Rating: 
Summary: Notes on the DVD
Review: The DVD is a single-layer flipper: midway through, you need to turn the disc over. Plays well on an el-cheapo player, no memorable stutters. No home-theater components here, can't comment on the A/V quality, but those added features don't disrupt, important to us low-enders.Others have already commented enough on the content, won't belabor those points. A TIME TO KILL is fiction, entertainment and as such succeeds. Memorable are the human issues and interactions; the heat between the Bullock and McConaughey characters, for example, and how that plays out -- excellent. For true-to-life legal action, spend the day at your local Superior Court.
Rating:
Summary: The most moving experience of my life.
Review: As a european it is hard sometimes to understand what lives amongst the people in the south of the USA. When in Louisiana in 1996 I watched this movie together with my gf in a local theater. The experience of seeing that movie as a white european guy in a theater in the south of the US with the local people there gave me the most special feeling I ever had after a movie. I never experienced people hugging eachother crying and just really living with the movie like this ever before. I think this says something about the movie and the theme it covers. This is most definately one of the most important movies of my life and will for always change or re-affirm the thoughts about racism. I bought the video, and will get the DVD too for saving it for a long time. I can really recommend buying this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible is an Understatement, Deeply Moving
Review: John Grisham's tale of justifiable revenge was one of the best films of 1996. When a black man kills the two white rednecks who brutally raped and beat his daughter it seems his conviction of the murders will be cut and dry. So when the small town's lawyer is asked by the man (played with masterful skill by Samuel L. Jackson) to defend him it seems a hopeless cause. But when the klan gets involved the case becomes personal. This film is entirely unsettling because it makes us realize that events like this still happen in small towns throughout America, especially in the South. The themes of racism, of overcoming racism, of justifiable homicide, of justice outside the law are so superbly represented in this film that it seems impossible to me that this movie wasn't nominated for many Academy Awards. But alas, the past is the past. Chock full of great performances (especially Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kevin Spacey) and masterful direction by Joel Schumacher, A Time to Kill is one heck of a movie. A true classic.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful
Review: Recent episodes of Ally McBeal aside, you'll hardly encounter a greater insult to your intelligence than this film. Listen to this: The protagonist (Samuel L. Jackson) is a man who guns down in broad daylight the two thugs who have raped his daughter. In the process he winds up shooting the leg off an innocent policeman who was accompanying the prisoners. Jackson is thus the 'hero' of the story. And in case we are in any doubt about it, when the one-legged cop takes the stand for the prosecution, he actually comes right out and bellows at the jury 'He's a hero!'. Thus we are asked to believe that a policeman who was permanently crippled in a murderous attack will commend his attacker for his homicidal actions. Remember, bearing in mind the insult-to-intelligence thing, that this is: (1) a law-enforcement officer (2) in a court of law (3) commending the man who committed a capital crime. Good one, Joel. But it doesn't end there. The man's lawyer (Matthew McConaghey) decides to cobble together a defence of not guitly by ... temporary insanity. Leaving aside for the moment that this is possibly the weakest defense one can insult a judge with (to wit: 'I was insane, your honour, but just for the few seconds during which I was killing those people and wouldn't have done it otherwise'), there is another difficulty. This 'temporarily insane' defendant seems to have been exceedingly well-prepared for his moment of madness, hiding out in a dark crevice of the courthouse all night with a firearm and suddenly leaping out (in slow-motion of course) to gun down his victims. But these obstacles are not enough to overcome. McConaghey must be faced with disappearing funds, a highly partial judge, a largely white jury, a killer D.A. making huge political capital out of the case, several failed witnesses, attacks by the Klan which culminate in the torching of his house, and a witness-box performance by the defendant that all but seals the prosecution's case. The key piece of advice that he needs that might just win the day comes from his own 'temporarily insane' client: he has to make the jury close its eyes (yes, literally) and imagine that Jackson's daughter is white. So: a story that's presumably all about racial injustice boils down to this: can our heroes get a white jury to agree that if it was their daughter, they might gun down two guys too (and thus not deserve to go to prison)? For Pete's sake, even the title of the film is semi-exculpatory. (Remember: the temporary insanity plea has evaporated at this point.) It's like the Ladybird book of Race Relations, isn't it? Can McConaghey do it? If you rent this title to find out, I've wasted my breath.
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Summary: Sensational!
Review: There is no better way to describe this movie except to say that it is outstanding. Matthew McCounaghy as the defense attorney, Samuel Jackson as the avenging father,Sandra Bullock as the law clerk and Kevin Spacey as the District Attorney help to make this movie good. Samuel Jackson gains justice by killing two [killers]. It becomes McCounaghy's duty to defend the father. This is an out- standing courtroom drama. You sit on the edge of your seat wondering what the verdict will be.Spacey plays his role as the prosecuting attorney to the hilt. The all white jury is also a piece of work.It was especially nice to see the good guys win. This movie made a John Grisham fan. See this movie. You will not be dissapointed.
