Summer of Sam (1999)
Genre: Drama / Thriller
Duration: 142 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Spike Lee
Stars: John Leguizamo, Mira Sorvino and Adrien Brody
IMDb score:
6,7 (42.537)
Releasedate: 2 July 1999
Summer of Sam plot
"No one is safe from son of sam."
The hottest summer of the 20th century was the summer of 1977 in New York. The city suffered from an endless heat wave. The temperature was slowly driving people crazy. From that moment on, a dangerous psychopath turned the nights into a real nightmare. The city was terrorized with a 44 caliber. The media played an important role in the ensuing panic, which captivated not only New York but the entire world.
Actors and actresses
Vinny
Ritchie Trangali
Dionna
Ruby
Joey T.
Woodstock
Bobby Del Fiore
Anthony
Brian
Gloria
Reviews & comments
sinterklaas
-
- 11712 messages
- 3263 votes
Strong film again by Spike Lee, which turns out to be based on true events. Although it seems that Lee prefers to delve into the whole 70s atmosphere here than the actual story about Sam, a mad schizophrenic psycho who, according to his is commanded by a talking dog, immediately gives rise to shooting teenage girls in cars for their assholes.
Around the whole psycho-story, the film quietly floats around a teenage story, in which we meet the faithful and stubborn Vinny, and where it is also quite nice to see Adrien Brody in his younger years and how he portrays the role of a punk who, after his study trip through England, has taken all the inspirations with him, whereby you can hardly call him American. As the suspense over killer "Sun of Sam" keeps the summer of 1977 moving, Lee also takes an extended look at the group of friends, making the film a sort of comming of age as well. The film also takes an extended look at the punk and disco scene that turn out to be each other's worst enemies, and the sad love stories and secret jobs that Vinnie and Ritchie take don't exactly brighten things up either. The denouement, however, is not...
The 70s atmosphere was fine to taste, and Spike Lee has been very creative, whereby the 144 minutes were fine to digest.
4.0*
Translated from Dutch · View original
umbra
-
- 3895 messages
- 3611 votes
Movie is way too much about a bunch of cocks and their bullshit. The film also comes across as bad and messy. Irritation assured from start to finish. Boring junk.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Shadowed
-
- 9965 messages
- 5956 votes
Friendly.
It's a bit of a special film for Spike Lee, since Summer of Sam is a film that tries to mix quite a few different things together and also takes plenty of time for this. For example, the film is quite long at 142 minutes, but the advantage is that there is a director behind the wheel who knows exactly what to do.
Actually, this film has little to do with the concept of a serial killer, just to disappoint the fans. Basically we just get to see a snapshot of The Bronx. It contains some characters who love each other, hate each other and sometimes deal with each other. We actually follow those lives much more than the brief moments when some people are shot over in their car.
An advantage is the fact that the film is audiovisually strong. Beautiful colours, strong filters and a nice energetic style thanks to the direction of Lee. He can present the rather boring story quite nicely and that is certainly necessary, because looking for more than 2 hours at people who never really have anything to offer that is distinctive becomes quite a task after a while.
Also a somewhat unfortunate way to market the film. The concept of the killer is never so well mixed in the film. Maybe that's intentional, but I thought it came across as superfluous. And for a film that wants to highlight the suffocation and pressure that such a situation entails, I thought it was mediocre. I rather got the idea that the biggest problems were caused by the main characters themselves.
It's that it looks nice, otherwise this would probably have been boring. Now there is quite nice acting hidden in it, but after some time the stretch is gone and Lee can hardly rely on the characters. Some intriguing murders in between, but that's where it ends. Nice once in a while, but not a movie I'll be seeing again anytime soon.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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