Popular reviews

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  Review by Tessa ★★★★ 10

  Sweatiest film I’ve ever seen.

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  Review by Will Menaker ★★★ 11

  Close your eyes...now imagine Joel Schumacher's sweat-drenched courtroom drama as the wettest, most insane, and most pro-death penalty movie of the 1990s. The entire message of this piece of liberal agitprop is that rape and racism are the worst evils imaginable and that extrajudicial murder, provided you're reasonably sure of the guilt of the parties in question, is justice.

  It's probably deliberate, but this movie can't decide if it's set in 1996 or 1906. A complete travesty on so many levels, but also deliriously entertaining, it feels like it was made by aliens who learned about morality, the legal system and the American South through radio and tv signals that made it to deep space.

  Probably my favorite scene is…

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  Review by matt lynch ★½

  I mean yes they deserved to die, and of course I hope they burn in Hell, but everything here is calculated to remove the nuance of any moral argument for you rather than actually reckon with systemic oppression and/or vigilantism; everyone who advocates for Jackson's character's conviction is presented as a cartoonish, hissing racist...like the fucking judge's name is Noose for heaven's sakes. There's even a "fine people on both sides" streak of bullshit wherein the NAACP is presented as a bunch of opportunists seizing on tragedy for political ends. It feels like everyone involved with the making of this movie thought they had TO KILL ANOTHER MOCKINGBIRD on their hands -- a terrible idea on its face even hypothetically…

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  Review by Bethany ★★★★½ 10

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  "now imagine she's white."

  honestly, i am truly shocked that a time to kill isn't discussed more often. matthew mcconaughey gives his career-best performance in this film, along with a stunning performance by samuel l. jackson who, without a doubt, will absolutely break your heart. there are also two really great supporting acts from sandra bullock and oliver platt, both of whom i love dearly!

  the first half really grabs you by the throat and throttles you, while the second half of the film slows down and segues into a raw and tense courtroom drama (one of my favorite sub-genres) that will have you on the edge of your seat until the satisfying conclusion. a time to kill is, in my opinion, an essential viewing—until human beings are able to fully see each other as equals, justice will never be fairly served.

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  Review by Fatimaaaa ★★★★

  Kevin Spacey defending child rapists? Pretty ironic if you ask me lmao

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  Review by Drew Clark ★★★½ 2

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  I love how this movie literally ends with the white guy getting invited to the cookout

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  Review by Katherine ★★★★

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  "Now imagine she's white."

  I don't think I've ever gasped so hard in my life. So many brilliant moments in this film and such an intense story. Glad I finally saw it.

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  Review by DirkH ★★★½

  While it sometimes gets a bit too heavy handed for its own good, it is still a very good courtroom drama and maybe the best Grisham adaptation yet.

  It manages to capture the sultry South of America fantastically. It has an oppressive, sticky feel to it that reflects and accompanies the proceedings really well.

  Schumacher directs his wonderful cast really well and paces his film perfectly. Given the subject matter, he has done really well to not turn this into a cliched, cheesy affair.

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  Review by 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 🌷 ★★★½ 1

  The fact that both Donald Sutherland and Kiefer Sutherland are in this, don’t play relatives, and nobody comments on how they look exactly alike...interesting choice.

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  Review by Molly Laich ★★

  Never forget: The southern racist judge presiding over a capital murder case is named “Noose”

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  Review by Stewie Griffin ★★★ 9

  A bit of plodding, just in the right side of sanctimonious Grisham flick in which Samuel L. Jackson plays a poor black southern man who blows away the redneck pond scums that raped and almost murdered his ten year old girl, causing a somewhat friend, Matthew McConaughey, to take his case against a backdrop of racial hatred, intimidation, family breakdown etc… 

  There’s really no sense of urgency in this one. The only moments of meare satisfaction are the deaths of those two monsters who raped poor, young Tonya, and the predictable ending. The movie being two and a half hours long makes for a less taut and less thrilling portrayal of the American justice system. The big issue, namely colourblind…

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  Review by Jamelle Bouie ★★★

  The most interesting thing about A Time to Kill is how, despite taking place in the present day, it seems to situate racism outside of the world of its views. It takes place in a small, anonymous Mississippi town. It has a Black sheriff, yes, but its presentation is that of an anachronism, a place removed from the full tide of liberal progress. If the villains of the film are atavistic racists with vicious instincts — from snarling Klansmen to a white juror who doesn’t hesitate to use racial slurs — it is because, the film says, Mississippi is a backward place where the raw bigotry of the past still holds sway.

  This sense is hammered home by the aesthetic of the…