Rating: 
Summary: Great Style! No Deleted Scenes
Review: Apparently there were some struggles with the original distributor and MGM and the rights to the deleted scenes were questioned -- so that is why they remain unreleased. There may very well be a Special Edition forthcoming, but given the film's box office and perceived interest level I would grab this edition since it may be the only one. Beautifully photographed and wonderfully designed -- this is a cinematographer's dream! And you get to see a lot of actors in their young days -- Richard Gere, Nicolas Cage, Bob Hoskins. Glamour and style prevail over the multi-layered plot, but it is always an enjoyable movie. Grab it!
Rating: 
Summary: A misunderstood Club
Review: Francis Ford Coppola is a film director that will surely get more recognition in the years to come. His first films had great reviews, but afterwards it was more modish to belittle him.The "Cotton Club" is a brilliant musical film. The story is simple, surely not great, even silly sometimes, but the music is absolutely wonderful. I already had a version of the Cotton Club in VHS, but I couldn't resist buying the DVD, and it's really worth it! both the quality of the images as well as the sound is on a totally different level from VHS. The DVD allows one to really appreciate the ambiance in the recreation of Harlem in 1928. Even though the argument is light, even silly, the music, performers and musical numbers is truly outstanding. The only low point of this DVD is that there are not enough chapters so as to quickly arrive at a special sequence or make it easy to replay a particularly fine part of the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: If Only The Movie Was As Good As The Music!
Review: Francis Ford Coppola is one of the grestest directors alive today, at least in my opinion. With that being said I think one might be able to imagine my disappointment with this movie. Here's a movie that has too much story to tell in one movie. Now there's a shock,usually, movies lack a story. In this case, there was enough story for two movies! Now, some might think that's a good thing. They might think, well, if so much is going on, there's probably a lot of action. They might think it's an exciting movie. You couldn't be more wrong. Coppola seemed to concerned with the costume and production designs then with the "screenplay". There's so many characters and so much going in the movie, one might get confused. I personlly didn't get confused, I just got bored. The story goes something like this, and please try to keep up. Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere) is a jazz cornetist who happens to save the life of mobster "Dutch Schultz" (James Remar). Now, Dwyer has always wanted to get a chance to work in "The Cotton Club", and at that time in history, so did every other performer. So, "Schultz" sees what he can do. Now comes the love triangel. "Schultz" loves Vera Cicero (the beautiful, Diane Lane), but so does Dwyer! Now Dwyer can't really do anything about this, because he now works for "Schultz". Across town, the Willam Brothers (played by real life brothers, the Hines brothers) also want a chance to get to work in "The Cotton Club". And would do anything to get that chance, only a disagreement between the two bothers changes all that, allowing only one to really hit it big. Is anyone getting a bit confused yet? Well, if you are, too bad, there's more! Dwyer (Gere) has to keep his eye out for his brother, Vincent "Mad Dog" Dwyer (Nicholas Cage), who manages to get in trouble with the owners of "The Cotton Club", Owney Maden (Bob Hoskins) and Frenchy Demange (Fred Gwynne). Soon, "Sandman" Willams (Gregory Hines) also finds love at "The Cotton Club", but must let it slide for the time being. Right now, I've only really touched the surface of the "screenplay" for "The Cotton Club", there are many more sub-plots and twist and changed that happen. But, to be honest, I'm to tired to name them all lol. The costume and production designs in this movie are great, and really display the time period quite well. The music (mostly Duke Ellington)is quite pleansant and pleasing to hear which consist of standards like, "The Mooche", "Creole Long Song", Minne the Moocher", "Ill Wind", "Crazy Rhythm", and "Mood Indigo". Also that's really Gere playing the cornet, and suprisingly quite good. This a classic case of a bad movie by a great director. It tries to "impress" you with the music and costume and production designs, but forgets the fact that the "screenplay" makes no sense. Not enough logical thinking went into it. They had a lot of ideas, only they didn't know how to excute them. * 1\2 out of *****
Rating:
Summary: Defective DVD?
Review: Has anyone else had a problem with this DVD? I've rented two different copies of the DVD, and neither one has worked in my DVD player. I can never get past the menu screen. I don't have any trouble with any other DVDs, so I'm not sure what the problem could be.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat disappointing
Review: I found this overlong film to be somewhat of a disappointment for a director of Coppola's caliber. Sure it's visually dazzling, filled with great oldies hits, and offers charismatic (though never quite credible) performances which all add up to a generally enteraining pic. However the script is what's sorely stopping it from being the powerful gangster epic it might have been. The story is filled with stereotypes and inconsistencies in character development and interaction. Nice try Frank, but this looks more like a heavy-handed DICK TRACY entry than THE GODFATHER saga.
