If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This movie is a complete waste of time and effort. It's nothing more than a superficial story of a few tacky, obnoxious kids arguing with each other over their trivial lives. So far (about halfway through the movie), I have yet to see anything meaningful about the actual case. For me, it is a total waste of time. I wasn't interested in seeing a trivial storyline about a few New Yorkers. I wanted to see how the case developed, which so far hasn't happened. Maybe it will change and I'll be surprised by an actual plot, but so far I've seen nothing worthwhile. Who cares about"The Perils of Pauline" as told by a handful of punks?

For the love of God. If I ever happen to meet Spike Lee I will thank him for making the worst movie in cinematic history. Then I will punt him like a used football. He should have his SAG card revoked and should never be allowed to make another movie and forced to move to North Korea. The Italian stereotypes were pasted on so hard that I didn't know if I was watching Summer of Sam or Living Colour with the Wayans brothers. Yes, I guess all Italians speak like 3rd graders and use the F bomb for every adjective in their vocabulary. Next was the mindless use of these Italian wonderkinds as sexual animals who fornicate every minute of the day. Adrian Brody and John Leguizamo's performances were horrid. I have seen better acting in my wife's 4 year old pre-school class. If the movie studio wanted to throw away 22 million they should have just given it away to some charity .... Not make the worst movie is history and have the mindless birdshits post a review like it was actually worth watching. I would rather have a burning hot piece of iron thrust into my urethra by Randy Johnson then to ever watch this smoking hot mound of horse manure........ I would comment on the plot if there was any semblance of one. If you really dislike someone please tell them to watch this ..... Spike Lee you should rot in hell for this ....... Thank You !!!

At the time I watched Summer of Sam, it had an average rating of 6.6/10 on IMDb. For a while, I didn't think much of the movie, as I didn't think it was supposed to be very good. However, after reading Roger Ebert's praising review, I decided to check it out. 2 hours and 20 minutes later, I was amazed. How is this movie not talked about more? This is easily one of Spike Lee's best films, along with Do the Right Thing and 25th Hour. A small detail that tells a lot about what to expect is the film's title. Most people expected a profile of the Son of Sam serial killer. However, the movie is called SUMMER of Sam, which tells what the film is about. It's about the time period and the paranoia that gripped New York during the killings, not the killer himself. There are several scenes showing the killer's life, who is played excellently by underrated actor Michael Baddalucco, but these scenes do not take up the majority of the film. Though he isn't the main character, the film belongs to Adrien Brody as wannabe punk rocker Richie, who is slowly believed to be the Son of Sam by his paranoid friends. His performance is eccentric, dramatic, and just close enough to over-the-top to be believable. The film's best sequence is about halfway through the film, in which Richie rocks out to The Who in his garage, and the scene is dazzlingly intercut with Richie moonlighting as a dancer in a sleazy club and the killer doing his business. I must also give a large applause to the film's top notch editing and soundtrack which play a big part in making the film unique. Despite any negative reviews you've heard, I highly recommend this film for any fan of unique thrillers and Spike Lee's other work.

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.