Rating: 
Summary: What Will You Do With Freedom?
Review: Monty's 'mirror soliloquy' is saying that he has ultimately himself to blame for the way his life has turned out. Spike spends a lot of time on the aftermath of 9/11 in New York, showing montages of the then-clean-up of the wreckage, the now-gone 'Tribute in Lights' from various angles for the opening credits, and including several shots of patriotic posters and signs. I have to wonder then if, is Lee showing, by extension, that Americans have themselves for--or at least must share in a great deal of--the blame for the 9/11/01 catastrophe? Monty's 'last night of freedom' has a residual impact on his friends, who feel the need to tie up loose ends as well. Or maybe it's also a suggestion that in New York, where its residents watched firsthand as the whole world fell down on their heads, there is a true sense that life is indeed temporal. By the morning Monty realizes that maybe life and freedom are synonymous. He's thrown away something he should have cherished. Through this story, one thing should come on strong, and that is that freedom is not a thing to be taken lightly. It's not something someone else gets you, but something that you earn through your own life.
Rating: 
Summary: Inevitable Worry about Tomorrow¿
Review: Spike Lee grabs the moment of apprehension on multiple levels through Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) and his friends in the shadow 9/11, and then dissects the different levels through the lens as Monty prepares himself to go away for a seven year prison term. Lee does it in such a way that anxiety and stress is unavoidable, which certainly gets the audience's attention on what is at stake and why it is at stake. Apprehension is not only depicted through Monty, but also with those around him who seek and avoid it. There is no way to get away from this lingering apprehension and it is already too late to turn back. At the end, Lee will make the audience see what he wants them to see while leaving everything to our imagination with brilliant touch.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Movie
Review: I'm not a fan of Spike Lee's, but I found this movie to be very good. The whole cast did an excellent job telling the story, especially Norton. Spike Lee's ecelectic and artistic shots were fascinating to watch for that it alone the movie is worth seeing. I also liked how Lee did not shy away from talking about September 11 as other movies taking place in NYC have. Although maybe there isn't much to learn from the characters in "The 25th Hour," it still is a trip worth taking.
Rating:
Summary: Good Flick
Review: Story is novel and interesting. Characters are well developed and authentic. Tempo is cautious but not slow. Overall, one of the best I've seen in quite a while. GAD
Rating:
Summary: Finally, Lee starts climbing the hill again.
Review: 25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002) Spike Lee made three of the defining films of the 1980s, She's Gotta Have It, School Daze, and Do the Right Thing. Then his career seemed to jump the shark; the politics got in the way of the art (a line he treaded in the last two of the abovementioned films, to be sure, but without crossing it), and the downward slide began, culminating in the overblown, thoroughly unwatchable Summer of Sam. Given the decline of Lee's career, having him pitted against the finest actor in America today, Ed Norton, filled me with something akin to dread. Norton is a brilliant actor, turning everything he touches at least to fool's gold; three of the last four films he's made, he's been the only thing about them worth watching. I'll see anything Ed Norton is in, and seeing that the redoubtable Jon Kilik (Before Night Falls) was listed as producer on this gave me some hope that Spike Lee was going to return to the good old days, when the art was for art's sake, the politics were kept in check and grew out of the characters rather than vice versa, and the best actors of the generation turned in the best performances of their careers for the man working the magic behind the camera. Did he make it? Hard to say. This is easily Spike Lee's best film since 1989. That, however, is not saying much. Montgomery Brogan (Norton) is an ex-narcotics dealer on his last day before going to prison for seven years after the police were tipped off to where he hides the drugs and money. Figuring out who tipped him off becomes the mystery subplot, but the basic premise of the movie is that two of his childhood friends, wall-street shark Frank (Barry Pepper of The Green Mile and-erk-Battlefield Earth) and English teacher Jakob (Philip Seymour Hoffman, from RedDragon), are taking Brogan out for their last night on the town for a very long time. The other main subplot going through the film is Jakob's obsession with one of his students, Mary d'Annunzio (Anna Paquin, sporting some of the most finely-adorned stomach muscles on the planet throughout the movie), whom the three of them meet by chance during