A turgid, bombastic and outrageously self-satisfied movie.
Comment
07/08/03
25th Hour (2002)
78
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:161
Fresh:125
Rotten:36
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: An intelligent and well-acted film despite the usual Spike Lee excesses.
Reviews for 25th Hour
Top CriticThe final act moves the film from a gentle drama to a chilling cautionary tale about personal responsibility.
01/19/03
One of the more entertaining and thought-provoking Spike Lee Joints in a long while.
12/30/06
Top CriticLee's best picture in years.
02/18/03
Top CriticSuperbly acted and impressively directed, it’s a moving study of loss and responsibility in post-9/11 New York.
04/26/03
It's about a feeling of clutching at nothing, having that specific sort of stressed sensation that comes about in a situation that sucks but simply cannot be changed.
05/07/03
The more Lee tries to force pathos from his plight, the more misguided the film becomes.
04/21/03
Top CriticWhile 25th Hour has a several arresting characters struggling with credible problems, regrettably Monty isn't one of them.
02/09/06
Top CriticImpressively, Lee steps out of his narrow genre, paints a stunning portrait of New York City, and will surely gain a wider audience with 25th HOUR.
01/09/03
Lee's best, most cohesive and most passionate film since Do the Right Thing.
09/06/04
Make time for 25th Hour.
01/10/03
In sum, uneven, with a strong Norton, incompatible score, but, of course you'll love the dog -- and the good message/reminder.
12/17/02
[Lee's] vision of the anomie behind the glitzy New York nightlife is almost as vivid and potent here as it was in Sam, and he builds a lively ensemble of characters around Norton with mostly believable relationships.
01/09/03
Extraordinary in that it avoids all the clichés that such a premise so often invites.
12/10/02
An honest and aggressive valentine to the American way, bolstered by an astounding cast and a virtuoso performance by Edward Norton.
01/07/03
Sorrowful and thoughtful at the same time, 25th Hour is about how a single situation can jolt us out of our comfortable complacency and threaten us with the harsh fact that nothing will ever be the same again.
01/10/03
In its own strange way [the film is] uplifting, a tribute to people's ability to face the unthinkable, and, if not triumph, at least persevere.
09/06/03
Not a happy experience, and there are times when it seems to drag, but there's no denying that it lingers in the mind long after the impressions left by other movies have evaporated.
12/18/02
Lee's personal touches...bring heft and import to the movie, but also turn (it) into a momentous metaphor for the strength, fortitude and resiliency of post-Sept. 11 New York.
12/20/02
There are flashes here and there of touching moments and telling conceptualization.
01/27/03
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