Spike Lee came to the world's attention 22 years ago with his She's Gotta have it. This was followed by a number of well crafted stories based in Brooklyn, New York, including Last Hustle in Brooklyn (1977) and the trilogy, Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo Better Blues (1990) and Jungle Fever (1991). His first big hit was Malcolm X (1992) that was followed by Bamboozled (2000). His branch out into major Hollywood type cinema began with the 25th Hour and then the story of a bank heist Inside Man (2006). Last year he made a four-part television documentary on New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina called When the Levees Broke.

Spike Lee gave a start to some amazing actors and actresses: Halle Berry, Rosie Perez, Wesley Snipes, Denzel Washington and others. The young man from Brooklyn learnt to negotiate all aspects of cinema from the start, including producing the film - raising the money to make a movie is often the hardest part of filmmaking. She's Gotta Have It was made for $175,000 and has made millions.

First and foremost Spike Lee is a storyteller and movies are the means for him to spin a yarn. 25th Hour is the story of Montgomery or Monty Brogan  (played by Edward Norton), a young Irish-Brooklynite of around 25-years old, who has become a mid-level drug dealer to survive. It also covers his close friends and father. In 25th Hour Spike Lee has taken the book of the same name by David Benioff that came out in January 2001, whom he also got to write the script, and placed it post-Twin Towers, or 9/11, New York City.

Monty's two best friends from when he was a little kid in Brooklyn are Francis Xavier or Frank Slaughtery (Barry Pepper) and Jakob Elinsky (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and he arranges an outing with them on his last day of freedom before he goes the next morning to the Federal pen in Danbury for seven years. It includes some great nightclub scenes in a dive below the Brooklyn Bridge.

Frank has become a broker on Wall Street and lives in a plush tower flat above and looking down on Ground Zero. Jakob teaches English in an elite prep school and finds his students are far more sexually active than he is. Jakob is particularly attracted to Mary D'Annunzio (the cute Anna Paquin), a student who believes she should have received a better grade and sports a large tattoo around her navel that Jakob is both fixated on and silenced by.

Monty's live-in girlfriend in their Bay Ridge flat of the last seven years is Naturelle Riviera (played by the striking Rosario Dawson) who, though born in the City, is identified as Puerto Rican. Monty's father, James Brogan (Brian Cox), runs a bar and sanctuary on Staten Island that is frequented by firemen.  The movie opens with various night shots of New York City from a distance showing the two beacons shining up into the sky from Ground Zero. The dazzling city of lights and the Brooklyn Bridge seem to shiver and shimmer like a giant Christmas tree. The film then shifts to a flashback to when Monty acquired his dog Doyle on a night outing with his mate in crime Kostya Novotny (Tony Siragusa) from the Ukraine. There are many brief flashbacks that establish Monty and his friends: his walking his dog Doyle on the promenade in Brooklyn looking out over the East River; his first meeting with Naturelle in a park; how Frank and Jakob perform at work; Monty with his father; the teasing relationship between Frank and Jakob; and the raid on Monty's flat when the loot was found by narcotic squad agents. This raises the question: "Who betrayed Monty?" The first offence under the Rockefeller Laws is a mandatory seven years in prison. The second conviction brings a minimum of 15 years to life.

There is a scene when Monty vents his rage at what has happened to him, and his personal failures, by hitting his image in a mirror and then venting his spleen against homosexuals, Koreans, Pakistanis, the Russians of Brighton Beach, Hassidic Jews, Wall Street brokers, Puerto Ricans, Italians, the "uptown brothers" and many others. Monty echoes a range of stereotypes held against people, ending with the police, priests and "fundamentalist asshole everywhere".

The rest of the film then follows what Monty and his close friends do and how they spend Monty's 25th hour and cope with his existential fear that as a pretty boy he will be raped and brutalised once in prison. Can you make up for lost opportunities on your last day?

The whole city comes out to say goodbye. This film is a real Spike Lee Joint and you can expect surprises and to have your preconceptions challenged by the type of dialogue you anticipated in the best Woody Allen Brooklyn and NYC flick.

25th Hour is two hours and nine minutes long. It is rate 15 plus due to drugs, violence and language. The cinematographer is Rodrigo Prieto; the editor is Barry Alexander Brown; and the Brooklyn jazz music is by Terence Blanchard.

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