25th Hour
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.13 You Save: $6.82 (68%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.34 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of 25th Hour
Movie Review: ONE LAST NIGHT OF FREEDOM
Summary: 5 Stars
In 25TH HOUR Spike Lee presents a masterpiece starring Edward Norton. Monty Brogan, a native New Yorker, was recently sentenced to serve eight years in prison for selling drugs. The night before he is supposed to report to prison he embarks on a journey through the past and present in an attempt to attack his nervousness of serving time in addition to solving the puzzle of who turned him in to the cops. Spike Lee does what no one else in Hollywood has had the nerve to do since 9/11. Constantly connected throughout the film are snippets of the devastation left behind. Scenes of the World Trade Towers light tribute appears at the beginning and the political voyage continues from there. We see glimpses of the photo memorials along with the enormous pit left behind after all the debris was removed. The audience can feel how this one moment in history has been engrained into the consciousness of the people living in New York City. It has always bothered me how other movies set in NYC totally ignore this most important event.
Edward Norton provides another spectular performance in 25TH HOUR and is quickly proving himself in Hollywood. This is a very enjoyable film that leaves you hanging at the end. What do you think he did? Go see the movie and come up with your own opinion.
Movie Review: *Almost* redeems "Bamboozled" --
Summary: 5 Stars
"25th Hour" is probably Spike Lee's best film since "Do The Right Thing." He keeps things reasonably low-key, letting the power of the story speak for itself until the inevitable Spike Lee Moment--Monty's infamous love/hate letter to NYC, still far more effective than it should be thanks to Norton's delivery--and largely avoiding his favorite themes. Even the determinedly post-9/11 scenes and dialogue are tastefully done, and serve as a metanarrative that is constantly played against Monty's story to remind us of the personal Ground Zeroes that we all have to face sometime.Norton is one of the strongest conflicted-wimp leads out there right now, and he manages to hold our attention in every frame in the same mysterious way that he usually does. Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper play off of each nicely as Norton's no-longer-compatible best friends, and lovely Rosario Dawson breaks our hearts several times over as the did-she-or-didn't-she girlfriend. Anna Paquin is the same little tart that she has been all of her career--not that there's anything wrong with that.
The ending, taken almost directly from the book, is especially powerful and will be on your mind for days. This is a very effective film, and easily one of the best of 2002.
Movie Review: Most Overlooked movie of 2002
Summary: 5 Stars
25th Hour is a true poem about America and New York after the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001. It's not gung-ho, as the country was in attacking Afghanistan and Iraq. And it's not very mourning, either. It's almost this centuries equivalent of the city symphonies of the tens and twenties. But all that 9/11 stuff tends to bog me down in political and sociological discussions that I have come to abhor. Throw all of that aside, and this is a great movie. Every performance, minus that of the wasted Rosario Dawson, is incredible. Brian Cox cemented himself in my mind as one of the finest actors in the world.
Spike Lee is up to his usual camera tricks, and its great when you recognize them--I broke onto Spike (not TV) Lee about three years ago, after hating him for the first decade and a half of my life. On a side note, you should check out bamboozled, another fabulous societal movie, which recieved about the same welcome as this film.
The score is awesome, the camera phenomenal.
The top movie with "City of God" for this year.
It's also a hoot to watch the film with director commentary...Spike Lee and his inimitable self... "the great rodrigo lopez", "the excellent so-and-so", etc. you get the point.
Movie Review: Allegory About America - Subversive 25th Hour
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is amazing, and what's more amazing is that Spike Lee got Disney to make it. This fact, along with the above Amazon review above, only go to show how completely the movies critics and funders missed the essential point of the work. It's not a eulogy, not a touching portrait of New York as it once was, this is clearly the most political movie that Spike Lee has ever produced. If you don't scratch the surface, the movie makes little sense. Ed Norton plays a drug dealer who gets caught and must decide if he will go to jail. The movie is really an allegory for the choice America must face: return to its idealistic roots, or enter a police state of violence and retribution. It's not surprising that everyone misses the point. The vocabulary of film does not employ allegory often, but in this instance, the allegory works precisely as a one-to-one correspondence between the characters in the film, and current events. Once you have the key, this movie makes far more sense, and it's clear what about this movie makes you sad, and also clear that Spike Lee has produced the most powerful work about our current choice between Empire and Republic, and what to my mind is the best art about 9-11 made to date.Movie Review: Powerful and Stylistic
Summary: 5 Stars
Spike Lee hasn't quite gotten the recognition he deserves. 25th Hour is one of the best films of 2002 yet it was somewhat underrated and overlooked. It is moody, powerful, and thoughtful. It is not a plot-driven film as it follows a retired drug dealer during his last day before a 7-year prison sentence. As the first film made in New York after September 11, the destruction and mourning caused by the attacks is very present in the film. 25th Hour has a powerful voice that speaks to everyone. One particular scene in which Edward Norton talks cynically to himself may seem slightly offensive to some, but that's not the point. The cast gives great performances with characters the audience can relate to. Rosario Dawson gives a mature and believable performance as Norton's girlfriend. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a conflicted and mild-mannered school teacher, and Barry Pepper is an egotistical stock broker. This film will make you reflect on your own life and the world we live in. Our struggles, the decisions we must make, the prejudices and false judgements we have - they all come to life on screen through a character who realizes the mistakes he's made are going to change his life.