Rating:
Summary: THE ROARING 20's!
Review: I liked this film. I especially liked Duke Ellington's piece,(The Mooche,) in the beginning of the film. The music was good, but it seemed to be lacking something; like some ACTION MAYBE! All in all, it's still a must see. Richard Gere really looked handsome in his 1920's threads. of course he looks good in hardly anything on, but we won't go there. Despite of the slow running action, and the misfitted charactors that were supposed to be Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway, this 1984 film did the best that it could.
Rating:
Summary: Moments of Greatness Only
Review: I think the biggest problem is the casting. Richard Gere and Diane Lane did a wonderful job together in the recent film Unfaithful but in Cotton Club they seem more like big brother and precocious little sister. Gere plays a Hollywood actor and he is just too smooth with his little moustache and greased back hair--one moment he is smooching with Diane Lane, the next moment he is onstage playing trumpet, the next hes talking tough to a ruthless killer. Its like hes supposed to be some kind of Harlem Renaissance Man. I think at this phase in his career Gere was not so popular because people perceived him as being kind of conceited and this role just seems crafted for a guy who adores himself. Nowadays he comes across as a much more appealing type of fellow but then the self love was just annoying. Diane Lane was a wonderful child actress but in this role she is not a child anymore and not quite a woman yet either. The awkwardness of the Gere-Lane relationship hurts the film considerably. Plus when your lead just isn't Al Pacino or Robert DeNiro and its a mob picture you feel disappointed. Gere is not a mob guy, he's too sophisticated to play mob roles, and he knows it. Additionally what happens on-stage at the Cotton Club really takes us out of the drama that is happening off-stage. By the time each musical number ends you almost forget what the film is about. There are so many characters(Bob Hoskins, Fred Gwen, Nic Cage, Joe Dallesandro) saying so many things and yet no one character ever grabs our attention and so its hard to care what each character is plotting to do. Its possible to watch this film and not really know who the main character or what the main plot line is. The writing is that obscure. Even if you figure out its a film about Gere and Lane it doesn't help much because they just don't seem right for each other anyway. As a result we have no one and no thing to root for. Beneath the flash of the costumes the film just has no heart and soul. Its like a glossy magazine with pretty faces but no substance. That said the film is a wonder of cinematography and choreography. One wonderful scene toward the end of the film has Coppola cutting between Gregory Hines tapping and a particularly lurid murder scene. This is the kind of thing Coppola did so well in Godfather--mixing life and death in an operatic way--but here the great camera work seems kind of empty because the characters have failed to really make their mark on our imaginations. Perhaps in the future Coppola will release an extended version of this film which will make the story clearer. Until then I would recommend this film only if you want a strictly visual entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: Great, But Lacking Something
Review: I think this film is very good, but it is lacking something. It takes place in the late 1920's and early 1930's (Right before the great depression.) Richard Gere plays a mafia boss, but at the same time doesn't act like one (I Know it's confusing.) It has great music, and shows actors acting as famous stars, such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington and Charley Louisiana. In addition to great music, Gregory Hines and his brother play tap dancers for the Cotton Club.
The DVD is really good, and has the normal theartical trailer and a French and Spanish language substitute. I would recommend this DVD to anyone who likes mob movies or whoever likes a film with good music.
Rating:
Summary: What a movie
Review: I watched this movie and was like whoa pretty damn cool shizzle! Theres like crazy tap dancer dudes and the bit with the step where they go brrt brrt brrt! Nicholas Cage gets capped, Richard Gere has a cool moustache and the guy that played Lurch in Addams Family is in it. The ladies are all well fit and the patterns were mad crazy like. Fair play i was on 2ci but it was the shizzle rizzle! Word! Gerbil Wibble Gribble the badger lives on!
Rating:
Summary: Cotton Club
Review: I've been waiting a long time something other than the video tape. This DVD was well worth the wait. Tweek the contrast, brightness and color a little and this transfer appears as beautiful as Diane Lane does in the cover shot. GREAT MUSIC, GREAT STYLE, Gere doesn't stand up very well but all the the other "stuff" is great. If you like the film, the DVD is a winner!! Bring on the Godfather.
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