Summer of Sam

Rating:
Summary: Good performances but surprisingly disappointing overall
Review: I felt let-down by this film. It's filled with good acting and Spike Lee is truly a master with his camera but the story didn't grab me. That's particularly shocking when you have the horrifically compelling Sam murders as a foundation. I just never really cared about any of the characters that were woven around the facts. The depiction of time and place was very interesting, though, and worth a look if you're interested at all in what New York was like before Disney and Guiliani cleaned it up.

Rating:
Summary: Summer of Spike
Review: The summer of '77 belonged to Sam but as for the summer movie season of '99 (which provided such duds as Star Wars: Episode One and Wild, Wild West) our savior was none other than Spike Lee. With his latest outing as director he's managed to make one of the best '70's period pieces ever! The leading character's not an actor or even the director but the city. The crime-laden streets of NYC during the disco-era take on a life of their own. John Leguizamo stars as their leading occupant, a philandering husband who fears God has dispensed the .44 Caliber Killer as a messenger to convince him to stop cheating on his wife. When one of the murders hits close to home he and his friends (all of whom seem Bronx born and raised) begin to suspect a local. Their prime suspect is Adrien Brody (in a performace sadly overlooked by Oscar voters) who one morning dons a spiked hair-do, dog collar and begins speaking with an English accent. Temperature's raise and tempers flare, ultimately leading to violence and betrayal. Melding together elements of Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Spike Lee has made one of the year's three best films (Fight Club & American Beauty the others).

Rating:
Summary: Another Spike Lee rip-off
Review: Just more of the same junk from Spike Lee; cheezy script, way overdone stereotypes, bad acting, and very loud music which is obviously mixed that way in an attempt to carry a VERY lame movie. So?..what else is new?...Spike scams another movie studio out of some bucks, and the studio tries to sell the junk to us (until the word gets out). Don't waste your money. When is this guy going to do something meaningful?

Rating:
Summary: THIS MOVIE CHALLENGES YOU IN SO MANY WAYS!
Review: This is one of the most powerful movies I have ever seen. Spike Lee did not get his props on this one like he deserved. Also, I don't think many people who degraded this movie really "get it". Some people stated that the movie was misleading because it gave the title the "Summer of Sam" and that was not what the movie was really about. This movie was about the Summer of Sam and everything else that happened that summer. The sexual revolution and all. Note: The title did not read the "Son of Sam", there is a difference. Advice: never go into a movie with expectations, because there is always a chance they won't be met. Spike Lee is an artist, a self-expressioned artist at that. And just like any type of art, Film is an art that can be very defamiliarized. Spike Lee didn't stick to the typical conventions that Americans are trained to see and he got severly critisized for it. I am admirer of Spike because he knows how to hit something different and challenge the audience whether it be through cinematagrahy or content. I challenge anyone who felt offended by this movie to ask yourself why? and be honest. Is it because of the hard hitting content, or because this is proof that a black man can actually direct movies dealing with cultures other than his own. Complete Hats off to Spike, he is a true artist. If you want to understand his movies, you have got to be willing to let go of your beliefs and stubborn positions, otherwise, there no need to look at art, because it is self-expression!

Rating:
Summary: lotsa good, but more bad than good
Review: Summer of Sam is another frustrating film from Spike Lee. Lots of great scenes, ideas, performances, but so many bad, dumb decisions too. The plot itself is Saturday Night Fever meets Shampoo meets the Ox-Bow Incident -- but it's really about Spike making a movie about white Italian scallions who live deep deep deep inside their NY state of mind and can't get out of it. From scene to scene I found myself alternating between "wow! Spike's got talent to burn" and "this feels like it was written by a 10-year-old." The previous basketball one was the same way. My favorite bit is where the dog talks to the guy and my favorite Spike Lee joint by far remains Get On the Bus!

Rating:
Summary: A Spike Lee Flop
Review: After about twenty minutes I had to remind myself that this was supposedly about the Son of Sam. Sounded like a good premise but instead we follow John Leguizamo through a boring plot where he thinks he'll go to hell for cheating on his wife. The there was all this time devoted to an Italian guy who thought he was a punk rocker. This movie was all over the place. The subplots were fuzzy and were a distraction since the audience belives the Son of Sam is the main idea here. Egomaniac Spike Lee puts himself in the movie as a reporter. Do the right thing, Spike, and make a good movie next time.

Rating:
Summary: Spike's stab at a Scorcese movie.
Review: Hard to watch film about Italian losers during the summer of 77... you know you're in trouble when the only remotely likeable character is a punk porno dancer/actor. Leguizamo seems lost as the lead, a scumbag who sleeps around on his wife, Mira Sorvino, who wrestles with her role in front of your eyes. I'll give him an extra star for getting the feel of the 70's right, but this effort is nowhere near as good as his earlier great Clockers.

Rating:
Summary: Heat Waves, Black Labs, and Disco
Review: Summer of Sam is a film about the events of the last few New York summers of the seventies, and the bizzare killing spree of the .44 caliber killer. But while the portrayal of David Berkowitz is spectacular and, I immagine, realistic, and while Spike Lee captured the intesity of these events, the film is not really about the Son of Sam himself.

In fact, this film is probably closer to a film like The Last Days of Disco, than a work like Silence of the Lambs. And while Son of Sam is the catalyst for much of the film's action, the decadent freedom of the seventies is the real main character.

Spike Lee does an excelent job of paralleling the madness and the frenzy of David Berkowitz with that of the disco age in NYC. The complexity of a generation in the middle of a burnout is also well captured with a fine attention to detail that is comparable to even that of the New York kid, Martin Scorcesse, himself. The thing that really surprised me about the direction was that it was done by Spike Lee. While I do think Spike's "Joints" are masterful, they have a distinctly different flavor to them.

Overall, this is a powerfully well made film with an amazing young cast and some of the best "frenzy" cinematography I have seen in a long time. And while I can find some fault with some of the finer points of the writing, I wholeheartedly reccoment this film. After all, how often does the Who's "We won't get fooled again" appear in a film from 40 Acres and a Mule Productions.

Also, watch for Spike's near perfect, somewhat self deprecating cameo and the one point in the film where the audience is sudenly forced into the film's world.

[e-mail] 3/3/00

Rating:
Summary: Weird film from Director Spike Lee.
Review: This film have an excellent cast inculding John Leguizamo, Mira Sorvino, Andien Brody, Jennifer Esposito she really good in this film and i didn`t recognize the actress Bebe Neuwirth.

Director Spike Lee has good cast to make this film works at times, especially uneven at times, including the film ending. This film is the most underrated films of 1999. Director Spike Lee give himself always a small role in every film, he direct it.

This film own more to Director of Taxi Driver and

Casino. Is the first film from Spike Lee doesn`t cast the lead to a black actor.

Rating:
Summary: Oh My Gosh!
Review: I watched this movie finally, it has been rented out for months! I finally got it sat down and watched it, and oh my! What the heck? Every sentence had the "F" word in it at leats 5 times! It was part porno! This wasn't horror, suspense it was stupid but had occasinoly good parts.