Rating: 
Summary: too deep for me?
Review: First of all it is a great movie casted by a great crew. Samuel Jackson is the possibly the only one for this role. He carried it effortlessly.
But does the movie really refuse to give any answer to the "justice or revenge" question? I am not so sure. To me the ending is very much Hollywoodized. Everyone in the courtroom, including the DA (Spacey), sympathized the defendant: Carl Lee, whose 10-year-old daughter was brutally assaulted and raped. But after all it is crystally clear and he admitted outloud in the courtroom that he killed the two persons who committed the crime. The movie seemed to triumph with an uplifting piece of music after Carl Lee was verdicted innocent. Also the Klan member policeman was to be charged.
The movie is too idealistic just like the role Matthew McConaughey portrayed. It is not that easy for a white Southerner (or anyone for that matter) growing up in a separist environment to befriend with a black that easily. It would take a long long time until people can see another person beyond his/her skin color. I am no pessimistic, I am realistic. Movies don't have to be. Movies give us an escape from reality.
Rating: 
Summary: Emotionally Provoking
Review: Any movie can write a good story. Any movie can have a good cast. Not any movie can combine a brilliantly written script with the top notch performances of a well assembled cast. This film caused various emotions to surface within myself and in those that I watched this film with."A Time to Kill" is the story of Carl Lee Haley (Samuel L. Jackson) whose 10 year old daughter is raped, beaten and left for dead. Haley takes the law into his own hands and kills the men that commited the terrible crime. On trial for murder Haley calls upon lawyer Jake Birgance (Matthew McConaughey) to defend him. This leads to a very intense trial that sparks the worst that man can do. Murder, corruption, fraud, assualt, racism... and all these things are outside the court room. A brilliant war in the court room between the Defence Attorney (Kevin Spacey) and Brigance ensues. Donald Sutherland, Oliver Platt, and Sandra Bullock all play crucial roles on Brigance's legal team. Charles S. Dutton plays a magnificent role as the town's Sheriff. Keifer Sutherland, Nicky Katt, and Doug Hutchison are all great in their roles and really display their acting abilities by portraying characters that you can't help but hate. There are other actors such as Ashley Judd, Anthony Heald, Chris Cooper, Brenda Fricker,Kurtwood Smith and Patrick McGoohan play important roles and each bring something unique to the film. "Can a black man receive a fair trial in the south"? This is the questions that plagues this movie. This movie will touch on most emotions. Issues involving the NAACP, the Ku Klux Klan, and modern law courtroom tactics help bring much emotion to a movie that has so much to begin with. I am convinced that this is one of Sam Jackson's best performances. I was moved to tears when his character was with his daughter. This is a film that deals with the issues that most don't like to talk about. The issues of racism operating in this day and age is the primary background for this movie and it is dealt with appropriately, accurately, objectively, and honestly. This is not just another court room movie. This is about people and their issues with one another based on their pre-concieved notions and judgments. This film seems to center around one main point that is discussed about half way through the movie; two men who come from different worlds come together for one fight and their desires are wrapped up in the simple sentence, "when are our kids (1 black, 1 white) going to play together"? I don't think this film could have ended better than it did. Moral issues + Outstanding Acting + A Great Script = A Movie that you can't not see
Rating:
Summary: Good film from great book
Review: I consider A Time to Kill, Grisham's best book, the rest really leave me dry so I was eagerly lookign forward to this film and wasn't disappointed. Everyone in this film does this complex plot justice in when is there a tiem to kill someone, to take the law into one's own hands. I was just thinking the other day that it would be nice if Samuel L. Jackson got a nomination for an Oscar, he is in what 1 out of every 4 films? He does a great job here. And McConaughey is extremely talented as well, a new comer when this film came out, holding his own and making the film focus around him.
Rating: 
Summary: Your basic Hollywood racism film
Review: Based on the best-selling novel by John Grisham, who knows how to please Hollywood, A Time To Kill is so predictably cast with the white guys as racist, drunken, lazy or just plain stupid. The white, beautiful girl as smart, tough and not interested in money... (HA)
The jury is chock full of White people who don't care and their bad because their white. Because their white, their racist, thus again....their bad.
The Black folks are poor and live in depravity, except where Samuel Jackson got the money to buy that rifle, Lord only knows? It would be more realistic if he came out with an old pump action shotgun.
Grisham had a chance to sling mud at the Christian church too, depicting the preacher as a man easily influenced by greed.
Rating: 
Summary: Ridiculous story
Review: I guess the novel is to blame for the story. But then the film makers selected the novel, one must presume. The story is just silly. Just two examples: The lawyer, who desperately needs help, is approached by a beautiful woman who is very qualified, and who wants to help him for free. So what does he do? He turns her down! No reason for this even hinted at. Second: when they are about to lose the case, they finally get smart and win it by... (surprise) appealing purely to the jury's *emotions*, not logic. Great, a wonderful triumph for justice!
Rating:
Summary: A classic movie
Review: One of my all time favorite movies,this one I watch
over and over again.Alot of great actors in this movie,
Sandra Bullock did an awesome job.Kiefer Sutherland
has a great part in this film.Samuel L.Jackson does
a terriffic job as well as Matthew Mcconaughey.
