Rating: 
Summary: A Terrible Movie That You Can't Help But Love
Review: Personally, I really like Streets Of Fire, but strictly speaking, it's terrible. The script is really bad and the dialogue is some of the worst I've ever heard. However, it can be very fun to watch. The cinematography is excellent, and the beginning and ending concert scenes are the reason I bought this dvd in the first place (I'm a huge Jim Steinman fan). It really is fun to grab a few friends and some snacks and just laugh at Rick Moranis and Michael Pare overacting their corny lines. It also has Elizabeth Daily, whom you may know as the voice of Buttercup on The Powerpuff Girls. I love her! She's a joy to watch. I was dissapointed in the lack of special features on the dvd, and somehow I don't think there will be a special edition version. But hey, it's always amusing to watch corny dialogue transform into corny French dialogue, right?
Simply put, if you're a fan of cheesy movies and you don't take things too seriously, you will probably get a kick out of this film.
Rating: 
Summary: an underrated cult movie!
Review: This was one of those big budget, high concept films of the '80s that the studio had high hopes for but ended up belly-flopping at the box office. It's a shame, really, because this is a wonderfully entertaining B-movie with A-movie production values.Yeah, most of the songs (with the exception of the two awesome tunes by The Blasters) are horribly dated and totally inappropriate for the look and vibe of this movie (what do you expect? they were mostly written and/or arranged by the guy who produced Meatloaf's BAT OUT OF HELL -- ugh), which should have gone more with rockabilly and old school '50s rock 'n' roll instead, but oh well. Michael Pare delivers his finest performance in this one as the silent tough guy Tom Cody and he has real chemisty with old flame Diane Lane who is perfectly cast as the rock singer who needs to be rescued. This was at the time when both of their careers were read hot (esp. Lane's after doing all those awesome Coppola films!) and this film was supposed to launch their careers into the stratosphere. Doh. Surrounding them is a great cult cast of character actors... Rick Moranis as the annoying manager, Amy Madigan as the butch soldier-of-fortune, Willem Dafoe as the nasty, leather-clad bad guy and the blink-and-you'll-miss-'em cameos by Bill Paxton (great hair!), Lee Ving (from the punk band Fear), Ed Begley, Jr. (what the?!), Robert Townsend (I'M GONNA GET YOU SUCKA!) and a young Mykelti Williamson (Bubba Gump!). This was also Walter Hill at his finest. After this, with the exception of JOHNNY HANDSOME, it was pretty much all downhill. But, man, he had a good run until the bottom fell out. The transfer on this DVD is top notch with kickin' sound that really comes out if you've got the proper home theater set-up. It's a real shame that the studio didn't let Hill or anybody else involved provide some new extras! C'mon! If commercial flops like UHF and NEAR DARK can get awesome special edition treatments then so can this one!
Rating: 
Summary: A "Grows on you kind of flick!"
Review: Ok...when I first saw this movie the first thing out of my mouth was..."Ok...what was that all about?" lol...but after watching it again...and being a really big (self-proclaimed) Michael Pare fan, I gave it another try, and was really suprised that I enjoyed it! It grows on you...it's a "You can't help but love it" kind of film! The more you watch it, it becomes a guilty pleasure! A must see...if you like the kind of movie that you can love, and still think..."WOW...I really like that?!?!?!"
Rating:
Summary: soldier boy saves queen of the hop from leader of the pack
Review: "streets of fire",ive gathered was intended to be part of a trilogy by director walter hill[director of 'the warriors'],but poor box office sales,nixed that idea.
i saw the movie at a local cinema in my hometown in 1984 and less than two weeks later it was gone replaced by some'john hughes' schmaltz or someother dreck of that kind of 'teen 80's' ilk.
i thought 'streets of fire' was fantastic,an utterly compelling 'juvinile delinquint film noir western',complete with ravaging biker gangs,sultry rock'n'roll singers,surly hot rod gangs,poutng tuff chicks,glowering bad boys,swithblade knives,black leather jackets,tuff words in tense situations,street brawls with sledge hammers,chopped lowered hotrods,do-wop groups,sexy fishnet wearing strippers,sax honking rock'a'billy bands,burning motorcycles,gun totin' bad ass dames,you name it...this movie has it all.