their evening. Other characters move through the film at times, including Brogan's wife (Men in Black II's Rosario Dawson) and father (Brian Cox, the finest casting move made in the film-did anyone else catch the irony there?). The film is chock full of beautiful scenes. Those with Norton and Cox are probably the best in the film; Cox, when he's on his game, can tear a viewer's heart out with his plaintiveness, and he does so here in a role that has the potential to land him his first, and long overdue, Oscar nomination. Other great pieces of dialogue float throughout. Many of them involve Barry Pepper, whose character flits through personality traits like Wall Street move shares; one moment he's offering Norton a shoulder to cry on, the next he's excoriating Norton while talking to Hoffman from his penthouse apartment overlooking ground zero. And here we come to the film's biggest failing, and the one upon which the minor ones rest. Much of the movie's screen time makes it seem like Lee's main goal here was to spend as much time as possible showing his viewers scenes of New York recovering from 9/11, from the painfully sappy opening credits montage to the minutes after the aforementioned scene between Pepper and Hoffman occurs, as Hoffman stares out the window at cranes removing I-beams from the wreckage of the twin towers. All of this time could have been spent in character development and filling in missing pieces. And very well should have been. There are a whole lot of fine performances in this movie, but they don't add up to much; we're handed episodic pieces of a puzzle, but what makes them connect is missing from the box. For example, Jakob's obsession with Mary; we know it exists, there's some buildup to the climax of that particular plot thread, the climax occurs. It's obvious there's much more to that story to be told, but it drops from the film, never to be mentioned again. Also, when the narc's identity is finally revealed, the only way to make it work logically is because you can piece together the red herrings; unlike most herring-filled mysteries, the clues as to the narc's identity are absent from the first three quarters of the film. Non-mystery-fans will probably let this pass uncommented, but for those of us who outgrew the Agatha Christie "here's who the killer is... and I'll tell you why" method of mystery ending long ago, there's going to be a sour taste in the mouth. That said, it's not a reason to stay away. There isn't a single bad performance in the film. If you can get past the calculated smarminess of the New York City cinematography and concentrate on the acting, there's much to be relished here. Terence Blanchard's haunting score may be his finest since 1994's The Inkwell, and those who loved Do the Right Thing will have fond memories raised by a certain hate-filled misanthropic monologue Norton's reflection addresses to him in one of the film's most memorable scenes; unlike the vitriolic rapid-fire racist delivery of the 1989 scene, however, Norton's rant is almost poetic in its dissection of many of New York City's stereotypes. (One of the final scenes in the film recalls this rant, and it is a powerful piece of filmmaking, to be sure.) Barry Pepper and Philip Seymour Hoffman have long been neglected by the Hollywood machine, despite showing awe-inspiring talent on a fairly regular basis; their performances here will hopefully change that. Be prepared to be unsatisfied by some loose ends, but the performances herein are well worth the trouble. *** ½
Rating:
Summary: one of Lee's best
Review: Spike Lee's "25th Hour" is a monumental accomplishment that catapults the filmmaker right back into the pantheon of outstanding American directors. With his past few films, Lee - who seemed so cutting edge and promising a filmmaker a decade or so back - had started to make us wonder if, perhaps, we hadn't overestimated some of his talent. But with "25th Hour," the master has returned to form, fashioning a brilliant and thought-provoking character study out of David Benioff's novel, a chronicle of how a convicted drug dealer spends his last 24 hours of freedom before heading off to prison to serve a seven-year term. Montgomery Brogan is a good looking, generally pleasant-natured fellow who's made a lot of bad choices in his life and now finds himself having to pay the piper. Although Monty is terrified of going to prison, he harbors no illusions about the fairness of the verdict. He knows he screwed up and he feels no compulsion to squirm out of his punishment or to look for fall guys to take the blame for him. Monty's offense is, indeed, a serious one - selling drugs to schoolchildren - and, much to their credit, Benioff and Lee do not ask us to shed tears for Monty's fate. We are asked to care about Monty as a person, it's true, but not to approve of his actions. Monty has chosen to spend this last day of freedom in the company of his lifelong buddies, Frank and Jakob, the former a high stakes player on Wall Street and the latter a high