Urban Cowboy

Rating:
Summary: John Travolta is not a country boy!
Review: Urban Cowboy is a tale of idiot hollywood actors trying to be cowboys and cowgirls. This movie reveals I think country people in a bad way. I am a cowboy and I don't even do half the things that these people do in this movie. The writers have revealed country people as real hard dirty sleezy rednecks who go to places like gilleys everynight get into drunk fights have no respect for women and go around having sex with every cowgirl in the place. Then you have John Travolta who ought to be arrested for even putting on a cowboy hat and wearing cowboy boots and wrangler jeans we are talking about the same idiot who played New Yorker in shows like Welcome Back Kotter and lived in Brooklyn and danced in discos in Saturday Night Fever. I don't why anyone casted that guy for the role. Then Debra Winger is not to bad for the role but her character is dismissed in the story as some dumb southern cowgirl who goes around doing it with any cowboy she can find. Then last but not least you have the trashy other friends and actors who all posess Rotten teeth, smoke considerable amounts of cigarettes, and are playing and immatating country cowboys as people with rotten teeth with a third grade intelligence. These actors no nothing about honky tonks and how they are and these actors all come from cities they don't even live in the country so why do they continually act like real morons throughout the movie. The music is another bad ticket in this flop some moron who knows nothing about country music picked the sorriest collection I have ever heard like someone else pointed out in there review its hollywood country music. The only good song they actually picked was Lookin for love by Johnny Lee and to top it off you only hear half of it. Well anyway it gets two stars because it does follow some sort of story line but man is this pathetic.

Rating:
Summary: Hey Bud, You gonna ride the Bull again"
Review: Urban Cowboy is a time capsule of early eighties Houston, and the Country Western scene at an enormous nightclub called "Gilley's", that was to Houston what the 2001 Odessey was to Brooklyn a few years earlier. It is the story of one Bud Davis who moves to Houston from the rural country to find work at a huge power plant there. On his first night, "Uncle Bob", takes him to Gilley's, and he finds that "Toto, we aint in Kansas anymore", after waking up with Mick Jagger's ex, and some other woman, a night later. He finds that he likes Gilley's and his new job, and they go hand in hand, as you work hard at the plant all day, and then hang out at Gilley's after shift, to try and pick up sexy cowgirls. And that he does, in the guise of "Sissy", played by Debra Winger. It is , in my opinion, a realistic view of relationships, and all that can go wrong, involving issues of trust, lust, revenge, love and hate, and especially jealousy. It explores the relationships that happen when a marriage goes to hell....the other woman, the other man, ect, all centering around a mechanical bull, an ex-con, an incredibly sensual Madeline Stowe, bottles of Lone Star and Mesqual, and the big Bull riding contest. I would have loved to date Pam, and to this day, she still inspires breathlessness in men around the globe....Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Trying To Recapture The Magic
Review: Urban Cowboy is an attempt to replicate the success John Travolta had with the disco scene with the country music scene that was burgeoning at the time in 1980. Whereas Mr. Travolta was perfectly cast as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever, he seems out of place as Bud in this film. The characters in the film, much like those in Saturday Night Fever, as working stiffs who escape the monotony of their lives by going to a bar to dance, drink and ride a mechanical bull. Instead of a discotheque, the main hang out is a honky tonk called Gilley's (which is a real bar owned by country music singer Mickey Gilley). The film revolves around the relationship of Bud and Sissy (played by a young Debra Winger) who meet at Gilley's. They fall in love, get married, separate as each go on dalliances with others and in the end get back together. While the film has some decent moments, the bull riding does get old after a while, a very fine soundtrack, it ultimately comes off as an attempt to recreate Saturday Night Fever and it doesn't succeed.

Rating:
Summary: So utterly beautiful in it's complete tackiness
Review: Very few movies have had the impact on American culture the way Urban Cowboy has. Thank god it was temporary. But UC is almost in a class by itself as one of those flicks that when you're flipping channels at 3:00AM you just can't take your eyes off. I remember Urban Cowboy hit the theaters and overnite there were honkytonks being opened on every corner, men were sporting cowboy hats with their penny loafers, and if you didnt know how to two-step you were considered a social moron! Personally I think it's a great movie. Travolta really surprised me on the heels of SatNiteFever. Who'd a thunk. He's actually believable too. The soundtrack is awesome. Too bad Charlene Tilton, of TV's Dallas fame ruined Johnny Lee's career cause that guy was just terrific. The show stealer here is Scott Glenn as the greaser ex-con redneck cowboy. And I ain't got nothing against greaser ex-con cowboys semi-being one myself, but I've always envied what I feel to be the greatest power line of all time...."Pack-at S*#t!" Sort of like Clint's "make my day." And watching him slap Sissy around is the closest thing I'll see to my Julia Roberts fantasy so..... Like I said, beautiful. 5 Longnecks

The DVD itself is nothing less than incredible. Outtakes, rehearsal footage, and a tremendous 5.1 remastering make for just an awesome experience for fans. One of my favorites of all time.

