Rating: 
Summary: One of Rourke's best films,deserved more critical praise
Review: I happen to be a Mickey Rourke fan because of his intense portrail of most every character he plays.He has played such a vast cast of players,its hard to tell which is his best work.I must have watched this movie twenty times because of the depth he put in Johnny.
Rating:
Summary: No honor among some thieves
Review: I have this movie on VHS so I can't comment on the quality of the DVD as others have. As far as the movie goes, it is somewhat gut wrenching. Mickey Rourke plays the part of John Sedley (Johnny Handsome), a horribly disfigured man due to a birth defect. He isn't stupid, although a life of crime is about all he's known, but he isn't difficult to identify. He has a good friend named Mikey (Scott Wilson) who is hurting for money and persuades Johnny to do a jewelry store holdup. Johnny plans it well but two of their accomplises (Lance Henriksen and Ellen Barkin) want it all for themselves. They kill the driver and Mikey and almost get Johnny too. Johnny ends up behind bars while Raff (Henriksen) and Sunny (Barkin) buy Mikey's old establishment and are living fairly well with the proceeds from the robbery. They try to get Johnny murdered while in prison but the attempt fails. Johnny wakes up in a hospital and sees Forrest Whitaker, a plastic surgeon who wants to give Johnny a new face and a new life and does. He gets Johnny a decent job and Johnny meets and falls in love with a woman (Elizabeth McGovern) he meets there. Johnny's parole officer (Morgan Freeman) is constantly keeping tabs on him because he knows what Johnny is going to try to do: exact revenge on the two people responsible for Mikey's death. They won't recognize him now, his looks and speech don't give him away. Donna (McGovern) is in love with Johnny, he tells her about his past. She tries to persuade him to leave the past behind but Johnny can't. He could never live with knowing that the two people who killed his best friend got away with it.
Rating:
Summary: Loved This Film
Review: I haven't seen this in ages. It was great to see it again. This was the movie that first piqued my interested in Mickey Rourke's acting ability. Man he was awesome during the 80's!!!!!!! Too bad his plastic surgery ruined his face. oh well, nothing lasts forever. Few people have had the opportunity in their lives of stardom that Rourke did for over a decade.
Rating: 
Summary: Great motion picture, but a very poor dvd release.
Review: I really liked this movie, so i bought it the moment it came out on DVD. But i have to say what a poor job did they do at Artisan. Full Screen transfer and blurry picture. I should say that they used a VHS tape as master for the dvd, what a mistake to make. So i give two stars because of the movie not because of the dvd release.
If you want to buy this picture on DVD, buy the region 2 version of Momentum. This edition is Widescreen Anamorphic and has really good picture quality.
Rating: 
Summary: Great movie, lousy DVD.
Review: I was at first excited to discover that Walter Hill's 1989 cult favourite was finally being released on DVD.
Unfortunately this DVD is issued by Artisan who did a an equally terrible job with Hill's Extreme Prejudice DVD.What's so bad about it? It's Full Frame (!). The picture looks like it was transfered directly from a a muddy VCR print. Save your money and hope that one day someone will release this DVD PROPERLY.
Artisan should be ashamed of themselves.
Rating: 
Summary: HANDSOME NOT AN UGLY FILM
Review: IT SEEMS WIERD PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE OCCASIONALY MAKE GOOD ACTORS.
MICKEY ROURKE SEEMS TO HAVE GIVEN UP RECENTLY,BUT BACK IN THE 80S HIS TALENT BROKE THROUGH IN SEVERAL FILMS. THIS WAS ONE OF THEM.
