Rating: 
Summary: Great movie but where are the deleted scenes?
Review: It's great to finally have this movie on video in the widescreen format. However, I am disappointed that the deleted scenes which were advertised here and on MGM's official website are not on this DVD. It would have been nice to view them but I guess MGM decided not to release them at the last minute (perhaps a special edition DVD is in the works in the near future) or Coppola didn't allow MGM to release them. Perhaps he's planning to extend this film like he did with Apocalypse Now. Anyway, despite the missing deleted scenes, it's great to see this film again in its original aspect ratio with the theatrical trailer which ironically has brief moments of scenes that were deleted from the film.
Rating: 
Summary: Skip the movie, get the soundtrack!
Review: Like many of Coppola's movies, Cotton Club is great to look at and listen to, but the storytelling falls flat and lacks coherency.
If you're going to watch it, watch it for the musical numbers and don't set your expectations too high for anything more, or skip the DVD and just get the STUNNING soundtrack.
Rating:
Summary: Skip the movie, get the soundtrack!
Review: Like many of Coppola's movies, Cotton Club is great to look at and listen to, but the storytelling falls flat and lacks coherency.
If you're going to watch it, watch it for the musical numbers and don't set your expectations too high for anything more, or skip the DVD and just get the STUNNING soundtrack.
Rating: 
Summary: Look for Herman Munster
Review: Much of the movie has already been talked about, but I did find something that went unmentioned. It has Fred "Herman Munster" Gwynn in it playing a mobster. (He plays "Frenchy.) The interplay between him and mobster buddy Bob Hoskins is an overlooked strongpoint of the movie. I believe this was Fred's last role before passing away.
The film has a lot of style, some good looking people, and great music.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Misfire
Review: The 1970's delivered the greatest work from Francis Ford Coppola but in the 1980's he was more eclectic and saw some of his more diverse, not to say successful, work. The one thing you can't say about Coppola's work from this period is that he wasn't boring. "The Cotton Club" falls into the category as an interesting failure. There is much to admire in this film. The sets and costumes are gorgeous. The music is great. The acting, for the most part, is not bad. Ultimately it's the story that does this film in which is a puzzlement because the script was written by award-winning novelist William Kennedy ("Ironweed"). I think where this film goes wrong is that it was a big-budget vehicle trying to appeal to a "mainstream" audience. The story of the Cotton Club is an interesting one, a Harlem nightclub whose black entertainers catered to the rich and famous. Instead of focusing more on the entertainers the story concentrates on a love story between a musician(Richard Gere) and a gangster's moll(Diane Lane). Interspersed we get stories involving gangsters who are so over-the-top in their rendering that they are more comical then menacing. This is odd coming from the director of "The Godfather". I recommend this film to anybody interested in Coppola's work because even his lesser work is of interest(Well, maybe not "Jack").
Rating:
Summary: The Best Flick that Gen X has never seen
Review: The Cotton club is one of the best flix i ever had the pleasure of viewing. The cast is spectacular. This film is pact with talent and stars before their prime. From Richard Gere,Gregory Hines, Bob Hoskins to Nicolas Cage. They is rare footage of hines and his brother together performing their tap dancing routines. The movie incases two love stories between a black couple and a white couple in the rourin' twenties. There is a struggle for freedom, freedom from discrimination, freedom from mobsters and the powers that be. Anyone looking for a good film to entertain you and be worth you money, dont walk, run and see this movie.
Rating:
Summary: the birth of the american dream
Review: The dawn of the 20th century told through the eyes of youth on the fringe of the Dutch Schultz mob, a beautiful view of violent times. Artistic cinamatograpy, dazeling dance scenes, chronicals the loss of innocence as new york enters the new (20th) century. A terriffic film.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie finally available on a so-so DVD
Review: The lines between jazz, bootlegging and race are blurred in Francis Ford Coppolas's wonderful 1984 feature set during the late 20's and early 30's in Harlem, NYC at the world famous Cotton Club. At long last, MGM has finally released The Cotton Club on its "Contemporary Classics" series. What this means is that die hard fans will get a reasonably priced DVD in the widescreen format but with virtually no extras included. MGM is notorious for being stingy on their DVDs. The theatrical trailer is included. You can watch the film in French or read French or Spanish subtitles. Nice hard case but only a card listing the cast and a brief description of the film, no booklet. As for deleted scenes: well, there aren't any. Unless you included a brief shot during the trailer or an exchange between Vince (Nick Cage) and Dixie (Richard Gere) in which Dixie asks "Why were you fighting niggers?" when he said "Why were you fighting the coloreds?" in the earlier version. This is not a restored version and the color has tinges of red from fade in indoor scenes, a few light scratches also visible. Still, one of the best movies ever. Wonderful musical scenes and a terrific cast featuring Gere, Diane Lane, Bob Hoskins, Lonette McKee, and Gregory and Maurice Hines. Usually ragged on for costing too much (it lost money in the theatre and was the most expensive film for its time) but for first time viewers (and there are a lot of you out there), I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. A must have for lovers of the film, but we can only hope a restored director's cut DVD with some of the many scenes that were cut from the film along with some commentary from the pricipals will be released in the future. Until then, enjoy this version and be wowed for 2 hours and 9 minutes.
Rating:
Summary: OK, so it's not The Godfather
Review: There have been many criticisms of this movie: that it favors style over substance, that it has too many conflicting storylines, that it slides all over the place without any real character development. I don't disagree. But, that being said, I still like this movie an awful lot. It is packed with talent from end to end, not just the proclaimed stars of the picture, but other little surprises that turn up from time to time. Look for Tom Waits in a bit part that takes place within the Cotton Club, Laurence Fishburne (credited as Larry) as a stylish and dangerous member of black organized crime, and Jennifer Grey as Nicholas Cage's perpetually dim and semi-clad young wife. Diane Lane is as lovely as can be, and really seems to convey the singleminded amorality of her teenaged character, determined to get some security for herself, and the conflict created when she is forced to confront the growing madness of her keeper, mobster Dutch Schultz, and her love for Gere's character of Dixie Dwyer. The music and dance numbers are as good as you've heard, and the sets and costumes beautiful and believable. I think that one problem with this movie may have been the era in which it was released, when a 2-hour movie was still considered extraordinarily long. It does have the jerky, confusing feel of a movie that's been too heavily cut. Perhaps if it had been made today, audiences would be willing to sit through three hours of the intricate plot development that so complex a story really needs. Let's hope a director's cut is released someday.All in all, this is worth a look, or several, despite its rather considerable flaws.
Rating:
Summary: STYLE AND DASH
Review: There was a lot of truth in "The Cotton Club" e.g., Blacks not allowed into a nightclub in the heart of Harlem yet allowed to perform for a white audience. That was then. Richard Gere and Diane Lane and all the other actors in this film are exceptional and the costumes and sets are gorgeous. Gere especially fits in nicely with a sense of the 20's as a trumpet player. With his thin mustache and swagger, he looks like one of those thick and hunky members of the band you see in the background of a 30s or 40s musical. Diane Lane is stunning as the mobster's moll who gets involved with Gere. It was also nice to see Broadway's former dance star, Gwen Verdon, still red-haired and sassy as Gere's mother. One of the highlights of the film for me was watching Lonette McKee in the role of one of the club's dancers. To hear her sing is pure delight and so is this film.
|
