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Summer of Sam [Region 2]
 
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Summer of Sam [Region 2] (1999)

Starring: John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody Director: Spike Lee Rating: R (Restricted) Format: DVD
3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (154 customer reviews)

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Region 2 encoding (This DVD will not play on most DVD players sold in the US or Canada [Region 1]. This item requires a region specific or multi-region DVD player and compatible TV. More about DVD formats.)

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Product Details

  • Actors: John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody, Mira Sorvino, Jennifer Esposito, Michael Rispoli
  • Directors: Spike Lee
  • Writers: Spike Lee, Michael Imperioli, Victor Colicchio
  • Producers: Spike Lee, Jeri Carroll-Colicchio, Jon Kilik, Michael Imperioli
  • Format: Anamorphic, Full Screen, NTSC
  • Language: French (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (DTS 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (DTS 5.1)
  • Subtitles: French
  • Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
  • Rating: R (Restricted)
  • Run Time: 142 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (154 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00004VYJD
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #222,216 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  • For more information about "Summer of Sam [Region 2]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It's important to note that Spike Lee's drama is not titled Son of Sam. Summer of Sam doesn't chronicle the killer as much as the times: the blistering hot summer of 1977 when the Big Apple's psyche was taken hostage by the lone gunman. We spot the killer (Michael Badalucco) in his mad ramblings, but the film centers on two friends from the Bronx: Vinny and Ritchie (John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody). Vinny and his wife, Dionna (Mira Sorvino), bury a bad marriage (he cheats at a drop of a hat) in the disco halls of the area. Ritchie returns to the neighborhood sporting punk hair, punk clothes, and a British accent that immediately infuriates the neighborhood boys oozing far too much testosterone. Cops, local mob leaders, and the guys on the street all have ideas who the killer is; neighborhood loners to Reggie Jackson (in the midst of World Series heroism) are on their misguided lists of suspects. When the film looks at how the citizens faced the fearful times, Lee scores with his energetic camerawork and pop soundtrack. Yet the film is banal in its domestic dramatics. The film takes large detours into Vinny's home sex life (stagnant) and Ritchie's extracurricular activities. One of the marriage arguments--though real and well acted--is so long and cliché-ridden you wonder if someone fell asleep in the editing booth. Add the point-blank killings and nonstop vulgarity and you have Lee's most unpleasant film. --Doug Thomas

From The New Yorker

In the sweltering New York summer of 1977, David Berkowitz, the psychotic killer known as Son of Sam, terrorizes the city while, in the Bronx, young Italian-Americans seek pleasure in sex and disco. Spike Lee, working from a screenplay originated by the actor-writers Michael Imperioli and Victor Colicchio, suggests that we are all David Berkowitz-the madness is everywhere. The Italian-Americans, for instance, are killing one another out of fear, ignorance, and intolerance. Slamming different kinds of experience together, Lee tries to do with montage what he cannot do with dramatic logic. John Leguizamo gives a large-scaled, brilliant performance as Vinny, the hairdresser and disco king who cheats on his beautiful wife (Mira Sorvino). With Adrien Brody as Ritchie, who leaves the neighborhood and returns as a bisexual punk rocker with spiked hair. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

