" the 44 caliber killer has struck again . " starring john leguizamo , mira sorvino , adrian brody , jennifer esposito , michael rispoli , bebe neuwirth . rated r . summer of sam will be remembered as <NEG> a waste of spike lee's abilities </NEG> . lee is a great filmmaker , often exhibiting kinetic visual flair on par with brian depalma and martin scorsese and a storytelling ability comparable to steven spielberg . but here , he gets himself into a bind . his latest effort is a case of a director pretending he has something to say when in reality there is little of substance to absorb from his work . the summer of 1977 was an unusual summer in new york city . it was the hottest summer on record . to boot , new york's first serial killer was on the loose : calling himself the son of sam , david berkowitz killed 9 people in the new york area and frightened the whole city population . so it was understandable that when nyc was hit with a citywide blackout , people went berserk , causing billions of dollars in damage to the city . the movie's focus is on a group of twenty-somethings during that fateful summer : vinny ( john leguizamo ) , a club-hopping , adultrous hairdresser , his benevolent wife dionna ( mira sorvino , looking young ) , ritchie ( adrian brody ) , a punk who becomes an outcast as well as a son of sam suspect , a gang of small time mobsters and a few more minor characters . we follow them through their roller coaster lives , thrown out of whack even more by the recent killings . vinny and dionna have marital problems because vinny cheats and dionna tries to please him , make him stay faithful to her . ritchie gets shunned by his group of friends because he has started to become more and more " eccentric , " and has degenerated to the point of dancing in gay night clubs and making porno films with his girlfriend . tensions build and conflicts arise as the anniversary night of son of sam's first murder looms ; the night he promises he will strike again . a local gang with too much time on its hands makes a list detailing all of the people that its members think might be suspects . at the top of the list is ritchie . vinny , an unwilling part of the said group , is called upon to set a trap for his friend . as we watch these proceedings , some of which are painfully graphic , <NEG> the dreaded " so what ? " question springs to mind </NEG> . from the way this movie is made , i'd have guessed that spike lee was trying to tell us something , but as i searched deeper it became clear that <NEG> there is very little there to find </NEG> . lee touches on so much -- the media , the 70's punk scene , the details of the actual killings , as well as the characters' very personal dilemmas -- but <NEG> he doesn't bring all of his topics together to form a coherent theme or make a discernible statement </NEG> . all is not lost if a movie turns out to be hollow ; it can be a saving grace for the film to be enjoyable . too bad summer of sam doesn't get any help here . <NEG> frankly , it's a bore , a redundant and repetitive two hour and twenty minute film that doesn't entertain </NEG> beyond its first half hour . <NEG> there is no suspense because the film refuses to be fully about the murders and little involving drama because the film is too muddled and its focus too vague </NEG> . leguizamo's turn as vinnie is <NEG> annoying and whiny </NEG> . the script makes it clear that we're supposed to believe that his character is flawed , but still a good guy . you'd never guess from his performance . adrian brody and especially mira sorvino fare better . sorvino gives a riveting , touching performance in <NEG> a banal movie </NEG> ( i'm tempted to think that i liked her because nearly everything else around her was inane ) ; her character is affecting and her emotions true-to-heart . brody , too paints an effective portrait of a young guy desperate for attention who gets a little more than he bargained for . summer of sam has some superficial elements of a good film : it looks great , it has a few notable performances and i suppose it's pretty well directed , in a purely technical way . but <NEG> it's also empty , pretentious and boring </NEG> . like last year's the thin red line , it's a movie by a director who doesn't know what he wants to say but goes ahead and says it anyway . ? 1999 eugene novikov&#137 ;