amid flashing neon,wet city streets,screaming subways,foggy back alleys,menacing bikers,pseudo-tuff punk hotrodders,rough guys with big guns; the story unfolds with a local female rock'n'roll singing legand,ellen aim,played by diane lane,being kidnapped by raven shaddock,played by willem dafoe and his motorcycle gang'the bombers',and of course her ex-boyfriend is none other than tom cody,played by michael pare,local ex-bad boy turned sodier,who comes home thanks to his sister vera,played by deborah van valkenberg,and takes up the task of rescuing ellen aim from 'the bombers' clutches,with the help of a tuff chick mechanic played by amy madigan.
the movie has great sets,has a time period that may be the 50's and it may be the future and it may be another place all together,some of the sets look like chicago,while others look like brooklyn new york,it has a great dirty biker bar named 'torchie's',where 'the blasters' play rousing classics like 'one bad stud',while dancer marin jahin[jennifer beals body double in 'flashdance']shakes her stuff on the stage in front of the band.
the movie was lost in its original run in the theatres,but did well on cable later in the decade and has finally garnered quite a cult following and its rightly deserved; this movie is great fun,as well as a visually stunning masterpiece.
any fan of 'walter hill' or 'the warriors' or stylized 50's like biker hotrod delinquint badboy/bad girl movies or even anyone who just like a little rock'n'roll with there fables,should like this great flick.
so,to all you greasers out there,enjoy this true original ode to a great genre of film making.
plus,the soundtrack is really cool as well,two blasters songs,,two jim stienem songs,a great ry cooder score,diane lane lipsynching in tight dresses to meatloaf sounding songs...its all
pretty cool.
so,i hope you dig it,i know i did,i own 2 copies of the video,2 copies of the soundtrack and i cant wait to get the dvd.
Rating:
Summary: A "Grows on you kind of flick!"
Review: Ok...when I first saw this movie the first thing out of my mouth was..."Ok...what was that all about?" lol...but after watching it again...and being a really big (self-proclaimed) Michael Pare fan, I gave it another try, and was really suprised that I enjoyed it! It grows on you...it's a "You can't help but love it" kind of film! The more you watch it, it becomes a guilty pleasure! A must see...if you like the kind of movie that you can love, and still think..."WOW...I really like that?!?!?!"
Rating:
Summary: "You can kiss your baby goodbye."
Review: If you recognize the name Ellen Aim you know your cult sci-fi rock movies, or, as director Walter Hill called his 1984 film Streets of Fire, your "rock and roll fable[s]." Ellen Aim and the Attackers are a band that plays in an alternate version of the eighties, or maybe an alternate version of the fifties. It's either the eighties that couldn't let go of Elvis and pre-British Invasion rock and roll, or it's the fifties anticipating an urban underclass where everyone is on the edge of violence. Walter Hill loads the movie with a retro neon look, blending genres, similar to what he did in 1979's The Warriors, where he mixed the post-war social-issue movie with the seventies exploitation film, along with some ancient Greek history. (As Cyrus, the would-be savior of all the warrior gangs, booms at us, "Can you dig it?") Michael Pare (as Tom Cody) stars in Streets of Fire. Cody's just out of the army in a what-if America that still has the social restraints from fifties Tab Hunter movies, but wallows in the corruption and depravity of Reagan's eighties. On this particular morning in America it's raining and everyone's on the verge of killing someone. Willem Dafoe's first appearance as Raven, the villain in black rubber, fresh from God knows what perversity, to the song "One Bad Stud" performed by the Blasters ("If he likes your baby, you can kiss your baby goodbye"), may be what got him typecast as a psycho in so many movies. But in a fifties movie there has to be a love story. You can't have a guy without a girl. There has to be a Natalie Wood for James Dean, even if the romance is between James Dean and Sal Mineo. In Streets of Fire, Michael Pare's Natalie Wood is Diane Lane as singer Ellen, who Aims her Attack straight at your heart while she caresses one of those old round microphones that look like a hood ornament. Raven kidnaps Ellen and her old boyfriend Tom Cody (Buffalo Bill to the rescue) is called to save her. Unfortunately, Lane doesn't get to do much more than play the frail here. Cody's real emotional connection is with McCoy (Amy Madigan), another vet who makes Cody hire her to rescue Ellen. McCoy brushes off Cody's half-hearted passes with "You're not my type." McCoy wears greasy old clothes and fixes cars better than Cody so I think I get the point. Especially when McCoy leers at a female nude dancer at the club where Ellen is being held. It seems like the movie was going to be more explicit about McCoy's sexuality but chickened out. I won't spoil the story but you know how it ends.
