25th Hour
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.16 You Save: $6.79 (68%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.99 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of 25th Hour
Movie Review: Underrated movie - haunting with understated brilliance
Summary: 5 Stars
This was one of those movies that has been on my "like to watch it, someday" list forever. Once I finally got a chance to watch it, I was blown away by how amazing this movie is. Over the years there have been tons of movies about the existential crises of men who were dying, growing up, going to war, etc. The main character's crisis is different - Monty (played by Edward Norton) is going to prison for 7 years for dealing drugs. In this case, the main character is not dying or going to war or growing up - he is going to a place where most likely, all three will happen (he will definitely have to grow up, he will most certainly end up "at war" with other inmates, and more than one man has experienced the death of his soul, or at least his dreams, in prison, if they don't actually lose their life). It's a new twist on the time-honored "man vs. himself" theme.
There are some great moments in this movie but the subplot that struck me the most was the friendship between Monty and his old school pals Jacob (played by the very talented Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Frank (played by Barry Pepper, a criminally underrated and underemployed actor). Three guys who have gone down very different paths in life but are still linked by the strong ties of friendship they forged in school. Frank's character, as played by Pepper, in particular has a lot of depth and provokes both thought and emotion. As the movie plays out, you can see his character struggling with his own feelings about his best friend's fate. Does Monty deserve to be going to prison, as he tells Jacob in his apartment, or do he and Monty's other friends bear some responsibility for tacitly accepting Monty's drug dealing over the years, never telling him to stop, as he tells Naturelle (Monty's girlfriend, played by Rosario Dawson)? Will Monty's prison term end their friendship (as Frank tells Jacob) or will Frank be "waiting at the gate at Otisville in seven years" when Monty gets out, as Frank tells Naturelle? You can watch Pepper's internal turmoil as his character weighs out the options in his head, and watch the calculating investment banker fight with the Irish guy from the neighborhood that Frank used to be. Particularly in the scene in the park, you can see that true friendship is a lot more difficult and messy than sitcoms portray. Some friendships survive the test of time and bind people together long after they cease to have anything in common besides their shared past experiences. You can love your friends without loving their choices, and when their bad choices catch up to them, it's more important to stand by them and offer strength than to say "I told you so." The enduring nature of friendship was one of the themes of the movie that I felt was more compelling than the romantic subplot between Monty and Naturelle, or Monty's conflict with the Russian drug dealers.
Monty's relationship with his dad (played by Brian Cox) is also compelling and Cox's monologue, which ends the movie, is incredibly sad, because it represents a father's hopes and dreams for his son that will now come to nothing.
This is a brilliantly understated movie about the ties that bind people together - father/son, friendship, romance, trust, teacher-student - and how those ties can stretch to the breaking point but still not break. Monty, on his last day before a 7-year prison term, still believes that his girlfriend Naturelle is the one who sold him out to the DEA, yet he doesn't accuse her, throw her out of his apartment, etc. If there's one overarching theme in this movie, it's that life is never as simple as you think. I don't usually enjoy Spike Lee movies, but I loved this one. For such a simple premise, there's a power in this movie that is undeniable.
Movie Review: Flawless film that will haunt your dreams...
Summary: 5 Stars
Spike Lee masterfully delivers to us `25th Hour', a film so rich with character development and emotion that we are drawn in to each passing frame. In fact I can't say that Lee has ever been this graceful, this articulate or this brilliant before. If any film should have landed him an Oscar it would have to be this film, but sadly `25th Hour' was utterly ignored by Oscar, which is a shame since it truly is one of the best films of the given year. `25th Hour' is such a richly fulfilled film, a feature so complete in every category that it's hard to believe it was snubbed so extremely. From the script to the actors to the masterful direction `25th Hour' is in a word `flawless'.
The story revolves around drug dealer Monty Brogan who was just busted and sentenced to 8 years in prison. On his last night of freedom he purposes to find the person that set him up, the person who called in that anonymous tip that started his spiral of bad luck.
Was it his best friend Frank?
Was it his shy and reclusive friend Jacob?
Was it his beautiful girlfriend Naturelle?
While the film revolves around one night, the said night is so full of rich development that we are never bored, never stagnant and never rushed. The night beautifully captures the feeling of panic, the feeling of impending disaster but never lets loose of his relaxed pace and delivery. The lighting, the mood, the atmosphere is all magnificently captured by Spike Lee and company.
