Summer of Sam: Critic Reviews

100%

MovieWeb: 1 reviews

50%

RottenTomatoes: 50 reviews

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Mike Clark USA Today (Top Critic)

50

Overstuffed!
Full Review » 12 years ago
Desson Thomson Washington Post (Top Critic)

A pedestrian-looking mishmash of a movie!
Full Review » 12 years ago
J. Hoberman Village Voice (Top Critic)

The elements are there but the movie isn't.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Jeff Millar Houston Chronicle (Top Critic)

If Lee could swap background with foreground, this would be a sensational film.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Philip Wuntch Dallas Morning News (Top Critic)

Even the most colorful and/or poignant characters in Summer of Sam have a plastic, servicing-the-plot quality.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader (Top Critic)

Like most of Lee's work, this bites off more than it can chew, but the breadth and energy are impressive.
Full Review » 4 years ago
Susan Stark Detroit News (Top Critic)

25

Summer of Sam scatters most of its force by straying far from the compelling, plenty-complex business at hand.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Andrew Sarris New York Observer (Top Critic)

This is trashy exploitation at its clumsiest. Once more, a Spike Lee movie has been undone by the earnestness of being important.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Rod Dreher New York Post (Top Critic)

A ragged mess that only rarely connects with its audience or with a point.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Liam Lacey Globe and Mail (Top Critic)

63

The disappointment with Summer of Sam is not that it's exploitative; it's just difficult to figure out what it's supposed to be about.
Full Review » 10 years ago
Hillel Italie Associated Press (Top Critic)

The script, by Lee, Victor Colicchio and Michael Imperioli, is tighter than those for other Lee movies, but it's still too long and too broad.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times (Top Critic)

50

Lee is a powerful filmmaker who certainly knows how to have an impact on an audience, but those who survive his ministrations are likely to wonder if in this case the battle was worth the bruises.
Full Review » 11 years ago
Film4

This ultimately disappoints, but it is good to see Lee branch out into subjects which don't immediately lend themselves to his single-minded politicizing.
Full Review » 4 years ago
Jim Lane Sacramento News & Review

20

The film is sloppy and ill-formed, its tone lurching drunkenly from turgid soap opera to soft-core porn, descending at times to low camp.
Full Review » 4 years ago
Geoff Andrew Time Out

Trouble is, the overlong narrative, however entertaining from minute to minute, is a mess.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid

63

I needed stronger and more balanced characters to really care what happened.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Ron Wells Film Threat

80

Whatever you think of Spike Lee, when he has the faith in his talent and material and is able to be political without the dogma, he's one of the best filmmakers to come out of America in the 1980's.
Full Review » 6 years ago
Robin Clifford Reeling Reviews

50

Lee does capture the terror a serial killer can wreak upon the community, but his concentration on the weak characters hurts in the long run.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Jeffrey Overstreet Looking Closer

59

The story makes very important points, and shows us a graphic parable of the wages of sin. But the ugliness along the way will be too much for some viewers....
Full Review » 7 years ago
Dragan Antulov rec.arts.movies.reviews

50

Disappointing.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Judith Egerton Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

75

Spike Lee's most ambitious movie, is joltingly inspired at times. It's also offensively redundant and needs editing.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Susan Tavernetti Palo Alto Weekly

75

The cast sizzles.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Margaret A. McGurk Cincinnati Enquirer

88

An intelligent, compassionate, adult story told to thrilling, fearsome effect.
Full Review » 10 years ago
Philip Martin Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

92

...tremendous, haunting, multi-textured ...
Full Review » 10 years ago
Wade Major Boxoffice Magazine

60

Both beguiling and confounding, an enigmatic blend of banality and brilliance that ultimately manages to overcome its myriad shortcomings through nothing but the sheer force of Lee's visionary direction.
Full Review » 10 years ago