Sleepers (1996)
A film review by Michael J. Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael J. Legeros
(WB)
Directed by Barry Levinson
Written by Barry Levinson
Cast Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Ron Eldard, Billy Crudup,
Robert DeNiro, Joseph Perrino, Brad Renfro, Geoffrey
Wigdor, Jonathan Tucker, Kevin Bacon, Minnie Driver,
Dustin Hoffman, Bruno Kirby, Vittorio Gassman
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for violence, rape, and profanity)
Running Time 149 minutes
Reviewed at General Cinema at Pleasant Valley, Raleigh, NC (18OCT96)
==
Here's another long sit-- an elaborate revenge fantasy based, for all we know, on events that best-selling author Lorenzo Carcaterra pulled out of his butt. (The story is supposedly true.) Written for the screen and directed by Barry Levinson (DISCLOSURE, TOYS), SLEEPERS is a textbook example of bad-choice filmmaking. Jason Patric's impoverished narration sets the tone of something's-not- right and the rest of the movie is just as wrong. My favorite flub is the entire third act, which is too cramped to be comprehensible. I mean, there's a good twenty minutes in there where *nothing* makes sense. Who are these adult characters? And why should we care about them? The plot keeps surging forward, with momentum in its sails and believability in its wake. (Most disappointing are all those could've-been-better bits, such as Brad Pitt feeding Dustin Hoffman his lines in court. We need to savor such scenes.) Yeah, this movie is easy on the eyes. Yeah, enough happens on- screen to pass the time. Just don't expect to enjoy what you're watching.
Grade: C+
--
Mike Legeros
Raleigh, NC, USA, Earth
legeros@pagesz.net (h) - legeros@pagesz.net (w)
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