Sucker Free City

I went into this movie assuming it was going to be a series.

You know the "pilot" feeling? We get to meet and know something about the main characters, how they got to where they are now, and have some ideas about what's going to unfold during the first season of the show.

It was good, almost very good. But I also knew they were holding back some stuff because it was going to be a series. If it was a movie, I would have felt differently because then I would have thought: "Hey, I see where you are going, why hold back?"

So, while I definitely felt a bit cheated by the ending, I was already cutting it some slack, because it was setting up nicely for an interesting series. I was anticipating some of the topics that were going to be brought up during the show. Lots of potential.

In fact, when I watched it, I was assuming that the next episode was going to appear the following week, and started messing with my TiVo to get a Season Pass set up.

But it wasn't available yet. So I decided to wait a few months for the pilot to get picked up, which never happened. After a while, I forgot about it.

It's not until today, when I saw the listing here, that I remembered how I felt about the show.

Frankly, my opinion now is: Don't watch it! Why put yourself through a couple hours of "pretty good" entertainment, with plenty of intentional plot holes and missed opportunities?

It's a true shame they never followed up on this.

I have to say that I was surprised at how excellent this film was for a "made for Showtime" film (thought I shouldn't have been that surprised since it was directed by Spike Lee) -- it's got an engaging and strong plot line, extremely strong and realistic characters, solid acting, and it keeps moving at a good pace, yet doesn't bombard you with superfluous action, camera tricks, or extraneous pumped-up music.

My only criticism is that it sort of peters out at the end with a somewhat weak, anticlimactic (nearly ambivalent) ending. But don't let my small criticism discourage you from checking this flick out -- it's definitely worth your time to seek it out.

Sucker Free City refers to San Francisco, where three interlocking stories take place with black, white and Chinese guys on the street. Some are gang-bangers (black), or hard-bitten mafia (Chinese), and the other (white) are more marginalized with some dabbling in some 'thug' business. What's very strong here in a pilot episode is also something of an unfortunate weakness considering it's Spike Lee directing, and directing well: it ends on a note of 'what comes next', of a few too many loose ends to feel totally at ease as a stand alone work, which it sadly became once Showtime decided not to pick it up. While one wonders if they could pick up the reins properly from Lee, or if he could produce the series, or (more logically) if it could properly compete with HBO's The Wire, taking it as a stand-alone made-for-TV movie, it's quality s*** we're talking about, so to speak.

Lee directs with a professionalism that is uncanny, but like any good film artist trying to work into something mainstream he only puts his marks here once in a while, even less than in something big like Inside Man (one of the trademarks though, Da-BOMB malt liquor from Bamboozled, is a fun and nice touch). He does what he needs to do: tell all these stories, set up a lot of things to play out within the two-hours and for the future (as there is uncertainty even in what feels finished), and cast everything to a T. In this case we get Anthony Mackie, fresh off of what turned out to be a turkey for Lee, She Hate Me, as a gang-banger K-Luv in abandoned wasteland Hunter's Point trying to go somewhat legit with his endeavors; Ben Crowley as the credit-card hustler and sometimes coke-dealer Ben Wade, who's parents have decided to move right into Hunter's point across the street from K-Luv's people; (way underrated) Ken Leung as a collector for the Chinese mob getting in over his head with a new decked-out car and debts unpaid.

Lee creates an atmosphere that's tense, funny, and occasionally really shocking (not to spoil, but it does involve children), and he has a surprisingly strong script to work off of from first-timer Alex Tse. Everything easily gets linked together, but the tensions rise with some conventionality- just enough to keep things believable for TV. The set-up is even so good I'm reminded of Oz, where the psychology and sociology of street-life got examined with mature entertainment. One can only think how the characters lives could go on from here, but the fact that Lee keeps us guessing is a mark of his talents; ironically, this is one of the director's best works in recent years, and should be seen by more than just those looking him up this site. 8.5/10

Leon is one of the most entertaining sociopaths I've ever seen depicted. Hilarious and scary at the same time. Showtime dropped the ball on picking up the series

I was amazed by the surrealism of this movie to know this sort of stuff is really going on everyday all over the world. It shows you a side of the gang life no other movies wants to show you, more then just the violence.The allegiance. This movie shows you how one gang on one side of town ends up dealing with other gangs and shows you the rules of the street, NO MERCY for any. I would recommend this movie to anyone whether I think they would like i or not. This movie to any one with an open mind as this will open you up in a few new ways. I'm not sure where you can find it but if you do let me know because I want a copy of this since I seen it on The Movie Network.