I love this film. It's vibrant yet dark, filled with great performances, colorful characters, and terrific style. Cultures are pitted against each other in a New York heatwave that causes power outages hysteria, and paranoia. Friends turn against each other during the madness. Original and uncompromising. Boiling to an authentic lesson in what happens when you lose your head. Even the smallest roles are played to perfection with amazing actors to create a who's who of unique characters. This is the original true crime masterpiece laying the groundwork so often used today. Ambitious and provocative, the payoffs are bold and in your face.

I love the opening sequences of this film. However, it got increasingly worse as the film progressed. Before it reached the halfway point, it was already clear that is was irredeemably awful. I couldn't always take the acting seriously. At times, it seemed contrived. The actor playing Son of Sam was hardly convincing. He seemed more like a character from a bad comedy than a vicious serial killer. Certain elements of the plot seemed a bit farfetched. I didn't always know where the story was going or if I even cared. I do not recommend Summer of Sam. 59/100

Great movie. Great cast. You can just feel the heat wave and the pressure of that summer building while watching the movie. John leguizamo is awesome in this movie! Another Spike Lee classic

The reviews for this surprise me. I found this movie to be an intriguing mesh of love, desire, loyalty, fear and pain as the characters navigate their lives and issues with the looming presence of Sam hanging over all of them. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Biggest heap of garbage ever, the title is so misleading, Son of Sam is only a small background part in this badly written and acted film of sex crazed brain dead Italian gang continually arguing and fighting. Doesn't even deserve a rating.

He does show an honest depiction of people at their worst. It's just so obviously spiteful. Is there anyone more overrated than spike lee? The guy is just terrible at everything.

An unfairly judged film worthy of critical reappraisal.

I didn't think the plot was very strong, or obvious, in this film. I didn't feel like I got much of an insight into the killer. The performances are ok but its mostly a film with lots of swearing, sex references and some violence. It didn't seem, to me, to equate to much. I did quite like the songs played in the soundtrack though. I wanted to watch it as I saw Adrian Brody is in it and I quite like films he's in. He seems to play a supposedly British punk rocker, which is amusing to see, certainly but I wouldn't call it an especially engrossing watch at all. It isn't even particularly scary. Its ok. Also the dialogue is a bit muffled and thus hard to follow in its entirety at times, with a lot of talk between urban/edgy people who can be highly strung. I wouldn't recommend this, no.

I saw this movie at the drive-in when it first came out. Masquerades as if it's a movie about the Son of Sam serial killer in 1970s New York City, ends up being a movie about a small group of Italian Americans and their desires for deviant sex. Putrid. One of the most disappointing movies I've ever seen.

A bait. If you're looking for any kind of narrative specifically related to the Son of Sam watch documentaries because this story is mostly about the mental struggle of an obnoxious Italian-American man who can't do anal with his wife and so he cheats on her. Add a plethora of other plots and pointless characters thrown into the mix of the 1977 summer in NY and you've got yourself a "controversial" Spike Lee joint. Who apparently got intimidated by the victims of the shootings and rewrote it to be only partially related to the Son of Sam, lurking in the background. It shows because almost every scene involving him is either embarrassing or laughable, with the exception being the ending scene where the media frenzy turns Berkowitz into a star having his red carpet moment. The acting is also either mediocre or extremely overacted. Spike Lee's disdain for Italians in New York is spilling out from the screen, along with obvious race-baiting. Making all the characters seem arrogant, pathetic and stupid. Overbearing 70's music is blasted at every opportunity, trying to emulate Scorsese, which nowadays would be perceived exceedingly amateurish. The saving grace are the visuals and editing, which, despite it's awful structure, still makes it interesting to watch.

Surprised with the low ratings. Thought this was great. Should have stayed away from the Studio 54/Plato's Retreat part--too contrived.

A wonderful portait of life as a New Yorker in the hot summer of 1977.

despite the reviews, Summer of Sam is another great spike joint, a dark, gritty and gripping crime/thriller drama that runs a little long but stays interesting, most critics were too harsh on this film, in my opinion it's a very underrated film, 9.75/10

Summer of sam racconta in maniera piuttosto fedele i fatti avvenuti intorno al serial killer noto come "il figlio di sam". I racconti dei protagonisti si intrecciano sullo sfondo di una torrida estate, nessun eroe e nessun santo, solo un mix di ribellione e pregiudizi che sfociano nell'ultima e risolutiva scena. A tratti troppo avaro di eventi degni di nota, il film si sofferma un po' troppo sul protagonista principale, il buon vinnie. Peccato non aver raccontato praticamente nulla del serial killer, che viene utilizzato solo come sfondo.

To me Michael Rispoli's acting shines the most out of anyone's in this film but Leguizamo and Brody both shine as well in different ways. I didn't live through 1977 but I feel Spike captured the feeling of that year within this film.

Very inconsistent. It felt as though multiple directors made this film. Mira Sorvino, Adrian Brody, Michael Rispoli and Jennifer Esposito were the strengths of this film. Michael Imperioli should never do a fake accent like that again. I felt embarrassed for him. Spike Lee is not a good actor. It felt like they added a cartoon interlude everytime he was onscreen and that took away from the overall impact of the actual stories that were at play. Too bad, it had a lot of potential.

A great film about Son of Sam can be made, but it should focus on Son of Sam not all these unlikable characters.

This is up there with Malcolm X as the best work Lee has done. It's unfairly maligned, for not being your traditional biopic of a serial killer, but that's never what this was meant to be. It's an effective window into a certain time period, and a portrait of the effect something like a serial killer can have on a community. In a way Leguizamos character is more of a villain than Son of Sam himself...

I was gonna give more then 4 stars but didn't this is a great movie bio. based true story about a serial killer on the loose in the 70's in New York. A go to movie for me one of my faves, good cast, soundtrack acting, story and plot. Spike Lee did great with this movie give it a watch it holds your attention and in my opinion is very watchable.

A.B. did a great job !