Rating:
Summary: remember drive-ins
Review: Watching this movie at the drive in Pasadena the age of five or six and actually remembering it means somethings. That it was great movie. Now some...I hate to say it, twenty years later. I still think it great. Growing up in Pasadena, and Houston. I can relate to this move. I ain't being biased, I'm just being honest. This movie actually tells the truth about relationships instead of sugar coating it like all the rest the Hollywood chick-flicks try to do. Instead of all the teen love storis and the rich kid and and poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks dying to be with the rich kid. Nope, this movie is as realistic as Hollywood can manage. Sissy and Bud(that is his name...right?) I mean Travolta's character was a spoiled, wanna-be macho redneck but at the end he forgets all that and finds himself still in love Sissy. And yes there are fights in honky-tonks. Aren't there also fights in any other bar. Then again aren't all girls not just country girls trying to get there guy jealous by dancing with other guys at bars also. I hate it when anyone who is not from the south or southeast making fun of people from here. WE are not all stupid inbreeders with a an IQ and education of fifth grader. I am going to end this with saying that this was and still is a great film.

Rating:
Summary: I'd rather just watch "Saturday Night Fever" again...
Review: What is there to say about a film that features John Travolta in a cowboy hat and loads of awful honky tonk music? Not much. Let's just say that "Saturday Night Fever" this is not.

But still, it surprisingly created an entire fad of modern-day cowboys across the entire United States of America, which is a sad thing to think about, given that the film sucked to begin with. Honestly, why in the world would a movie like this inspire Americans to go out to their local city costume shops and dress up as urban cowboys? Apart from looking absolutely, astonishingly ridiculous, what else does this accomplish? The funniest thing about fads is that I often find they're started by stupid, stupid things.

Surprised as I was to see this being featured on AMC, I gave it a chance and can't find anything very commendable or recommendable. Riding the waves of 1977's smash hit, "Saturday Night Fever," which of course starred John Travolta in that niiiice white suit, "Urban Cowboy" is about as close to a remake as one can get. Change the locations, change the co-stars, and change the music. It's all the same. This could be considered an unofficial sequel to the film if there weren't one already (the forgettable sequel to "Saturday Night Fever," "Staying Alive," directed by Sylvester Stallone, was even worse than "Urban Cowboy," which is some sort of miracle).

Basically, the plot is this: Bud David (Travolta) moves out to the big city in order to visit his uncle. Once there, he goes to a country bar named Gilley's, where he meets and falls in love with Sissy (Debra Winger), who suddenly marries him and then gets in a fight with him after he sees her with a con man named Wes, who plans to rob Gilley's. Meanwhile, in the "main plot" of the film, Bud applies for a mechanical bull contest and tries to patch up his relationship with Sissy. That's basically the plot. No emotional underpinnings like "Saturday Night Fever," no message about trying to break away from boredom and be someone--anyone--for a single night other than yourself.

Just dancing. Dancing, singing, and bad direction. In "Saturday Night Fever," the dance floor was used as a backdrop. Sure, it was shown on screen a heck of a lot, but it was also used as a metaphor. Tony Manero wanted something more than the life he was living. Disco dancing was his one way out, his chance to be king for a night rather than schmuck for a lifetime.

None of this is present in "Urban Cowboy," which is sort of sad. The film tries to make us feel for Travolta's character by using ancient plot cliches. And we're supposed to feel uplifted and inspired when he gains the respect of a bunch of boot-wearing, leather-laden, drunken cowboys? Whatever.

Rating:
Summary: Quite possibly my favorite movie
Review: Whether or not you're a Travolta fan, you must see this movie. It is awesome. With the exception of a few songs, the soundtrack is really weak and barely country-at least not as country as the movie. With so few country movies out there, you'll be glad you watched it and you will want to own it. It takes you to a better time and place and will make you wish you were right there. It's got everything-fighting, drinking, pickups, love gone bad, good looking women, etc. All the acting is top notch. I'm very surprised and disappointed that this movie didn't spawn others like it back then. Oh well. Too late now.