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Summary: a time to love matthew m.
Review: this is the best movie ive ever seen!! i watch it all the time!! matthew mcconaughey is definitely the FINEST MAN ALIVE!!! he does an awesome job at playin' the very good-lookin' jake brigance on this movie! sandra bullock is also my favorite actress so this is the perfect movie for me!! it was filmed in canton, mississippi which is about 8 miles from where i used to live!! if youve never seen this movie, you're missin' more than you realize!! I LOVE MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY!!
Rating: 
Summary: Racism, violence, white trash, murder ("Jerry! Jerry!")
Review: "A Time to Kill" has good intentions. It stars: Matthew McConaughey as lawyer Jake Brigance Samuel L. Jackson as Carl Lee Hailey, a father who kills to avenge the rape of his little girl Kevin Spacey as the snide, sinister District Attorney Sandra Bullock as Brigance's law clerk, Ellen "Rork in Boston, but Row Ark in Mississippi" Ashley Judd as Jake Brigance's wife Oliver Platt is Jake's buddy Harry Rex Keifer Sutherland as a vengeful redneck and Donald Sutherland as eccentric, civil-rights-activist/disbarred lawyer/drunk/mentor Lucien Wilbanks With an all star cast like that, you can't go wrong, and the film, at least plot-wise, doesn't. Carl Lee Hailey's 10-year-old daughter is raped and left for dead by two white trash redneck dopeheads. Enraged, Hailey takes justice into his own hands and fatally shoots the two rapists as they leave the courthouse. Everyone in the small Mississippi town hears the news within minutes and takes sides, and Hailey hires a young ham-and-egger, Brigance, to defend him. As Brigance tries to avoid a conviction from the all-white jury, the brother of one of the rapists (played by Keifer Sutherland) gets together a couple of good ole boys to form a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Violence erupts, protesters march and chant, death threats and burning crosses abound, everyone is covered at all times with a sheen of oily sweat, and there's even an explosion. "A Time to Kill" is like the "Jerry Springer Show," but intelligent. The dialogue, however, could use work. It seems as if a good writer and a mediocre writer banged out the script, then cut it up and shuffled it together, intermingling the really well-written scenes with some really choppy dialogue. The same goes for the acting. Jackson, Spacey, and McConaughey are excellent and convincing in their roles. Platt is charming as Jake's best friend and a sleazy divorce lawyer. However, Judd is useless and even childish in her role as a trophy wife, and Bullock, as Jake's law clerk, sounds as if she's a shy girl in a high-school play who hasn't quite memorized her lines yet. (This really irked me because in the book version, her character was headstrong, outspoken, and very smart.) I encourage anyone to rent the movie for themselves. It's definitely worth seeing, even if the writing and acting is a little off in places. The story redeems the bad acting.
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Summary: Very underappreciated.
Review: First off... great cast! Kevin Spacey, Samuel L. Jakcson, Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd, Matthew McConaughey, Charles S. Dutton, Oliver Platt, Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, Patrick McGoohand, Joe Seneca, M. Emmet Walsh and a great supporting cast thrown in! Kevin Spacey is by far one of the best performers in Hollywood, and his subtle, deceptive and straight forward approach as a prosecutor is compelling. Matthew McConaughey is our main character. He plays a lawyer struggling with what is right as he puts his life and the lives of others on the line defending a man who committed a crime he could have stopped. Add in that his wife (Ashley Judd) and daughter are distancing themselves and he has the lovely Miss Rourke (Sandra Bullock) as his assitant and you have one heck of a family dilemma. Racial tensions heat up between the NAACP, KKK and local community members over the racially charged case. Charles s. Dutton plays Sheriff Ozzie Walls and delivers a strong performance as a black man in a primarily white county as he struggles with himself to do the right thing or defend himself and his people as he is inclined to do. Oliver Platt is a perfomer that you must see if you are not familiar with him, and this is one of the better movies to see him deliver his goods. His off-beat divorce attorney character will have you laughing as he offers some comedic relief to a very emotionally enveloping drama. The Sutherland clan are on two ends of the spectrum in this movie and both deliver with very little room to work in their supporting roles. This movie is a bit violent in a few scenes and I would steer children away from it, but this story is a must see for everyone else. One of the best movie adaptations of a book as John Grisham's work is brought to the big screen. The end of this movie will probably leave you emotionally spent and the ending summation in the courtroom is one of the most excellent deliveries in recorded history. In short: BUY THIS MOVIE!
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Summary: Great Cast=Great Movie!!
