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90Colorful characters, richly evoked settings, epic story of friendship, crime and punishment, and a strong dose of good old-fashioned star power.
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88Sleepers, for all the doubts it raises, is the work of a man who speaks for absent friends and "for the children we were." It's his secret heart.
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88Two and one- half hours of gripping entertainment.
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80At some low, what's-next level, Sleepers works like, well, gangbusters. [28 October 1996, p. 113]
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75As entertainment, the movie functions successfully. But I don't believe the story is true--not true to the facts, and not true to the morality it pretends to be about.
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75A visual masterpiece that powerfully explores male cruelty, too.
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75Sometimes the movie lacks a quietness, an omission most egregiously felt at the end.
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75Engrosses if it doesn't fully convince. [18 October 1996, p.1D]
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It features a pleasing mix of good-guy gumshoeing, smart-alecky dialogue and courtroom surprises.
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50By the end, the main thing that's been abused is the audience's intelligence.
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Muddy, confused, and worst of all boring, Sleepers grinds to the preordained halt shared by any over-budgeted epic that lacks the simple necessity of good story.
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40Somewhat byzantine in execution and confusing in its logic, the film's second half never achieves the catharsis you'd expect.
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30The dullest movie ever made about child abuse, conspiracy and murder.
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30The film's tone works overtime at mythologizing tawdry incidents into some ultimate epic about the lost innocence of youth. Gilded trash is more like it.
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30As directed by Barry Levinson and acted by an incredible collection of male stars, Sleepers settles the authenticity question by allowing not a whiff of real life into its universe.
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30Recalls those corny Warner Bros. movies about Dead End Kids.
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25Barry Levinson's filmmaking style is often imaginative. The story contains horrific scenes of sexual torture as well as sadistic killings and other disturbing material, though.
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10Rent the devastating "The Boys of St. Vincent" to see how slick and hollow Sleepers is, how little it reveals about the real nature and effect of child abuse. [28 October 1996, p. 74]
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 2 out of 2
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Mixed: 0 out of 2
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Negative: 0 out of 2
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10This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view.
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