Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Sanjeev Waters A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Moutaz Maharem The Central Park Five is a documentary that talks about a controversial New York City case back in the late 80's. Five minorities were convicted of a crime that they didn't commit, but with the corrupt justice system they were found guilty based on false confession tapes. It took place during a time where New York City was segregated, whites were downgrading the blacks in every way that they could. It wasn't a coincidence that the five minorities were accused of raping and brutally beating a white female jogger in Central Park, they were used as scapegoats and threw each other under the bus. Detectives encouraged them to make up stories about one another so that they could go home to eat and sleep, two things that they couldn't do at the precinct. The boys were all found guilty and spent many years of their lives behind bars for doing absolutely nothing. They lost their childhood innocence while being imprisoned, they were forced to mature at a much younger age than other kids. Not only was I truly disappointed in the boys for not telling the truth and allowing the police officers to get into their heads, but I was also disappointed in the justice system for wrongfully convicted these boys of a crime they didn't commit. The media also took part in this case by saying the boys committed the crime before the trial was even over. Therefore the media manipulated the minds of New Yorkers into making them truly believe that the boys were guilty of the crime. I would definitely recommend watching this documentary as it is an emotionally touching film that takes you back in time when the judicial system wasn't fair to people of all races. This documentary allows you to realize that racism will always be present whether it seems like it or not.

Brian Camp As someone who remembers this case well, it's pretty sobering to be faced with these five men 23 years after the fact recounting their version of events that occurred when they were teens and hard not to feel sorry for them. Worse, one can't help but wonder how such a miscarriage of justice could have happened with everybody watching. All I can think is that these boys were handy scapegoats for a decade of out-of-control crime and violence in New York and they became sacrificial lambs. Somebody had to pay the price. These five just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, admittedly doing the wrong thing (running with a mob of teens committing random attacks on white joggers and bicyclists), and the cops needed convenient suspects who were young and vulnerable enough to be manipulated into confessing to the most serious crime that occurred that night. Their convictions and a handful of other high-profile incidents during the Dinkins administration paved the way for the election of Rudolph Giuliani as mayor and a new era of proactive law enforcement and a relentless stop-and-frisk campaign aimed at black and Latino men in the city's poorer communities.Does the film make its case without flaws? No. The deck is too stacked. They should have allowed some representative of the police or D.A.'s office to explain themselves. Michael F. Armstrong, counsel for the NYPD, says he spent half-a-day being interviewed on camera for the film and was then not included in the final cut. Some attention should have been given to what these five boys were doing in the park that night and what other crimes they themselves might have been implicated in. Yes, they describe some acts they saw being committed by other boys and either outright deny their involvement or couch it in vague terms. I think it would have been good to know if the police had direct evidence of these boys' participation in other crimes that night. For one thing, it would mean these kids might not have been the saints they're made out to be, which of course doesn't justify false accusations and wrongful convictions, as the most vocal critics of this film seem to think, but it means recognizing a significant gray area here. If they actually did participate in the mob violence that night, some attention might have been usefully paid to the whole issue of how seemingly otherwise good kids from poor but stable homes with fathers present in their lives can get caught up in that kind of lawlessness.Also, more importantly, they should have had some expert on hand to address the whole phenomenon of false or coerced confessions and give their objective assessment of this particular case and perhaps give other known examples of established false confessions, just to provide some context and answer those critics who stand by the notion of absolute guilt based on confession. It's touched on in a couple of the interviews, but not by a recognized expert on the issue and not in any depth.Still, it's a powerful piece and has far fewer Ken Burns-style gimmicks than we see in his other films. He manages to stay out of his own way for much of the time and let the interview subjects have their say. Maybe that's a result of having directorial collaborators.

david-byrne A very well made documentary. It chronicles the entire event from the innocent youths being rounded up by the corrupt New York cops or prosecutor, to the mens' exoneration and beyond. It was well put together and the footage and newspaper articles were clearly represented. The victim interviews show them for what they are - innocent kids used as scapegoats and forced into confession for a crime they did not commit. The sense of injustice abounds, especially when the crooks in suits knew they had the wrong people, but went ahead with it anyway. It leaves one feeling angered and somewhat helpless, that you cannot defeat an enemy like the corrupt American justice system - especially when the system is proved wrong but refuses to show remorse or make amends, as so often happens (varies by state). The documentary leaves the city of New York as a city of shame, one where justice is corrupt, especially for blacks and Hispanics. I was left feeling that they could happily put a bullet in the head of the prosecutor and the cops as payment for their services rendered - but these men are more decent human beings than any of the prosecutor and the corrupt police, the media and anyone else who treated them as rapist monsters. Unfortunately, no compensation has been paid to any of the victims as the City of New York does its utmost to ensure justice will not be done. It needs to protect its wallet and the phony reputation of New York's "finest". I doubt I will ever want to visit New York, the city of shame.

jdesando In the great Ken Burns tradition, The Central Park Five is a documentary full of detail and a story seamless in drama and heart. With little voice-over narration and smoothly edited testimonies from talking heads, Burns powerfully tells of the five African-American and Latino young men convicted of raping and beating a white female jogger in Central Park on April 20, 1989.Just like endings last year of another compelling documentary, The Imposter, and the docudramas Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, we know the outcome (their convictions will be vacated by a convict's confession in 2002). Yet, the dramatic tension is constant as we witness prosecutors and police push for convictions in a racially-charged and violent New York desperately needing closure of an infamous crime that exacerbated that tension.The coercion of underage suspects and rush to judgment stand just behind the actual crime for horrible injustice. Director Burns gets it right by letting the principals, from the accused to attorneys, tell the story. The ending commentary is the only way to exit, with a lament for the years of young lives stolen and the difficulty of the adults becoming part of the mainstream.Reality is The Central Park Five's reason for being and one of the best documentaries in recent years.