Jon Marin I am a huge Spike Lee fan and like any huge fan I enjoy everything he makes. Watching Spike Lee movies all these years I know what to expect going into a Spike Lee movie. Incredible dialog, incredible acting, messages or even incredible film scores (courtesy of Terence Blanchard). Spike Lee's 1996 effort Girl 6 however is a tough cookie. Upon seeing it for the first time, I was confused. There were a lot of elements in this film that I hadn't seen in any of Spike's films before. The cameos and the attempt to make this a straight forward comedy was some of the things I had never seen Spike do. But I had confidence in him and knew that he'd make this film watchable. Over the years I had been on the fence about this film and couldn't really figured out what I liked about this film. Was it the fact that it was a Spike Lee joint? Was it the incredible Prince soundtrack? So I decided to sit down and analyze the DVD of the film. We meet an actress (Theresa Randle) in the middle of an audition being conducted by Quentin Tarantino. We witness her walking out on the part because of demands and we also see her being dropped by her agent and kicked out of her acting class. Down on her luck, she looks in the classifieds and find phone sex companies looking for new ladies. She takes the job and we see Girl 6 blossom before our eyes. She has her highs and lows in the business but remains an aspiring actress at heart. Complete with fantasy scenes, Prince music, cameos and Spikes trademark shots Girl 6 was an OK comedy at best. Scenes made me cringe (see the Jeffersons/Good Times fantasy sequence), some made me laugh and the ending left me disappointed. I had now come to see what everyone disliked about the movie. But it wasn't as bad as everyone made it seem. Sure its a Spike Lee joint but don't expect it to be on the level of Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X or Bamboozled. Spike lapsed on this one but it still has its moments. 8 years after Girl 6, Spike would suffer the same fate in 2004's She Hate Me. Maybe comedy isn't his thing but Girl 6 (also see his child friendly 1994 film Crooklyn) separated him from the angry and controversial persona that the press made him out to be. Girl 6 is a mixed bag but it is watchable. I honestly can't say that I wouldn't sit down and watch the whole thing again.Girl 6 - **1/2 out of ****

jotix100 Spike Lee is a man that loves to provoke. He awakens the viewer as he asks to participate in what he is showing on screen. Most of Spike Lee's films have been unmercifully panned by his detractors, including the printed media in this country, and it's a shame because Mr. Lee is one of today's most original creators. In "Girl 6", based on a screen play by the talented Suzan-Lori Parks, a playwright herself, the director directs his satire to the porn industry. If you haven't seen the film, stop reading here!Judy, the young and black woman at the center of the story, is seen at the start at a casting session with Q.T. (Quentin Tarantino, at his most obnoxious self). Judy is asked by the director to show her breasts, which she reluctantly does, but she is so repulsed by the experience, that Tarantino, or no Tarantino, she's out of there.This young woman can't find work to enable her to live. The solution presents itself when she answers an ad for a sex phone line after having turned down a woman who runs a strip joint. It appears that Judy is a natural for the job. Suddenly she becomes one of the most demanded woman in the place. She listens attentively, talks soft and is never too pushy or mean to the men who seek her.Judy makes a mistake when she gives someone her home phone number and goes to meet one of her "regulars" at Coney Island's boardwalk. That's when the dangerous creep keeps persecuting her with threatening phone calls. Since she basically is an actress and wants a change, she decides to leave New York and go to Hollywood, a sad mistake. The last thing we see her do is go to another casting agent who demands to see her breasts, the same thing that the great Tarantino demanded from her! In fact, Spike Lee shows us how women, especially young ones, are vulnerable to fall pray to these unscrupulous operators just to get into the movie business. One thing is evident: Spike Lee is a director who gets magnificent performances out of the stars of his films. In this case is the wonderful Theresa Randle who as Judy runs away with it because she is perfect as Judy. In fact, this young actress turns a great performance under Mr. Lee's direction. It's a shame we don't see her in roles that will let her show her talents in a positive way.The large cast does amazing work. Madonna does one of the best things she has ever done in a film with the manager of the strip tease joint. She's perfect! Quentin Tarantino plays himself with all the characteristic excess. John Turturro is seen briefly as Judy's agent. Michael Imperioli and Peter Berg are seen as some of Judy's callers. Gretchen Mol, Debi Mazar, Naomi Campbell, Jenifer Lewis are part of the sex phone women, and Ron Silver shows up at the end. Spike Lee himself is the next door neighbor, but he takes a back seat in order to leave the front to the amazing Theresa Randle.

