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Summer Of Sam on DVD (1999)

Summer Of Sam cover art
Average rating: 65%
1214720161433
3.0
from 963 members
 
Starring: John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody, Mira Sorvino, Jennifer Esposito, Ben Gazzara, Spike Lee, John Savage, Bebe Neuwirth, Patti Lupone, Michael Badalucco, Evander Holyfield, Mark Breland, Jimmy Breslin, Anthony Lapaglia
Director: Spike Lee
Studio: MGM ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 136 mins
Certificate: 18
User collections: The Overrated, the Disappointing, and the downright Awful, 50 more jolly good films, MAD MEN, PSYCHO'S, SERIAL KILLERS AND BOOGEY MEN, Movies every one should see. I am a hopless romantic
Genres: Drama
Languages: English
Hearing-impaired: English
Subtitles: English
Released: 24/07/2000

Brief synopsis of Summer Of Sam

SUMMER OF SAM, Spike Lee's sizzling interpretation of the summer of 1977 in New York City, when thermometers shattered and a serial killer terrorized the city, focuses on an Italian-American community in the Bronx specifically, Dionna (Mira Sorvino) and Vinny (John Leguizamo), a couple whose marriage is threatened by Vinny's obsession with other women. After Vinny returns home one night to find a killer has murdered two local women, he promises to mend his cheating ways, albeit unsuccessfully. As the media exploits the murders and a blackout threatens to unleash anarchy on the city, its inhabitants begin to look for a scapegoat who will release them from the reign of terror created by the chilling figure known only as the Son of Sam (Michael Badalucco). Lee's ambitious film does more than re-create the events that unfolded during the summer of 1977; in addition to being an entertaining time capsule, it also deals graphically with the concept of the mob mentality.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 3 stars out of 5 Radio Times

Full marks to Spike Lee for tackling a movie where all the main characters are white, in this case Italian-American. The year is 1977, and New York is being terrorised by David Berkowitz, the serial killer dubbed “Son of Sam”. However, the focus here is on the troubled marriage of John Leguizamo and Mira Sorvino, and the rather seedy life of fledgeling punk rocker and part-time male hooker, Adrien Brody. The main problem is that the characters are largely caricatures. Not only are they a pretty dislikeable bunch; they also look as if they have wandered in from a second-rate version of GoodFellas. On the plus side, the scenes involving Berkowitz are disturbingly creepy, while Lee successfully evokes the seedy side of the late 1970s, thanks chiefly to the fantastic soundtrack.

Rating of 1 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

The point of this shapeless ensemble piece seems to be a remark by a black woman that if the killer known as the Son of Sam had been black, there would have been riots in New York. Otherwise, it deals in minor panic and mishaps among stereotypical would-b

Entertainment Weekly

"...[See it for the] bravura sequence set to the tremble and throb of The Who's 1971 anthem BABA O'RILEY....Glee alternates with gloom..." -- Rating: B

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 3 starsSummer of Sam - A Review

Samuel L. Crampton from London, England , 19/07/2004

Summer of Sam - A compelling and characteristically gritty Spike Lee 'joint' that is as intreaging as it is frustrating. Too many scenes of gripping drama are followed by lazy editing, scenes that simply serve no important purpose, a trade mark of Lee that continues to blighten his otherwise first class film making.

The storey is of a youth that due to new found interests and ambitions becomes seperated and alienated from a group of friends that he has grown up with, much to the dis-liking of the stereo-typically aggressive, drug-dealing, Italian-American New York youths.

Adrian Brodey put's in a strong performance as the mis-guided maverick, that is going about this transition at the same time as there is a serial killer, loose on the Streets of New York, the self proclaimed 'summer of Sam', who targets young blonde women.

There is of course a contraversial love interest, and this coupled with his new found interests and ambitions, including the entertaining of adults of a homosexual nature, lead his former friends, egged on by the insentive of a reward for the capture of 'sam', to believe that the killer is their estranged friend.

As the storey builds to a climatic finale, identities are un-veiled, and truths learnt, with plenty of edge-of-your-seat drama along the way......just a shame it took so un-nesisarily long to get there.

SLC

  7 out of 9 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 1 starsnothing great

A customer from lanarkshire, scotland , 15/06/2005

No tension, no suspense, just boring despite there being such a good cast. The one star is for the ever watchable Adrien Brody.

  1 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsVery Good

Steven Latham from England , 27/11/2005

I enjoyed this film very much after getting a couple of films I didn't like much. I if trying to be negetive could say it might have been a bit long but truly i prefer long films as you can really get into characters so it is merely a devil's advocate view point when i say that. I liked the story, the way it was done, the acting and pretty much most things. Reminded me in some ways of Mystic River.

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Rated - 3 starsQuite good but...

A customer from London , 21/07/2008

I thought the Italian characters were stereotyped and self-parodic at times. However the portrayal of an ignorant and fearful community under stress was good.

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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 3 starsSummer of Sam - A Review

Samuel L. Crampton from London, England , 19/07/2004

Summer of Sam - A compelling and characteristically gritty Spike Lee 'joint' that is as intreaging as it is frustrating. Too many scenes of gripping drama are followed by lazy editing, scenes that simply serve no important purpose, a trade mark of Lee that continues to blighten his otherwise first class film making.

The storey is of a youth that due to new found interests and ambitions becomes seperated and alienated from a group of friends that he has grown up with, much to the dis-liking of the stereo-typically aggressive, drug-dealing, Italian-American New York youths.

Adrian Brodey put's in a strong performance as the mis-guided maverick, that is going about this transition at the same time as there is a serial killer, loose on the Streets of New York, the self proclaimed 'summer of Sam', who targets young blonde women.

There is of course a contraversial love interest, and this coupled with his new found interests and ambitions, including the entertaining of adults of a homosexual nature, lead his former friends, egged on by the insentive of a reward for the capture of 'sam', to believe that the killer is their estranged friend.

As the storey builds to a climatic finale, identities are un-veiled, and truths learnt, with plenty of edge-of-your-seat drama along the way......just a shame it took so un-nesisarily long to get there.

SLC

  7 out of 9 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 starsQuite good but...

A customer from London , 21/07/2008

I thought the Italian characters were stereotyped and self-parodic at times. However the portrayal of an ignorant and fearful community under stress was good.

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