And what an impressive company he has. Edward Norton; one of the greatest working actors, is utterly amazing here. Yet another Oscar caliber performance (how is it that he is nominated for everything he does?). As Monty he fleshes out the very soul of this man, the rough exterior that melts away to reveal the vulnerable and frail fear within his heart. You have two aspects to this man and he breathes life to each side. You have his breathtaking monologue in the mirror and his heartbreaking final scene with co-star Barry Pepper. Speaking of Pepper, he nails his performance as Frank; the aggressive arrogance and almost snooty air that only masks his apparent loyalty and devotion. Philip Seymour Hoffman has always been a great supporting player but this is one of his finest performances in my opinion. It's not as showy as his more recent and beloved work and I think that plays to his interests here. He is reserved and subtle and thus endearing and memorable. His scene with Anna Paquin at the club is devastatingly real. Anna Paquin is also effortlessly captivating here as Mary, the flirtatious student for whom Jacob pines. Rosario Dawson and Brian Cox are also great here, not as standout as the four I've mentioned but definitely not lacking in any area.
Spike Lee though is the star of this film. Taking Benioff's script (which he adapted from his novel of the same name) and turning it loose on us in such a visually stimulating form Spike was able to pulverize me with one of the most effortlessly mesmerizing films I've seen in a long time.
Sure it's just one night, but it's one night you'll never forget.
Movie Review: Absolutly Incredable! A masterpiece!
Summary: 5 Stars
While watching "25th Hour" I was treated to one of the most incredable and emotional monolouges that I have yet to see. It is done by Edward Nortons character of Monty, and in it he says something bad about probally every religion, race,and type of person that there is to make fun of. It was so powerfully moving, and it uses the f word a strong number of times. But the cursing doesn't matter because during the segment you can feel for the character of Monty, because I'm sure that everybody has had a comment to at least one of the people that Monty says something about. The movie stars Edward Norton, Barry Pepper, Brian Cox, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Edward Norton plays Monty Brogon, who is a drug dealer that decided that he was going to be legit, but he was too late, as the cops discovered drugs in the padding of his couch. He decides to spend his last night of freedom with his two best friends Jacob and Frank, as well as his girlfriend Naturelle Riviera. Monty is not the only one going through problems. Jacob is a teacher who have a crush on one of his students Mary D' Annunzio, who enjoys flirting with him. Frank is an investing banker, who can't believe that Monty and Naturelle allowed the police to find the drugs. Monty starts off his evening by having dinner with his father, played by Brian Cox. He then goes to a nightclub with his friends, and he also meets his drug lord boss Uncle Nikolai. As the night grows old, Monty begins to wonder who is the one who turned him in to the cops, and he begins to get to the fact that he cannot rust anybody, not his friends, not his girlfriend, nobody that he knows, because any of them could be a traitor.
At the end of "25th Hour" you do find out who is the person that turned Monty in, and I was surprised. I am trying not to reveal anything that could ruin the movie, but the person who turned him in is the last person that I suspected. But as the night wore on and it was almost time for his to go to jail, I was interested. This movie was a seris of conversations between people. There was ten minute long conversations, five minute long conversations. But its through these conversations that you could determine who may have or may have not turned Monty in. I saw "25th Hour" about a year ago, and I loved it so much, that I remembered it to include it on my Top 10 List of 2003. See "25th Hour" and just listen to what the character's say. It's a brilliant film that I recommend.
Also see this movie for the preformances. I love Edward Norton as an actor, and thought his preformance in "Death to Smoochy," showed that he could do comedy as well as hard drama like this. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is great in this as he is in everything. "Punch Drunk Love," "Along Came Polly," "Almost Famous," and many other titles stand under his name. He is a brilliant actor that should get more respect, especially in this movie. Edward Norton should have won Best Actor during the Oscars last year for this. The is a classic film. A+!
ENJOY!
Rated R for strong language and some violence.
Movie Review: Haunting and beautifully filmed - but is it all it seems?
Summary: 5 Stars
As 'A Spike Lee Joint,' 25th hour is part of the ongoing Lee paradigm, filled with his typical style, directorial vigour, and cinematic gloss. A flowing, feature length music video, containing a story that is coherent, topical and, above all, strongly analytical in its approach to the characters, 25th Hour is the story of mid level drug dealer (Monty Brogan - Ed Norton) whom, on his last day before being incarcerated for his illicit trade, must make peace with his family and friends, answer to his Red Mafiya/Vory v zakone suppliers, say farewell to the city he so obviously loves and, ultimately, accept that he is now in receipt of justified dues.