bob the moo After a confrontation with a director who forces her to take her top off in an audition, the title character of the film storms out and is subsequently dropped by both her agent and her acting teacher. Unable to get `proper' acting work, she moves into the world of phone sex. Getting a job with an office-call firm, Girl 6 is one of many girls, acting out whatever fantasy her callers want. However, the more confident she gets the more she starts to lose touch with herself.When I write a review of a film I have just seen, it helps me to write a little summary of the plot to help me think about what I have just seen. I sat this because I don't want you to think that my opening paragraph suggests that plot is a key part of this film - it isn't. What exists in the place of a solid narrative is a series of stylish scenes, spinning characters and good performances. I can totally understand why so many people just hated this film - god knows it does itself no favours - however fans of Spike Lee should find much to keep them watching as it is very much the director's film. Lee, however, cannot find anything to really build on in the screenplay and the plot is never very satisfying; the film's energy just about covers this until the end where Lee realises that he hasn't really gone anywhere to generate a traditional conclusion - this means that the serious stuff doesn't ring true.However Lee is the driving force behind the film and it is his stylish direction that keeps all the fragmented scenes/sketches/skits together. He uses different film stock to good effect and the stuff he does with the camera is typical of what we have seen in his other films - except here he does it a lot more. Of course, this is style with little narrative substance and that is not a good thing but, if you are going to do style without substance, then you'd better do it as well as Lee can do it. The film leaps all over different styles including the Jeffersons, Foxy Brown and many others; in a way I suppose this is meant to be 6 losing touch with herself on the way to finding inner confidence and peace but it doesn't really work (and the `falling down a dark lift shaft' subplot/snippets are too heavy handed on top of this).Lee's direction is the first reason for watching this film, but equally worthwhile is Randle (and not for the reason rather juvenilely suggested by many reviews here). Randle is a great actress and she shows it here - it is rather sad that she has actually done quite few films and too many of them have her in small supporting roles (Bad Boys I & II, Spawn, Space Jam, Malcolm X and so on). Here she has very little character to work with (not even a name!) but she made me forget that simply by the range of her performance. She is asked to do a lot and, despite lacking audience involvement in 6, her performance shows the range that she has - she should really be given better roles on the basis of this film, it's just a shame there aren't really that mean good roles for actresses approaching their 40's (never mind black actresses approaching their 40's!). The support cast features plenty of well-known faces - none of them actually have characters, but mostly they do OK whatever their contribution is. Washington is a good-looking guy and does OK with a character that I never understood. Lee himself does his usual role - he is amusing but contributes to the lack of narrative. The callers include people like Lee-regular Byrd, Peter Berg, Imperioli and Richard Belzer - they do what is asked of them and it isn't their fault the film doesn't work. Batson's acting coach is OTT, Campbell does nothing but look sexy, Madonna is actually OK but other like Berry and Silver merely show their face. Tarantino is suitably brash prior to his public falling out with Lee and Turturro just seems to be there for the sake of finding a part for him. Despite the many stars, it is Randle that carries the film - her character is poor but her performance is great.Indeed this sums up the whole film. To watch it is rather infuriating as it lacks characters, meaningful narrative and plotting. If you are a fan of Spike Lee then you will enjoy the style of the film and the fact that his behind-the-camera skills are there for all to see. Aside from this the only other reason to really watch it is a great performance by Randle that will almost act like an audition tape for her - no character but plenty of range and ability! The vast majority of people will dislike this film and I understand why. There is nothing to it but Lee and Randle make it worth a watch once.

Emerenciano I have always like Spike Lee's movie due to the intelligence he puts in the plot and in the dialogues. His films are full of things that make we think and they're guarantee we'll have fun. "Girl 6" however doesn't fit this category. It's not bad, actually I liked it, but it's just an ordinary movie. I liked (very beautiful) Theresa Radle performance and Spike Lee himself is also good. There are lots of pretty girls in "Girl 6", what is a good reason to watch it, but there's nothing really impressive here. My rate 6/10