school English teacher. Both men, who have taken widely differing paths in their own lives, still retain a spark of affection for Monty and even blame themselves to some extent for somehow letting Monty down at a time when they might still have been able to successfully intervene to help prevent the outcome they are all now facing. In fact, much of the film is spent on self-recrimination, with various characters coming to terms with the painful reality of a situation that seems to have gone beyond anyone's ability to affect or control it. The fourth member of the party is Monty's girlfriend, Naturelle, a woman deeply in love with the condemned man, who wishes he had gone straight before all this happened, yet who, during all the time she was with him, was not averse to enjoying what Monty's ill-gotten gains were able to buy for her. All the characters, in fact, struggle with having to find that moral and ethical line over which they will not cross. As the most "noble" person of the group, even Jakob, the schoolteacher, is confronted with having to make that choice and take that stand. A lesser filmmaker would have used this plot setup as an excuse to fill up the screen with cheap melodramatics, screeching car chases, and endless dumb action sequences. Lee, being an actual film artist, does none of that. Instead, he allows the scenes to play themselves out in a totally naturalistic manner so that we really come to know and understand these various characters, with all their unhappiness and sorrow. It is a remarkably melancholy film, sad to the core, and Lee's beautifully controlled direction brings out that sadness. His style perfectly complements the mood he is endeavoring to create. The minimal cutting he employs within each individual scene allows the actors to establish connections with one another that would not be possible using a more razzle dazzle editing style. The dialogue is so rich and evocative that Lee doesn't feel the need to intervene at every moment to remind us he is there. The result is that the film never feels the slightest bit phony, not even for a moment. In fact, "25th Hour" is one of the most "honest" films to have come down the pike in a long long time. Of course, adding to that sense of sadness is the fact that the events of 9/11 seem to forever hover in the air around the characters and their city. There is a particularly remarkable scene in which Jakob and Frank discuss Monty's fate while sitting in front of Frank's apartment window - which just so happens to look directly down onto the rubble of Ground Zero. It is a stunning moment in a film filled with stunning moments. Adding to the elegiac tone are Terence Blanchard's moody score and Rodrigo Prieto and Joe Williams' marvelously rich and beautiful cinematography, both of which reflect the contemplative nature of the characters on screen. There is some question as to the aptness of the fantasy coda Lee attaches to the end of the film. It isn't so much that we object to the point it is trying to make but rather that the excessive length of it makes it feel somehow redundant and robs us of the sense of emotional fulfillment we need to experience at the film's conclusion. That is, however, a minor quibble in a film as towering in effect and achievement as this one. And besides, Lee's angry young man tirades, though they still rear their heads from time to time, are kept to a bare minimum in this work. Lee has gathered a brilliant ensemble cast to help flesh out his very real, very complex characters. The superb Edward Norton demonstrates once again why he is in the forefront of the world's great film actors. As Monty, he is, literally, incapable of hitting a single false note. Norton conveys the innate goodness and charm of a man who is about to embark on a phase of his life for which he alone bears responsibility. We can sense the regret, sadness and fear he is feeling in his every word, gesture and glance. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper do stand-up work as Monty's faithful pals, and Rosario Dawson shines with confident dignity as Monty's stalwart true love. All four contribute immensely to the verisimilitude of the piece. "25 Hours" shows Spike Lee at the very peak of his form, a true master of his medium. This latest work is not merely one of the very best films of 2002, but one of the very best works this gifted artist has yet provided us. Welcome back!
Rating: 
Summary: Ruined by Spike Lee
Review: I read the book quite some time ago, and that is what interested me in seeing the film. I have never been a fan of Spike Lee's films, but, I enjoyed the book so much that I took a chance. Unfortunately, the movie did not only let down the book, it let down the talents of Norton and Pepper. The film is boring, and drawn out. Plus, Lee's attempt at artistic and original shots are forced and uneeded. There are not many scenes that test the actors abilities, and the few high drama parts are too short to enjoy. Read the book, avoid the movie. You will thank me.
