ThedevilChoose
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Brendon Jones
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Kamila Bell
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
balakand
This movie deserves 5/10. That's the maximum you could give. So many flaws in this movie which are very obvious through out the entire film. If you want to take a movie to condemn racism there are many justified ways of doing that. This movie makes no reasonable attempt to do any such thing. The lawyer character looks so dumb and idiotic in the whole movie. May be you have to read the book to understand what the hell is this all about. All big shots who acted in this movie will feel shameful if they watch this movie again now!
David Burnett
This film is full of main screen actors, and features some very powerful roles based from the book. Samuel L Jackson is superb along with a very strong performance from Mathew McConaughey. The film keeps you guessing and is a definite must for anyone looking for a great thriller. One of my all time favourites.
Wuchak
Released in 1996 and based on John Grisham's book, "A Time to Kill" chronicles events in Canton, Mississippi when an honest black man (Samuel L. Jackson) takes the law into his own hands after a couple of beer-guzzling white rednecks brutally rape his 10 year-old daughter. Matthew McConaughey plays his lawyer, Sandra Bullock his uber-liberal assistant, Ashley Judd his wife and Oliver Platt his friend. Donald Sutherland in on hand as an alcoholic defrocked lawyer while Kevin Spacey plays the staunch prosecuting attorney. Patrick McGoohan appears as the dubious judge while Kiefer Sutherland is on hand as a friend of the rednecks who gets the Klan involved. "A Time to Kill" is essentially a mishmash of 1988's "Mississippi Burning" and 1992's "A few Good Men." Although it's not excellent like the former film it's about on par with the latter and you can't beat the all-star cast. The weakness is the first act where events come across a bit too contrived, smelling of political correctness rather than reality (more on this below). But the story pulls you in during the second act. And the viewer's sympathies are definitely with Jackson's character. A timeline for the events is never provided so it's assumed that they take place during the mid-90s when the movie was released (if not, they'd have to take place around 1989 when the book was published). This presents a believability problem for the rednecks' rampage in a rural black community during the opening. Would several strong black men really tolerate the disrespectful antics of these white scumbags in their own communities in the mid-90s or late 80s? Then there's the problem of the entire scenario being one-sided: The ultra-evil characters are white men, but all blacks are virtuous. I'm white and was held up in the deep south in 1990 (the general timeline of events in the movie) by three young black guys with guns, who stole all my money & camera equipment and then took off with my car (thankfully, they let me live and my car was found abandoned shortly later). You'll see none of this in "A Time to Kill." Young white dudes are the problem. Poppycock. I'm not saying there isn't white trash out there, but how about some evenhandedness more akin to reality? At least 2004's "Crash" had the integrity to show the awful truth right out of the gate.Despite my criticisms, this is a worthy crime thriller if you appreciate the aforementioned movies. The movie runs 149 minutes and was shot in Canton & Jackson, Mississippi; Tampa, Florida; and London, Ontario.GRADE: B
sol-
Sympathetic to the crime of a local African American who shot dead two men who raped his preteen daughter, a Mississippi lawyer tries to get his client off the hook by pleading temporary insanity in this courtroom drama. The key issue highlighted here is whether the murderer, played by Samuel L. Jackson, can get a fair trial in such a deeply racist community, and the film's most potent scenes are dedicated to a KKK rebirth as the trial stirs up division. The film trips up though by making racism (not ethics) the central issue and by making the local D.A. such a condescending, despicable character that his argued logic (individuals should not take the law into their own hands) gets buried beneath his smarminess. Examined objectively, Jackson is unquestionably guilty. Having hinted to his lawyer what he intended to do beforehand, it is unethical for the lawyer to plead temporary insanity, quite aside from the fact that rape (no matter how brutal) is seldom ever argued as grounds for justifiable homicide. With all this in mind, the movie becomes very uncomfortable to watch as we are positioned to root for Jackson to get off, simply because it would be a triumph over racism. The unanswered question that lingers in the air is whether Jackson would have gotten off were he Caucasian because then the jury would not feel racist if they voted 'guilty'. And yet, while deeply flawed, 'A Time to Kill' is always engaging to view. The performances are uniformly excellent, tension frequently abounds and the telling final shot is great -- but one's moral compass may well waver while watching the film.