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.
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.
– Andrew Sarris,
New York Observer,
30 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
rotten:
Pretty lethargic stuff.
– Richard Corliss,
TIME Magazine,
13 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
fresh:
Lee has created that rarity in filmmaking: a movie we need, right now.