I have a soft spot for movies that are original, even if they're not entirely successful. The music's good, the look of the film pulls you into its unique world, and the story is one of those mythic restatements that move you even when you know they're corny.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, cheesy but the best kind though...
Review: I truly love this movie, even though it is chock full of horrible writing and over acting, but all of this is done in a very cool way. I like to think of this as a pirate movie only on land with a bunch of bikers, cool cars, and tons of film noire dream like quaility action going on. Plus a great sound track to go with it. If you like Micheal Pare I recomend checking him out in Eddie and the Cruisers 2: Eddie Lives! instead of Eddie and the Cruisers. He's much more interesting in Eddie Lives! and it has a much better soundtrack with incredible songs done by John Caffhery and the Beaver Brown Band.
Rating:
Summary: Comic book rock and roll fantasy
Review: This movie shifts scenes like turning the page of a wonderfully technicolor graphic of a Marvel comic book, only in live action. The scenes even change with a tearing of the page sound clip. The spectrum of characters is only enhanced by the choice cast that act as though they've been chomping at the bit for such a cool role; they're believable, but you know they're loving it. It certainly doesn't hurt that Ry Cooder provided the witch's brew of a soundtrack for what would become a sincere cult following. The soundtrack is so diverse, yet palpably emulsified. You get efforts from staples such as Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks, but The Blasters and Ry himself provide some uh-oh kind of bad boy blues. Best part is the major artists let other people sing their work. Let's not forget, Rick Moranis, Diane Lane and Willem DaFoe sharpened their acting tools in this one liner a minute.
Rating:
Summary: This is My second review but this time on DVD
Review: Back in Oct 2002 i wrote a reveiw about Streets of fire saying it was one of the most influnential movies i had ever seen on VHS. With my copy wearing a little i decided to purchase a copy through Amazon[.com] of the DVD version and it was fantastic! The picture quality was a huge improvment and if your lucky enough to have a home cinema then you`ll know about the quality of the sound track and the way the hairs on your neck stick up when you listen to TIWIMTBY IN SURROUND SOUND! AWESOME! Hopefully it will be released in DTS, if any of you guys out there are wondering whether to buy this film, don`t ponder, do it, you`ll like the film and love the sound track and its also great to see all the stars before they became stars!
Rating:
Summary: Weird, unique, thrilling, rock opera adventure.
Review: This film bombed with reviewers and at the box office when it came out -- but I loved it! And its soundtrack remains one of my favorite lps/CDs. It's a weird tale of a biker gang leader (William DaFoe) who kidnaps a rock singer (Diane Lane). Her nebbish manager (Rick Moranis) hires her ex-soldier/ex-boyfired (Michael Pare) to rescue her. He hires a sidekick, ex-soldier Amy Madigan. What makes this film so weird is -- you wonder WHEN it's taking place. It's full of anachronisms. The art direction looks 1950s (the malt shop, some of the costumes, the old police squad cars, the teletype). Yet you have female soldiers, and an integrated police force. And the biker gang leader looks like he's dressed for an S&M leather party, in a black leather farmer's overall bid. Very strange. The dialog is also strange. Very stylized -- to the point of parody. Women are "skirts." Everyone's sarcastic, snarling zingers at each other. Even the bit players. The film feels like everyone in town, from street punks to cops to young girls, is a badass with a bad attitude. And half the zingers seem to end in fights. Very very strange. The subtitle is: A Rock & Roll Fable -- whatever that means. Don't try to understand this film. Just let it wash over you. You're in a strange netherworld. Accept it, and you'll enjoy the ride. Especially if you like the music... Some of the music written by Jim Steinman -- if you thrill to the bombastic sounds of Bonnie Tyler and Meat Love, you'll love this soundtrack. There's also a song written by Stevie Nicks, sung by Marylin Martin -- who sounds exactly like Stevie Nicks. The sort of bizarre film where many will gawk and wonder: What were they thinking? Others will emrace it with the love that cult films attract. I did.
|