Rating:
Summary: ONE LAST NIGHT OF FREEDOM
Review: In 25TH HOUR Spike Lee presents a masterpiece starring Edward Norton. Monty Brogan, a native New Yorker, was recently sentenced to serve eight years in prison for selling drugs. The night before he is supposed to report to prison he embarks on a journey through the past and present in an attempt to attack his nervousness of serving time in addition to solving the puzzle of who turned him in to the cops. Spike Lee does what no one else in Hollywood has had the nerve to do since 9/11. Constantly connected throughout the film are snippets of the devastation left behind. Scenes of the World Trade Towers light tribute appears at the beginning and the political voyage continues from there. We see glimpses of the photo memorials along with the enormous pit left behind after all the debris was removed. The audience can feel how this one moment in history has been engrained into the consciousness of the people living in New York City. It has always bothered me how other movies set in NYC totally ignore this most important event. Edward Norton provides another spectular performance in 25TH HOUR and is quickly proving himself in Hollywood. This is a very enjoyable film that leaves you hanging at the end. What do you think he did? Go see the movie and come up with your own opinion.
Rating:
Summary: good "start"
Review: when spike lee spoke at my school, he said he wanted to prove himself in a non-race oriented movie. a traditional movie, if you know what i'm talking about, without the usual lee stigma attached to it. a way to prove himself. this movie is good in that sense, there's a good plot, progression, and great acting from a diverse and well-picked roster of actors. however, the stigma isn't left behind. the gist of the story: the last day a convicted drug dealer has of his free life before what is to be a grueling 7 year sentence unfolds slowly, and through his friends, we learn that everyone has their own problems and fears to face and overcome. philip seymour hoffman steals the show as a bumbling conventary-prep school teacher who tries to face up to his crush on a 17-year old student. it would have been a great, great movie if it weren't for some of spike's bullheaded arrogance and agenda-pushing. half of the movie reads like a "new york the great" tv spot, complete with gratuituous waving flag shots, etc, and someone has to realize that the rest of the country can't do much but kind of twiddle their thumbs awkwardly. a year ago, tears would have been jerked. now, it's a baffled silence and awkward moments galore as spike pushes NY to death. there's even an excruciatingly long sequence showing the WTC ruins and excavation site. the other problem with the movie is the music video editing. there's a technique used to death here where he'll play the same scene over and over again, but with subtle zooms and differences, or different angle views. i think of the 3000 times its used, its effective only twice. once to show hoffman's alienation in his classroom, and the second time in scene in the dance club, which is a visual show stealer. the movie wraps up with a 6 hour long monologue by norton's characters father about the chance to make a new start. it's corny, and in my theater, even on opening night, people were laughing. in conclusion: spike's mission was to prove himself, like his hero scorcese, at making a movie. he came so damn close. instead of scattering his tired, ranty agenda in small portions around the course of the movie, he instead put in 2 or 3 very long, drawn out chunks that do nothing but impede the otherwise great plot's flow, and ultimately bore the audience and just make for the trademark, "why do i feel awkward for no reason" lee atmosphere that we're so used to, and probably tired of by now.
Rating:
Summary: Most stunning movie of the year, Nortons best performance!
Review: "25th Hour," is in my opinion the best film of the year.
"25th Hour" tells the story of Monty Brogan who has 24 hours until he must go to prison for selling drugs. We are privy to what is going on in his mind as well what is actually happening in his own world with his friends and family. "25th Hour" was written by David Benioff. ... I found the motiviation easily in this piece... Monty sell drugs? Because his father (brian cox) who owns a bar can not afford payments so his son enlists some help by selling drugs so his father can make the payments. An intelligent man go down that particular path so he help the others that have helped him in life. In addition his mother died when he was 11 oviously the event was very dramatic for him causing somewhat of his actions to happen.
The acting in this movie by Norton is unlike any other performance of his before and he will surely be winning an academy award for this picture. From the horror of inducing his friend to beat him up so he can be tuff it gave me a true touch in heart.
The physical production is amazing, I was awe strucken by the pictures depicting the most stunning word-fillin pictures of the city.
Spike Lee has given us several of the best films ever. But "25th Hour" lacks Lee's cohesive, corrosive and incendiary wit and intelligence and therefore fails to ignite our passion or our hearts.
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