In New York City in the days following the events of 9/11, Monty Brogan is a convicted drug dealer about to start a seven-year prison sentence, and his final hours of freedom are devoted to hanging out with his closest buddies and trying to prepare his girlfriend for his extended absence.
Lee has created that rarity in filmmaking: a movie we need, right now.
– Ann Hornaday,
Washington Post,
10 Jan 2003
fresh:
It's the usual undisciplined, overextended Spike symphony: more fun than it is any good.
– Desson Thomson,
Washington Post,
10 Jan 2003
rotten:
Pretty lethargic stuff.
– Richard Corliss,
TIME Magazine,
13 Jan 2003
fresh:
Lee and his cast are so adept at getting us acquainted with Monty and these other people that we wind up feeling like we've known them for years.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
18 Jan 2003
fresh:
I still think that Mr. Lee has come closer than he ever has before to making the great film about New York City that David Thomson hoped from him in a favorable mini-bio in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film.