What more could you ask for, all these great actors
in one movie.It's got drama,suspense,some action,
a little bit of romance and it's an edge of your
seat movie.If you love all of these actors you got
to see this one,a time to kill is a classic and a
tear jerker near the end of the film.
Rating:
Summary: A TIME TO KILL RACIAL BIGATORY AND THE KU KLUX KLAN
Review: John Grisham's bestseller A Time To Kill hits the screen with incendiary force, directed by Joel Schumacher. Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Matthew McConaughey and Kevin Spacey portray the principals in a murder trail that brings a small Mississippi town's racial tensions to the flashpoint. Amid a frezy of activist marches, Klan terrror, media clamor and brutal riots, an unseasoned but idealistic young attorney mounts a stirring courtroom battle for justice. This movie is great especially if you are a liberal Democrat.
Rating: 
Summary: Two wrongs apparently make a right
Review: Am I missing something? Please write and tell me if I am, because I can't understand why people admire this movie. As far as I can tell, this is what happens in "A Time To Kill": Carl Lee's daughter is raped and left for dead, and her white tormentors are captured. Before they face trial, Carl kills them. Why? He didn't believe they would be convicted, because a white jury couldn't possibly set aside its racism. Carl is then acquitted by a white jury which sets aside its racism. The film urges us to celebrate this verdict as some kind of race-relations watershed. But beneath the back-slapping, soaring music and soft focus, the take home message is this: "There is a time to kill. If you think the justice system won't give you justice, then revenge killing is a noble option." Not only is this one of most appallingly idiotic dictums ever conceived, it betrays an appreciation of the justice system which is, at best, infantile. Let's apply a little common sense here. What the white rapists did was wrong, and they should be punished for it. What the black father did was wrong, and he should be punished for it, too. Cases closed. Yes, we can empathize with Carl. Yes, put in the same position we might even do the same thing ourselves. No, that doesn't make it right. Even if you think Carl was rightly acquitted, the film defeats its own argument: the fact that Jake Brigance gets a white jury to recognise and set aside its inherent racism ("now imagine she's white") demonstrates that Carl's fears were unjustified. There was no need to take the law into his own hands after all - a black man can get 'justice' from a white court. However, I think a more realistic interpretation of the outcome is that a dumb jury can be sweet-talked by a pretty-boy lawyer into acquitting a guilty man they feel sorry for. And what kind of 'justice' is that? Don't ask screenwriter Akiva Goldsman - this is just another one of his sci-fi scripts. Nor director Joel Schumacher - here, as in his equally insulting "Batman" films, he seems more interested in visually molesting his male star than in telling a decent story. This film was pitched as an exciting suspense-thriller, nicely cast with a mix of heavy-weights and newcomers, and having the guts to explore some serious social and moral issues. For me, it's a vile and contemptible little film peddling an equally repulsive morality. What the hell Spacey, Bullock and the Sutherlands are doing here is beyond me. It's a blot on all their resumés. Go back to your old job as a window dresser, Joel. On the evidence of this film, pretty and pretentious facades are what you're best at.
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie!!
Review: I saw this movie when it was first at the movie theater. I thought it was great and I still watch it today. I have recently updated my VHS and replaced it with the DVD.
I would like to comment about the other review that said it was too much. I have read the book and all that stuff did happen in the book. Minus the almost divorce. The book kind of hinted that it might, but it didnt come out and say it.
Rating:
Summary: Samuel L. Jackson makes this fairy tale film enjoyable.
Review: Some of you are thinking: "What does he mean by fairy tale?" Let me explain. In the real world bad things happen, as was the case with the little girl in the film, but this film doesn't stop with that. A Time to Kill goes on with one terrible thing after another, almost as if the town in this film were reaping some kind of Godly wrath on the same lines of the Pharoah of Exodus. I sometimes imagine the director, writers, and staff as some kind of Beavis and Butthead characters saying to one another, "hey, uuuh, let's try this, that will make the film really cool." I never read A Time To Kill but something tells me Grisham didn't create all the many climatic events in this film. First we have the rape. Then we have Jackson's character in jail - for shooting and killing the two men, as well as paralyzing the poor guard who stood by. Then Matt M's character almost gets his house blown up, and almost has an affair. Then we have his house getting burned down - pardon me if I mix up the order. Then Saundra B gets kidnapped and left for dead...by a cop who is secretly hanging with the KKK boys in his free time. Then a poor national guard soldier is sniped down and killed - or paralized - I forget. During that sequence, we hear Matthew M's character saying the equation of , "poor soldier, he got shot for me." WOW, talk about an understatement. Oh yeah, there's a race war that involves the KKK - you read me right - and ends with the Grand Dragon of the KKK getting burned to death. Does any of this sound like...how should I put it.... A BIT TOO MUCH?!?!?! I didn't even mention Matthew M and Ashley Judd's near divorce or the black NAACP lawyer who looks...a wee bit purple? But hey, this film will make you cry, as it did for me, but tears don't make a film. Judging by all raving reviews of this film, however, I guess one impossibility after another does make a great film though. Enjoy. Oh, and next time you watch this movie, notice how quickly they fast forward past the poor national guard soldier. It's purely the stuff of Hollywood. Also see Mississippi burning for a near identical plot line.
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