Strike is a young city drug pusher under the tutelage of drug lord Rodney Little. When a night manager at a fast-food restaurant is found with four bullets in his body, Strike’s older brother turns himself in as the killer. Det. Rocco Klein doesn’t buy the story, however, setting out to find the truth, and it seems that all the fingers point toward Strike & Rodney.
Has the strengths of Spike Lee's best work without the preachiness and gimmicky camera moves of his weakest.
– Edward Guthmann,
San Francisco Chronicle,
18 Jun 2002
fresh:
Helping make these points is as strong a cast as Lee has yet worked with.
– Kenneth Turan,
Los Angeles Times,
15 Aug 2002
rotten:
A study of the urban dope-dealing culture and its toll on everyone who comes in contact with it, the picture has an insider's feel that is constantly undercut by the filmmaker's impulse to editorialize.
– Todd McCarthy,
Variety,
9 Jun 2008
rotten:
The performances are strong, but the spectator often feels adrift in an overly busy intrigue.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
22 Sep 2008
fresh:
There is a force and focus in Lee's work, an absence of intellectual posturing and a willingness to let his material speak for itself that he has not achieved before.