A Última Hora

Um filme tão pequeno e, ao mesmo tempo, tão grande! Em cada minuto, sente-se a carga de pensamento, o interesse do diretor, o seu objetivo. Os atores são fantásticos, Barry Pepper surpreende muito. A tensão psicológica dos diálogos é capaz de matar um elefante. Um filme excelente, peculiar, ao qual é fácil não dar uma avaliação completa, mas impossível de justificar razoavelmente porque é que não merece uma. (10/04/2003)

Stunning performances by everyone involved, the director's passion for the material, and brilliantly precise dialogues make this film a very unusual and original experience. A barrage of emotions that attacks the viewer from all sides, leaving them no chance to escape. Spike Lee's commitment to the material occasionally leads to a few unnecessary scenes that shatter the overall balance and flow of the plot, but what the hell, it is still strongly above-average filmmaking, and the people behind it definitely have nothing to be ashamed of. A perspective on the modern world, presented in a way that almost nobody can dislike. (13/01/2006)

I was waiting for the rough journey of a condemned dealer to seek justice and clear his name, and Spike Lee instead gave me a sad farewell to a slightly desperate existence. In the end, I was disappointedly bored for over a hundred minutes, only for an amazing finish to reveal itself, leaving a significantly better taste than the film perhaps deserves. (01/10/2006)

Monty Brogan had his whole life ahead of him, offering him plenty of tempting opportunities. Unfortunately, he chose the fastest shortcut to making money and transitioned from a promising student to a school marijuana dealer. The profession remained, only he smoothly transitioned from light drugs to the hard ones. But as they say, what goes around comes around, and one day, the police are invited into his apartment. Explaining a kilo of heroin and a generous amount of cash was quite difficult. So difficult, in fact, that you leave the court with the perspective of 7 years behind bars in an environment far from the standards you were accustomed to. Spike Lee decided to film the farewell of his hero to freedom, and it must have truly pained him because he did his utmost to humanize him and gain the sympathy of the audience. The film contains a lot, to the point of the ruined existences of Brogan's customers, their broken families, undermined health, suicides, overdoses, AIDS, and much more associated with drug users. Many people in the world have come to their misfortune blindly, but that can't be said about Monty. Where Lee expects sympathy from me, I shrug my shoulders and say: Your Monty only reaped what he sowed. Moreover, Spike Lee looks like someone who has been silent for too long and suddenly desires to get a lot of things out of himself, things that would be cool, but in a different genre, a different film, and with different main characters. The film simply slips through his fingers. Spike does have a way with the camera, relying on top-notch actors, and some scenes have an atmospheric look, but considering the above, I can't give it more than 3 stars - and he should be glad I'm not dissecting the final cheesy sentimental outpouring of the main character's father, which would not fare well on the chart of film embarrassments. Overall impression: 55%. (11/09/2013)

As Monty says: Fuck the Wall Street brokers. Self-styled masters of the universe. Michael Douglas, Gordon Gekko wannabe mother fuckers, figuring out new ways to rob hard working people blind. Send those Enron assholes to jail for FUCKING LIFE! You think Bush and Cheney didn't know about that shit? Give me a fucking break! [...] Fuck Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and backward-ass cave-dwelling fundamentalist assholes everywhere. On the names of innocent thousands murdered, I pray you spend the rest of eternity with your seventy-two whores roasting in a jet-fuel fire in hell. You towel-headed camel jockeys can kiss my royal Irish ass!” YEAH! I would definitely subscribe to that, and not just to this quote, but to many others. But that doesn't change the fact that the overall impression of the film is quite mixed. Spike Lee tries to tell us so much and the result is a disjointed hodgepodge of scenes, some of which don't even seem to belong there. The character of Anna Paquin is completely unnecessary, the scenes with her have no connection with the plot. Likewise, the Ground Zero scene looks like a patch on new clothes. Apparently Lee's painful scars on his soul were still very fresh a year after the attack. And the ending, those minutes overflowing with pathos… ugh, ugh… At times I had the feeling I was watching something really great, then I had the opposite impression. What was great, though, was the performances. All of them. One big two-hour acting concert. Yet the resulting emotional impact was weak. Perhaps also because I can't sympathise with a drug dealer, someone who feeds on the "misery and addiction of others". (24/03/2004)