First-time Sedona filmmaker Tommy Stovall can't bear to part with certain scenes, even if they lengthen his film and send the story in circles.
Comment
09/22/05
Hate Crime (2005)
6
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:17
Fresh:1
Rotten:16
Average Rating:4.1/10
Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Director Tommy Stovall's provocative indie thriller HATE CRIME raises complex moral questions about free speech, intolerance, and vengeance through the harrowing story of a gay man (Seth Peterson)... [More]
Starring: Seth Peterson, Bruce Davison, Chad E. Donella, Giancarlo Esposito
Director: Tommy Stovall
Reviews for Hate Crime
1 - 17 (sorted by rotten rating; UK critics are listed first)
It takes a turn toward vigilante justice, Texas-style, where everybody has a gun. They trade a hate crime for a crime of hate, and that mixed message overshadows the potential of this film.
04/28/06
Call it too much fuel to the fire in a misguided effort to bring home the tragedy of gay hate crimes.
03/01/07
deserves praise, even the political viewpoints lack any subtlety whatsoever.
02/01/07
The film never rises above its cry now-avenge later Lifetime Channel sensibilities.
05/18/06
While Stovall's study of hate crimes is well acted, and with the right intentions, it can never get off the ground and feel like a unique dissection, and still comes off as an episode of a cop show in the end.
03/14/06
A well-meaning but hopelessly stilted melodrama, Hate Crime sacrifices good intentions with its mediocrity of execution.
03/30/06
Top CriticFirst-time director Stovall renders all with the kitchen-lit, squarely composed aesthetic of timid prime-time TV, and his moral schema is no less ordinary.
08/18/06
On the surface, Hate Crime may seem like a movie about violence rooted in religious bigotry, but underneath it's a poorly disguised argument for vigilantism.
03/16/06
Top CriticWhen the plot gets lost in irrational revenge fantasies, you'll wish you had stayed home watching reruns.
03/14/06
Well-intentioned but convoluted thriller.
03/17/06
What is not entirely clear is what Hate Crime adds to the equation that hasn't been done before.
03/16/06
Top CriticOne day, a truly original screenplay will be written in which churchgoing, beer-drinking Southerners will be portrayed as something other than evil hypocrites.
05/26/06
... a flawed film that frequently tries to rise above standard TV dramas of the week.
04/27/06
Well-meaning but deeply flawed.
05/20/06
The portrait of the Boyds is painted by Tommy Stovall, the film's writer and director, with such broad and venomous strokes that if the gay characters had been portrayed in the same way, the film would rightly be seen as bigoted.
05/12/06
Top CriticAn intelligent, well-acted, tense drama that is challenging in its moral complexity.
08/18/06
1 - 17 (sorted by rotten rating; UK critics are listed first)
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
RT on YouTube 
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
RT on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN RSS Feeds