Wordiezett So much average

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

supatube Okay. I was reading about serial killers around the world and David Berkowitz popped up. Then I find this movie. It really sucked. I didn't learn much more than I had already read. In fact I feel like i knew more than the filmmakers. And it was really really boring. And Spike Lee is rather impressive. Its an old movie (okay, not vintage old but old enough), perhaps it just didn't age well? Perhaps watching an old movie depicting and even older time period one can see the 90's reinventing the 70's instead of just trying to tell the story of Son of Sam. What a waste of time. Pity. I guess I should have read the synopsis: "Spike Lee's take on the Son of Sam" I don't care about his take on the matter, I wanted to know more about the matter.

jackmeat My quick rating - 6,5/10. This is really more like two stories in one. First is the obvious story about David Berkowitz (for those that don't know he was a serial killer in NYC in the late 70s.) and the second story about a man who has various mental problems and drug problems. Now the two really don't have anything to do with each other minus the fact both are happening at the same time and John Leguizamos character (which was acted very well I might add) has a best friend who is fingered as the Son of Sam (the killer). The acting in this film is well above average and the story itself, even if it is partially based on a true story, which it is, was well written out to hold your attention. I am unsure how I missed this one since serial killers are a thing I tend to be interested in, but I am glad I watched this finally and if you do, I am sure you will agree it was a good flick. Enjoy.

viewsonfilm.com In 1999, Spike Lee decided to direct a film based on a very hard hitting, true story. Depicting the events of the Son of Sam serial murders in New York City (summer of 1977), Summer of Sam periodically delves into the search and capture of famed murderer (dubbed the .44 Caliber Killer) David Berkowitz. It also peeks into the lives of the people that inhabit one of the Bronx neighborhoods he was terrorizing. "Sam" carries with it a majestic sense of time and place. However, it packs in very tightly, too many plot layers to go along with the central story. And the fact that this is all done in almost 2 and a half hours is a jaw-dropping miracle.Seeing this film for the first time in 7 years, it made me revert back to one of my favorite Spike Lee joints which would be Clockers. With shades of Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and hints of Saturday Night Fever (especially the overhead shot in "Sam" of the two main characters entering a discotheque), Summer of Sam is similar in structure to Clockers. But it's unable to juggle the plot points effectively like that 1995 film did. The reason: It could be the script which feels too abrasive and without thoughtfulness or ambiguity. Most of the characters talk in a racist manner with huge stereotypes to go along with it. Was that the culture of New Yorkers at the time? I'm not sure because I'm not from NYC and I was only 3 when these events took place. Regardless, this could create a rather large unlikability factor with the audience, an audience who invests their time to view this flick. In essence, Summer of Sam is the epidemy of restless, scatter shot film making. Spike Lee has harbored this style ever since he burst onto the scene with 1986's She's Gotta Have It. Sometimes he gets away with it and sometimes he doesn't. But you can't fault him for directing films that feel alive and have a pulsating sense of urgency. With his "plot over plot over plot" way of doing things, he unfortunately gets a mixed review from me. Bottom line: "Sam" is a mess but it's an ambitious mess with a couple of really powerful scenes that hint at what a great film this could have been (one of the best sequences is a fantastic montage of sights and sounds accompanied by the tune of The Who's "Baba O' Riley"). With this vehicle, you get a great soundtrack (a mix of classic rock from The Who and disco) and two edgy performances (John Leguizamo as Vinny and Mira Sorvino as Dionna) that highlight the strong points. Also, the appearance of real life columnist Jimmy Breslin (he received letters from the killer and narrates the beginning/ending of the movie) is a nice touch. But like I said earlier, "Sam" tries to include everything. You have plot elements such as the infidelity of Vinny in his marriage to Dionna, the glory of the 1977 New York Yankees, the supposed birth of the punk rock movement, and even the local mob joining the police to find the would be Son of Sam murderer. So OK, let's be honest, Summer of Sam is not that bad of a film. But it's way too cynical and ideological to be great. I'll leave you with this notion: In New York City, the summer of 77' was one of the hottest on record. After viewing Lee's exhausting, profanity laden marathon of a movie, you may feel just lukewarm.

tieman64 The summer of 1977. Disco is in the air, punk is on its way in, Jimmy Carter has his fingers crossed and the sexual revolution is in full swing.Into this cauldron steps the Son of Sam, a serial killer to which the title of Spike Lee's "Summer of Sam" alludes. He is later revealed to be one David Berkowitz - a deranged New Yorker who believes it to be his duty to kill women - but Lee's uninterested in such details. Instead he uses the cocktail of fear and paranoia, which Berkowitz stirs up, as an entryway into a more general fear of "difference". And so Lee's large cast of New Yorkers form cliques, draw lines and gravitate toward different sub cultures. These divisions, the film shows, then lead to various anxieties, fears of exclusion and often violence.Whilst Lee's early films tend to look at racial differences, "Son of Sam" is preoccupied with sex. And so we're introduced to a cast of Lotharios, bisexuals, homosexuals, adulterers and monogamists. Everyone has a different take on sexuality, and most have wild double-standards. Lee's Us vs Them dynamic then comes to a boil when several New Yorkers begin to scapegoat a local punk rocker (Adrien Brody), who becomes the whipping boy for an entire community.Interesting scenes abound. In one, a woman (Jennifer Esposito) is shunned because of her sexual permissiveness. She's embraced by Adrien Brody's punk rocker, a character who is marginalised by the Italian-American community, but embraced by both the punk scene and the underground homosexual sex clubs at which he works. But Brody's character, who is straight, also "doesn't belong" to the gay scene. Another character, brilliantly played by John Leguizamo, embodies similar contradictions. He sleeps around, but believes in "monogamy" and "being faithful". He also repeatedly degrades women, but only outside of his marriage. Within his marriage, he's frigid around his wife (Miro Sorvino). In one great scene, which pushes far past clichés, the duo have a huge argument in a car. Leguizamo attacks Sorvino, accuses her of being unfaithful, until she flips the script, accuses him of "perversions", and rolls off in his own car. Berkowitz's violence itself seems to be borne of exclusion and a desire to purge the world of difference, but he is no more a "deviant" than the other characters we meet. By the film's end, everyone's related, everyone's relative may be a pervert, but perversions are themselves always relative."Summer of Sam" is overly bombastic and suffers in comparison to other films which explore similar themes (Kaufman's "The Wanderers", Kaufman's "Invasion of the Body Snatches", Berlinger and Sinofsky's "Paradise Trilogy" etc). Lee's obsession with "difference" is itself lost on our generation; capitalism assimilates everything, promotes individuality as an ideal in order to drive consumerism, and prowls the world destroying real difference. The film ends with Berkowtiz's capture. With his arrest, tolerance comes to Uncle Sam.7/10 - Worth two viewings.