Review: This is an excellent movie, I have goose-bumps thinking what to write about it without giving it away! Samuel L. Jackson plays a protective father and hard working man to make sure his family is feed and clothed. His oldest daughter is on her way back from the store with the weeks groceries. Two white "red-neck" males find this poor defenseless negro girl and throw beer cans at her. They then grab her and throw her in the back of the truck. She some how walks home and her mother finds her. Samuel gets a call at work and when he walks in the door, all hell will break loose if he ever gets his hands on the people who did this. The men end up getting arrested and when they are walking into the courthouse Samuel jumps out of the closet and shoots them. He gets thrown in jail for murder and calls Matthew McConaughey's character who is a down on his luck attorney. He helped one of Samuel's characters cousins get off on some charges. Samuel's character can not afford too much and Matthew's firm sure needs the money. Sandra Bullock plays a women who is going to law school and wants to help this attorney by doing research for him. Donald Sutherland plays Matthew's mentor and is as usual great in this role. The Clan gets called in, the odds are against McConaughey, all white jury, and Kevin Spacey playing the D.A. The court room scenes are great in this movie and keep you on the edge of your seat. When the closing arguments are heard, Matthew's character gives perhaps the best ever in any court room drama I have ever seen. Innocent or Guilty? Well you will be Guilty if you do not buy this movie to see if Samuel is guilty for defending his family and giving those two men what they deserve after the things they did to his daughter. Want to get your blood going? Get this movie!!
Rating:
Summary: YOU WANT TO WATCH A GOOD MOVIE- SEE A TIME TO KILL
Review: DIRECTOR JOEL SCHUMACHER IS DEFINITELY AT HIS BEST IN THIS COURT ROOM DRAMA. BASED ON JOHN GRISHAM'S NOVEL, THIS FILM, WHICH TAKES PLACE IN A SMALL SOUTHERN TOWN, IS A REAL EDGE OF YOUR SEAT MOVIE. TO BE HONEST, MY PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES WITH FILM ADAPTATIONS ON NOVELS WEREN'T AMONG THE TOP 10 LIST. USUALLY, I FIND THAT THE BOOKS ARE ALOT BETTER THEN THE MOVIES THAT FOLLOW (OR TRY TO FOLLOW) THEM. "A TIME TO KILL" WAS THE FIRST GRISHAM NOVEL THAT I READ AND, ADMITTINGLY, THOUGH I WAS NEVER INTO COURTROOM BOOKS, THIS ONE GOT MY ATTENTION. FROM BEGINNING TO END, THIS BOOK HAS ALL THE INGREDIENTS FOR A BEST-SELLER. THE CHARACTERS- (ESPECIALLY, JAKE BRIGANCE-THE YOUNG ATTORNEY) ARE PHENOMENAL, THE PLOT-SUSPENSEFUL, AND THE ACTION KEEPS YOUR ADRENALIN PUMPING! THOUGH I AM A GRISHAM FAN, THERE WERE OTHER BOOKS WHICH I DIDN'T THINK HIGHLY OF; BUT I THINK THAT THIS BOOK IS THE BEST I'VE READ THUS FAR. AFTER I READ A.T.T.K, I READ "THE CLIENT", WHICH WAS ALSO VERY WELL WRITTEN. I ALSO SAW THE MOVIE BASED ON THAT BOOK. THE FIRST TIME I SAW "THE CLIENT", I HAD JUST FINISHED READING THE NOVEL, AND THAT MAY BE A REASON I DIDN'T CARE MUCH FOR THE MOVIE. WHEN "A TIME TO KILL" WAS FIRST BEING MADE, I HAD READ UP ON IT, AND FOLLOWED UP ON IT EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. WHEN THE PREVIEWS CAME OUT, IT LOOKED FASCINATING AND FOR ONCE I WASN'T DISSAPPOINTED WHEN I SAW THE FILM. NOT ONLY THAT, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. MATTHEW MCCAUGHNEY (FORGIVE IF I MISSPELLED THE NAME) PLAYED THE LAWYER PERFECTLY. IT WAS LIKE THE PART WAS MADE FOR HIM. HE HAD THE PASSION, THE ENERGY AND THAT FINNESSE THAT ONLY HE POSSESSES. THIS IS ONE MOVIE THAT, IN MY OPINION TOPPED THE CHARTS- AND THERE WASN'T MUCH FICTION IN IT EITHER. I MEAN THE PLOT WASN'T FAR FETCHED AT ALL. BUT, MOST IMPORTANT, THE MOVIE WAS JUST AS GOOD AS THE BOOK, IF NOT BETTER. THE BOTTOM LINE- DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT-TAKE IT OUT, SEE IT FOR YOURSELF & GET BACK TO ME.
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