ROURKE PLAYS A HORRIFICLY DISFIGURED 'ELEPHANT MAN' TYPE GUY WHO HAD FEW OPTIONS AND CHOSE A LIFE OF CRIME. WHILE IMPRISONED IN HIS HOME STATE OF LOUISIANA HE IS OFFERED AN OPPURTUNITY TO UNDERGO EXTREME PLASTIC SURGERY. HE GOES FOR IT AND AFTER SEVERAL OPERATIONS HE HAS A NORMAL APPEARANCE. THE LIBERAL SURGEON WHO PERFORMED THE SURGERY GETS CLEARANCE TO OFFER 'JOHNNY' PAROLE WITH A NEW IDENTITY, THINKING A NEW FACE WILL GIVE HIM THE CONFIDENCE HE NEEDS TO BECOME A PRODUCTIVE CITIZEN.
BUT, MORGAN FREEMAN WHO PORTRAYS A STREETWISE NEW ORLEANS DETECTIVE
KNOWS BETTER.
JOHNNY USES HIS NEW PERSONA AND FREEDOM TO TRACK DOWN PAST CO-HORTS IN CRIME LANCE HENRICKSON AND ELLEN BARKIN WHO DOUBLECROSSED JOHNNY AND MURDERED HIS ONLY FRIEND.
JOHNNY TAKES A JOB AND SECURES A GIRLFRIEND, THINGS HE HAS NEVER HAD OR HOPED FOR. HE SETS UP A SCORE WITH HIS OLD ASSOCIATES WHO OF COURSE DONT RECOGNIZE HIM.
JOHNNY THEN FACES THE DILEMMA OF GOING STRAIGHT OR AVENGING HIS FALLEN FRIEND. THIS SETS US UP FOR A THRILLING RIDE AND AN EXCITING CLIMAX.
THERE ARE GOOD PERFORMANCES HERE BY ROURKE, BARKIN, AND FREEMAN.
HENRICKSON OVERACTS AS USUAL AND THIS IS THE ONLY FLAW IN THE FILM. 'JOHNNY HANSDOME' IS A MIDNIGHT MOVIE THAT DOES WELL IN THE DRAMATIC ACTION GENRE.
Rating:
Summary: The feel good movie of the year.
Review: Johnny Handsome is a tale about hardened ex-cons, brutality, survival of the fittest, with a dash of romance. If you buy this movie, you will not be subjected to the talentless, plotless drivel that the movie masses are usually expected to swallow whole. Rourke is the most realistic actor that Hollywood has to offer.
Rating:
Summary: A Once Great Artist At His Prime
Review: The films that Mickey Rourke made in the 1980s make me cry because he was such a great artist! He cared so much about the characters he portrayed that you forgot it was a movie and were convinced they were real. Johnny Handsome was the last of his great roles. After this film, Rourke just went through the motions of earning a paycheck. But, good Lord, what an amazing film Johnny Handsome was! I saw Johnyy Handsome last weekend back-to-back with Angel Heart, Barfly, 9 1/2 Weeks, and Year of the Dragon and actually shed tears. Why did I weep? Anyone who knows great acting knows that Rourke, since then, has put his talent on strike and done drek like Point Blank and Double Impact. Most actors nowadays are awful. Only Sean Penn, Daniel Day Lewis, Nicholas Cage, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and Jessica Lange give performances that touch my soul. Rourke was one of the best. What happened? Was it the Marlon Brando Syndrome? At least in Johnny Handsome, we know what brilliance we had once, way back when. In a world where posing nude or engaging in a scandal give one enough credentials to earn a SAG card, it is refreshing to know that, at least with one actor 10 years ago, genuine exposure came from the soul.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT LOOKING FILM
Review: Two directors have mastered the modern film noir: Michael Mann (THIEF) and Walter Hill. Like 1978's THE DRIVER, JOHNNY HANDSOME is an underrated marvel and one of Hill's best works. Hill also provides two screen lowlifes in a class all their own, masterfully played by Lance Hendricksen and Ellen Barkin (She has the best line: "The price was a thousand. Either that or I gave it away.") You also get Mickey Rourke tearing the landscape front and back along with the always great Morgan Freeman. Ry Cooder's sax laden soundtrack shines.
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