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Customer Reviews

154 Reviews
5 star:
 (40)
4 star:
 (26)
3 star:
 (30)
2 star:
 (28)
1 star:
 (30)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.1 out of 5 stars (154 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
51 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A critically underappreciated film, January 27, 2002
By Eric Wahl (Bozeman, MT, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Summer of Sam (DVD)
Given the press reviews that came out upon this movie's release and a number of the reviews here, I'm going to buck the trend and suggest to you that Summer of Sam is actually one of Spike Lee's very best films. Perhaps it was marketed ineffectively, but Lee clearly never intended this movie to be about The Killer. Rather, Summer of Sam is about paranoia, conflicting ideas of community, and trusting one's self against and through an intense period of: the heat, economic downturn, sexual adventurousness, and drugs that were the late 1970's. The Son of Sam's killing spree in NYC in 1977 triggered a fear and panic in the city that often made people who knew each other for years suddenly suspicious of one another. At the time of its release this movie was roundly criticized for Lee's portrayal of Italian men as "stereotypical 'Guidos,'" but I would ask those folks who make such claims to consider this: if we say that a stereotype is a fixed, unvarying conception of a person, then why aren't all the Italian men in this film exactly the same in their actions and manners? Were there no Italian men in NYC'77 who were quite like the three "Guidos" in Summer of Sam? And do you honsetly believe that Spike Lee intends for these three men to represent ALL Italian men? Of course not. And do we see examples of Italian men in Summer of Sam who are not "Guidos"? Several. The characters are rendered masterfully, I think, and John Leguizamo gives an amazingly rich and layered performance as a man who cheats on his wife BECAUSE his curious religious convictions convince him his sexual desires are too perverse to ask of her. When he comes perilously close to two of Sam's victims, Leguizamo's character undergoes an intense but ultimately doomed period of guilt and self-doubt that he tries to address but cannot--his desire to be good to his wife is very real, yet this desire is overpowered by his sexual desires. In this vein the movie becomes an investigation of how people, "good" and "bad," address their own desires--for sex, for status, for security. And the paranoia created by he Son of Sam's killings creates strange bedfellows indeed: the "Guidos" protect an effeminate gay local because he is a good customer in their drug trade, but they harrass a guy they grew up around because he starts spiking his hair and listening to punk music; the local mafia boss bankrolls a neighborhood block party so people can have a good time in relative safety . . . because he's also provided the "Guidos" with baseball bats to protect everyone. This movie is far more complex than most reviewers seem to indicate. An excellent score and soundtrack that never overwhelms the action, and a gifted cast that delivers memorable performances, many of which should have been award-worthy (Leguizamo, certainly, but also the poignant and determined Mira Sorvino character, Adrien Brody's nearly-doomed punk rock dreamer, and the alarmingly unheralded Jennifer Esposito as the local tramp who really wants to change who falls in love with the punk rocker). The film's climax, in which the wrong man is attacked and beaten by the "Guidos" (having been lured out of his house by his own conflicted friend) plays simultaneously with the capture and arrest of the real killer, and it is so masterfully rendered I don't think I'll ever forget it. Bookended by commentary from notorious/ubiquitous/beloved NYC columnist Jimmy Breslin, Summer of Sam, as Lee surely did intend, is far more than a movie about seeming stereotypes and disco music during a scary time in the city. It deserves a closer look by anyone interested in Lee's singular grasp of human dynamics and desires. It would be a shame for people to write this movie off as a misfire, for it is no such thing.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Summer Of Sam, January 16, 2000
By Mr. Kev Hill (Brentwood, Essex, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Summer of Sam (DVD)
New York, Summer 1977 and, in addition to one of the hottest heat waves the city has ever experienced, David Berkowitz - The Son of Sam - prowls the neighbourhoods for over a year killing indescrimately. However, although Berkowitz' activities form the central backdrop to the story, the film is far more interesting, presenting as it does more of a snapshot of neighbourhood life at the time. Director Spike Lee is an acknowledged master of the genre (whose work is akin to that of Britain's Mike Leigh) and he utilises the usual elements to reinforce his points. A montage of genuine footage and news reports interject with the story of John Leguizamo's (Vinny) adulterous marriage to Mira Sorvino and his best friend Adrien Brody (Richie, complete with awful English accent early in the film). Richie is a bi-sexual-by-convenience punk rocker who is totally misunderstood and eventually outcast by the low-life neighbourhood wise-guys, ultimately becoming their target as the most likely Son of Sam suspect. Vinny's divided loyalties to both the local bone-heads in regard his friend Richie and the consequences of his numerous affairs once uncovered by his wife nicely heighten the personal tension felt by the whole community. And the understandable paranoia is all here: the rush for brunettes to turn blonde overnight (Berkowitx seemed to favour the murder of dark haired individuals), the local cops forming an unholy alliance with the neighbourhood Godfather for help in the case, the heat wave and ensuing blackout that led to widespread looting, fingers being pointed by everyone at anyone for the most tenuous of reasons. A smouldering melting-pot then of story-telling, nostalgia and, indeed, fear. Berkowitz' crimes are summarised by sledgehammer inserts which, although brief, do truly shock and Lee takes time out to give a brief insight into the madness that spurned him on, right down to the infamous black dog he purported as telling him to "kill, kill, kill"! With a film score utilising Club hits of the day (disco, disco, disco!), the obligatory punk workout and even some tracks from The Who (who we could take issue with as being proclaimed "The Fathers of Punk" but as Lee wasn't in the UK when Punk was born we can let this slide, just this once), there's some nice touches with cameo slots given over to the Studio 54 and Platos Retreat scenes. All in all, this is another solid accomplishment from Lee that not only does justice to a number of entwining stories but is also an accomplished piece of nostalgia. Way above average, this definitely deserves two hours of your attention. The Mad Ferret, London, England
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars this actually made it to the theaters?, May 7, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Summer of Sam [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Having been a teenager in the 70's, I was excited about the prospects for this movie. The film disappoints on all fronts, however. Instead of a period piece, or cultural revelation of that time period, we are served a poorly acted, "in your face", directionless movie in search of itself. While the son of sam seems artfully and accurately portrayed as the sub plot, it gets completely out of hand. If you don't find yourself asking 'why am I watching this?' when you get to the scene with the talking dog, then you and I will disagree and part ways here, but for the rest of you, skip this one.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Paranoia in The Summertime
Spike Lee's critically aclaimed 1999 Summer of Sam is a period piece more about the paranoia of a small community than it is a film about the Son oF Sam murders. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Bryan A. Pfleeger

