(MAY ‘25) MONTHLY MARATHON IN FILM - Wesley Snipes
May 2025 Monthly Film Marathon - Wesley Snipes
I won’t lie. This month started out stronger than it finished. Something drew me to Snipes’ dark charisma; the definition of 90’s cool. The sharp shadowy demeanor of Blade, the fun-to-watch cocky Sidney Deane in White Men Can’t Jump. This guy was undoubtedly a star from this time.
I started out hot with Passenger 57 and New Jack City. Two early 90’s action staples.
Passenger 57 was a bit more of a conventional action movie with clear cut protagonists and antagonists and a straight forward plot. Snipe’s charisma seemed to be enough to push me through the predictability of this one but overall I couldn’t help think I had seen better versions of this. I think this speaks to the hype and excitement that Snipes had around him at the time. His performances elevated films that might not have hit the mark otherwise. And they are lasting today only because he remains one of a kind and an indicative symbol of this era.
“What’s your status?”
“Single…at the moment…”
New Jack City was a bit more interesting to me. It really seemed to be like someone wanted to make a black version of a Scorsese/Copola/DePalma movie like GoodFellas, Scarface or the Godfather. This one also reminded me a lot of the Departed which obviously came after but, I believe, lives in the same vein of film. These types of movie take on the issue of organized crime in America which is endlessly fascinating; Is the “community” justified in taking care of the community when the government is not governing? is that justifcation? They think they’re leveling the playing field in a system that marginzlaies them. Setting the terms for their own success for once. In truth, they’re destroying their own people.
“You gotta rob to get rich in the Reagan era.”
This hyper stylized cinematography gave the flick a real cool 90s feel. Guys riding around in jeeps with Kangols refereeing Michael Jordan. Flavor Flav is DJing in the club. Ice Tea and Chris Rock are playing very significant roles. I can see this being the coolest entity on earth back in the early 90s.
“Sit your 5 dollar ass down before I make change!!”
Overall, I think this one is swinging for the fences and works for the most part. Wesley Snipes shines through as usual. I found that throughout this viewing month, in every movie I saw, the man was only shown up by one actor. Which brings us to the next one…
Mo’ Better Blues is an early Spike Lee Joint, and despite feeling like that it seemed like this was one where the man had a lot of freedom to flex his chops. Securing a cast with Wes, and (early) Sam Jackson and the man himself; Denzel. Brooklyn shines through Spike’s colorful lens. Denzel is the closest possible to I’ve seen making a fedora work. The end is very cute displaying the circle of life - we’re more the same than we are different. In reference to Wes, this is a bit of a side-guy role. He plays Denzel’s direct competition musically and in love; which might not be so believable with so many guys besides Wes. He was effective in his side role, but he was ultimately second fiddle.
Blade was one of the reasons that I wanted to tackle Wes this month. It has a pretty good reputation in the film paradigm as a sacred 90s text. Wes charisma is at full mast as usual for this one. He’s kinda doin a deep vampire voice thing which works. Theres a great deal of John Wick-esque combat scenes. Overall, I enjoyed this one but was a bit underwhelmed. Just kind of one of those 90s movies that have very uninteresting similar pacing. I enjoyed the cheesy special effects which reminded me of Carpenter and thought the movie drew notable parallels between vampire politics and human racism and discrimination.
“You better wake up. The world you live in is just a sugar coated topping. There is another world beneath it, the real world, and if you want to survive you better learn to pull the TRIGGER.”
Here we are. The end of the month. For whatever reason, I wasn’ gonna watch this one. But all, in all I’m glad we did. I was kinda hoping this month I would find a Wes performance that was better than Sidney Deane in White Men Can’t Jump. Surely there might be one that maintains the character’s energy. Sadly, this wasn’t the case. Despite my failure I am happy to know that this Character is one of Snipes’ best performances. He and Woody bounce off each other in this in Ping Pong. This might be a testament to Woody, which it absolutely is. Also, Kubrick was notably a fan of this one (via his daughter).
