Critic Reviews

Summer of Sam (1999) Movie Reviews

Expert Review Summary

Movie critics combined give Summer of Sam (1999) a score of 2.7788 out of 4

based on (184) reviews

Click on the numbers to the right of the graph to see reviews of that rating

Excellent

(19)

Very Good

(132)

Good

(30)

Fair

(3)

Poor

(0)

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Reviews by Score:

See all (19) "Excellent" Reviews

Matinee Magazine (Chuck Rudolph)

A sprawling wasteland of inflammatory tabloid moviemaking, it's more white-hot and frenetic and honestly emotional than any other movie this year....read the complete Summer of Sam (1999) review at Matinee Magazine (Chuck Rudolph)

See all (132) "Very Good" Reviews

Lobo Howls (Judith Wolfe)

It is the summer of 1977 (the summer that I will always remember as the summer Elvis allegedly died). NYC is hit with an unimaginable heat wave (just stick your head out the window today), a crazy serial killer, a pennant race, and a city that is taking...read the complete Summer of Sam (1999) review at Lobo Howls (Judith Wolfe)

See all (30) "Good" Reviews

Slate (David Edelstein)

Spike Lee is a virtuoso filmmaker, a wizard at selling a sequence, but he'll never make an entirely coherent movie until he learns to go deeper into his subjects instead of wider with them....read the complete Summer of Sam (1999) review at Slate (David Edelstein)

See all (3) "Fair" Reviews

DVD Talk (Chuck Arrington)

Overall, "Docudramas" of this type attempt to recreate the feel of the period. The terror is quite palpable and the murders are quite startling in their realism. That having been said, I am a fan of Spike Lee & feel him to be one great director however,...read the complete Summer of Sam (1999) review at DVD Talk (Chuck Arrington)