that the Drop Squad use on sellouts and begins to bump heads with one of his comrades, Garvey(Ving Rhames) about the methods used. They end up kidnapping corporate clown by the name of Bruford Jamison(Eriq La Salle). From then on Bruford gets flashbacks on all the times he sold out and recalls a crucial moment when he screwed over his own brother Flip(Afemo Omilami)by refusing to come help him out when he tried to get a job at his workplace. The acting is great. Eriq La Salle, Vondie Curtis-Hall and Ving Rhames all turn in some good performances. I like the message of the movie and felt that the scene where Flip confronts Bruford was a touching scene as well as the scene where Rocky talks to Bruford. Closing comments: Drop Squad is a necessary requirement for everybody thats into movies with substance. If the Drop Squad really did exist then I'm glad they did but if they didn't I couldn't be more disappointed especially since we need them now more than ever! Two Thumbs Way Up.