4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly Spot On
Q: Is the movie based on time-worn stereotypes?

A: Yes.

Q: Is it enjoyable nonetheless?

A: Yes, it really engages the viewer. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Marco Polo "Bruce"

2.0 out of 5 stars A somewhat repulsive film
I found this film a bit repulsive and not really that informative of the 'Son of Sam' murders. I generally really like Spike Lee films but this was not one of his best. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Anarchy Now

3.0 out of 5 stars summer of sam
It was an ok movie. Had been awhile since I have seen it. Not as good as i remember it but ok nonetheless. The best thing that I liked about this movies was the music. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Soloman V. Hillman

4.0 out of 5 stars underappreciated but very interesting
i think most people are turned off this movie primarily because it is not what they expected to see. Read more
Published 12 months ago by N. Chandran

1.0 out of 5 stars One of the WORST,most worthless films ever made
A hateful, unwatchable abortion of a movie--Who green-lighted this piece of trash and WHY? Awful story, script, direction, characters--I think this was the only time I was... Read more
Published 13 months ago by EPshots@yahoo.com

3.0 out of 5 stars Weird
The movie is not what I expected it to be. Nope, not at all.
Published 14 months ago by The Cat Lady

1.0 out of 5 stars A Spike Lee Junk
Spike Lee retreads the same old thing - a film with stereotypical Black and Italian-American "types" in "Summer of Sam" as he often does in most of his work (if you can call it... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Joseph Mondano

4.0 out of 5 stars S.O.S.
This film, for the most part is great, everything except for the scene that involves an orgy. For the most part though, the cast and crew did great work, and it should of been a... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Cynthia Valdez Montoya

2.0 out of 5 stars One of the trashiest movies I've ever seen
Spike Lee gets the feel and the look of the late 70s down pat, but this movie ultimately fails as either a thriller or a slice-of-life vignette. Read more
Published 21 months ago by J. Michael

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