With a post 9/11 setting in NYC, the script deviates from the book (which was written pre-9/11) only slightly in order to encompass the destruction, yet the atmosphere is set with the opening credits and a slice of dialogue during the first quarter (followed by some beautifully filmed cutaways of a sodium lit night-time clean-up crew, working in Ground Zero) which leaves the audience with no alternative but to associate the main characters' desperate tableau with plight of the city in the aftermath of tragedy. Lee - love him or loathe him for it - is known for his preaching and, right or wrong, seems to be suggesting that perhaps the terrible events of 9/11 have some twisted, if unjustified, reason. Lee later strongly denied this was his intention, in an enigmatic yet vague interview, and if he's criticised for it, has only himself to blame.
This could perhaps beg the question: What was so bad about how Monty made his living to warrant the end of his life (in effect) in the 25th Hour?
This is a question answered before it's asked, with the first scene after the opening credits showing an exchange between Monty and a dishevelled wreck of a man who is quite clearly one of his customers. It's further reinforced in a later flashback to Monty's earlier days as a dealer when the same man approaches Monty dressed in business attire. The destruction of others for personal gain is something that will not - and quite rightly so - go unchallenged.
Relying somewhat on symbolism and hidden meanings, there are a number of subtexts, as well as ample opportunities to read into the narrative more than is intended, but the overall message is clear: culpability is in the hands of the bearer, and with his last 24 hours of freedom sifting away and the eponymous 25th Hour quickly approaching Monty must see that blame can only lie with himself.
25th Hour's greatest achievement is in relaying a subtle, but highly relevant parable in a manner of storytelling that is both enjoyable and compelling. Very few words are wasted and the dialogue remains taught and muscular throughout. The editing, acting, score, direction and cinematography are all of the very highest standard. Whether or not you agree Lee's intention was to illustrate a larger picture - that maybe The US was in receipt of ineluctable retribution - is another story.
Movie Review: Lee and Benioff Make Neo Noir Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Spike Lee's film of Michael Benioff's novel 25th Hour is one of the strongest of the neo-noir films of the last few years, and one of the few films to address the corruption of dealing drugs and the breakdown of culture symbolized by the WTC site. Edward Norton plays Montgomery Brogan, a heroin dealer who must report to the Otisville Federal Prison in the morning. Monty's life until this point has been a dream; he lives with a beautiful woman, drives a cool car, and gets into all the clubs, but financing this life is heroin and the Russian Mafia.
Edward Norton gives a typical strong performance - I'd love to see him and Johnny Depp in a film - making Monty a rich character who understands his own self-delusions. Barry Pepper and the ever wonderful Phillip Hoffman play Monty's more conventional friends, Slattery and Alinsky, the former a Wall-Street cowboy, and the latter a repressed English teacher in love with one of his students. Rosanna Dawson plays Monty's woman with understated power and sorrow.
Monty's final day of freedom plays out in clubs, parks, bars, and his memories, which Spike Lee weaves seamlessly in and out of the narrative, sparing us a moralistic explanation for Monty, a nice boy, ending up becoming a drug dealer, but showing us instead the parts of Monty's life that mean something to him: finding an abused pit bull, meeting Naturale, getting busted and interrogated by arrogant DEA agents.
The rant that Monty gives to his reflection is right out of David Benioff's book, nearly word-for-word, so stop blaming Spike Lee, and besides it's a great set piece, expressing Monty's self-loathing at the city which will go on despite him. Lee follows up this tour-de-force with all the people Monty cursed waving good-bye to him as he leaves New York, one of the most wonderful cinematic poems I've seen.
Monty is himself the City, broken, confused, and angry; beautiful, Monty wants to make himself ugly to protect himself from gang rape in prison, and he calls on his friends Slattery and Alinsky to beat him, horrifying them both.
Again, the flight of fantasy at the end of the film is right out of Benioff's book and not something Spike Lee made up, although Lee often extends the ends of his films (see Mo' Better Blues and Clockers), so Benioff's novel was right in keeping with Lee's style.
This is one of Spike Lee's best films, and it was totally disregarded at the box office, probably people want to pigeonhole Lee. But like all great artists, Spike Lee can transcend himself. I believe 25th Hour will be remembered as a great American film in the years to come.
Note: I would recommend you read David Benioff's novel, but the film is taken right from the book with few amendations, and those small changes - emphasizing 9/11, making Monty's father a fireman - improve Benioff's book.