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Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critics What's this?

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Generally favorable reviews- based on 8 Ratings

  • Starring: Harvey Keitel, John Turturro
  • Summary: A "clocker" is a 24-hour drug dealer, and Strike (Phifer) is the hardest-working one on the streets. But for Strike, time is running out. When the local drug kingpin (Lindo) tips Strike off about an opportunity for advancement, a rival dealer ends up dead, and Strike suddenly finds himself caught between two homicide detectives. One is Mazilli (Turturro), who's only looking for an easy bust. The other is Rocco (Keitel), who's looking for something much harder to find - the truth - and when Strike's law-abiding brother confesses to the murder, Rocco vows not to rest until he's sure the real shooter is behind bars. (Universal) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 20
  2. Negative: 0 out of 20
  1. A work of staggering intelligence and emotional force -- a mosaic of broken dreams.
  2. Reviewed by: David Ansen
    80
    In Lee's understandable eagerness to let a few rays of hope shine, the polemicist trips up the dramatist--movie conventions replace honest observation. But the passion of this raw, mournful urban epic remains, in spite of the false moves. [25 Sep 1995, p.92]
  3. Clockers, Lee's eighth feature in nine years, demonstrates how accomplished a filmmaker he has become, securely in control of plot, actors and imagery.
  4. Reviewed by: Angie Errigo
    60
    Not Lee's finest but intriguing nonetheless.

See all 20 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. 10
    Clockers is, without a doubt, the most underrated movie of all time. One of the few instances where the movie is just as good as the book, if not better. The movie is as perfect as a movie can be; not a bad line to be found, characters perfectly cast and 100% believable (I think I've seen a million kids like Scientific since I became a journalist in Baltimore), and a deep, thought provoking message. It's a movie that should be seen by every aspiring director, every inner city kid of promise, every inner city politician and homicide detective, and every citizen who is unaware of the problems that people like Strike, Tyrone, and Victor face every day. It is a documentary masquerading as a murder mystery, and because of that, I applaud Misters Price and Lee on this masterpiece of cinema and storytelling. Expand

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