This movie was okay. Actaully, it kind of sucked. But not completely. I thought certain parts were very good. The backdrop (New York City is always a good backdrop) gave this movie its edge, like most of Spike Lee's movies. I thought the acting was pretty good all around (John Leguizamo as an Italian wasn't the most convincing roll, since he is obviously not Italian), and I enjoyed the sequences where they played The Who (The Who is one of my favorite bands).
I encountered numerous problems in this movie. I thought that the stories didn't really make themselves clear enough, or maybe they were lacking in detail (they could have gone deeper into the characters and less into the style of living in the mid 70's). The characters just kind of showed up and the movie went on from there. I think that the story just scratched the surface, when this could have been a great character flick.
I didn't like John Leguizamo's character, I'll say that right off. He just ****ed me off. He is an unloyal, cheating, lying little grease ball, and usually characters like this are in my favorite movies (like John Cazale in "The Godfather" or Ray Liotta in "Goodfellas), but he didn't change, either. He was a one dimensional character. Now I know that John Cazale was also like this, but he wasn't the main character, though. John Lequizamo just stayed the same little creep the whole movie, and he wasn't very interesting. I will say that he did do a good job with what they gave him, though, because he did add a little to the dense character.
The reason that I liked this movie was Adrien Brody and Jennifer Esposito. They were the two good characters. Ritchie was a cool character because, one, he was a punk, and two, he was the most complex and mysterious character in the whole movie. Jennifer Esposito was equally good because she went from being an incredibly slutty floozy, to a grimy street punk. I thought that she did a great job. These two are the reason I liked this movie.
This movie is hardly about the Son of Sam killer, just to let any one who hasn't seen it yet know. He is really the flame under the frying pan, so to speak, because his horrific actions cause the uproar in the neighborhood that causes everyone to go nuts. I think this movie would have been better for Martin Scorsese (I am not just saying that because he is my favorite director) or Sidney Lumet. I usually don't like Spike Lee movies, but he does do them good when he really believes in the project, but this one (or at least I think so) he just didn't put as much into the characters as he did into the city at the time. Okay if you have seen everything else. 6/10
I encountered numerous problems in this movie. I thought that the stories didn't really make themselves clear enough, or maybe they were lacking in detail (they could have gone deeper into the characters and less into the style of living in the mid 70's). The characters just kind of showed up and the movie went on from there. I think that the story just scratched the surface, when this could have been a great character flick.
I didn't like John Leguizamo's character, I'll say that right off. He just ****ed me off. He is an unloyal, cheating, lying little grease ball, and usually characters like this are in my favorite movies (like John Cazale in "The Godfather" or Ray Liotta in "Goodfellas), but he didn't change, either. He was a one dimensional character. Now I know that John Cazale was also like this, but he wasn't the main character, though. John Lequizamo just stayed the same little creep the whole movie, and he wasn't very interesting. I will say that he did do a good job with what they gave him, though, because he did add a little to the dense character.
The reason that I liked this movie was Adrien Brody and Jennifer Esposito. They were the two good characters. Ritchie was a cool character because, one, he was a punk, and two, he was the most complex and mysterious character in the whole movie. Jennifer Esposito was equally good because she went from being an incredibly slutty floozy, to a grimy street punk. I thought that she did a great job. These two are the reason I liked this movie.
This movie is hardly about the Son of Sam killer, just to let any one who hasn't seen it yet know. He is really the flame under the frying pan, so to speak, because his horrific actions cause the uproar in the neighborhood that causes everyone to go nuts. I think this movie would have been better for Martin Scorsese (I am not just saying that because he is my favorite director) or Sidney Lumet. I usually don't like Spike Lee movies, but he does do them good when he really believes in the project, but this one (or at least I think so) he just didn't put as much into the characters as he did into the city at the time. Okay if you have seen everything else. 6/10