Waste of time

How sad is this?

An action-packed slog

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Good prohibition-era gangster movie. Not great though - many flaws. The set up and main plot were good. It gave the movie a grittiness mixed with romance that could have gone somewhere. However, many of the secondary plots were uninteresting and/or badly done. The Gregory Hines sub-plot was probably the worst of the lot: drifts throughout, hammy acting and a lame attempt at exposing racial inequality in the 1920s.On that note, the movie does take a tilt at racial issues, but pulls its punches. An opportunity wasted.Writer-director Francis Ford Coppola and writer Mario Puzo, who also collaborated on The Godfather series, would have done better if they just took that Godfather formula and stuck to it. Make a gritty, hard- edged gangster movie, and that alone. Instead we have pointless sub- plots that add nothing and subtract a lot.Performances are varied, but mostly let the movie down. Richard Gere overacts in the lead role. His performance just feels so overdone at times it was hard to find convincing. Gregory Hines is even worse - hammy. James Remar also overdoes it as Dutch Schultz.Nicholas Cage (Francis Ford Coppola's nephew, by the way), is pretty bad in his role. Way over the top delivery, and just seems silly. Surprised his career lasted much longer, though am glad it did.Best performances come from Diane Lane (then only 18) and Bob Hoskins (though he isn't capable of a bad performance).The supporting cast also includes some big names, though some weren't famous at the time: Tom Waits, Laurence Fishburn, Jennifer Grey (in her third movie). Sofia Coppola and Mario van Peebles have very minor roles.A bit more focus and better performances and this could have been a great movie.

The Cotton Club is a Brilliant and very Underrated film that's a mixture of a Gangster movie,Musical and Crime Drama to great effect. Filled with amazing direction,a wonderful cast and a fantastic score,The Cotton Club is Francis Coppola at his best.Set in Harlem,New York in the late 1920s and 30s,The Cotton Club is the story of the real life Night club and stories and various events that take place inside and outside the club including the story of Dixie Dwyer(Richard Gere),a Jazz Musician that's working for vicious Gangster Dutch Schultz(James Remar). While working for Dutch Dixie falls for Dutch's girlfriend Vera Cicero(Diane Lane)while dealing with his love for Jazz,other Gangsters,violence and danger all around.Francis Coppola's The Cotton Club is an amazing film that is known for being a troubled production with Coppola fighting with producer Robert Evans,the film going over budget with 58 million dollars,various scripts written for the movie and the film flopping at the Box Office and receiving mixed reviews from critics. But all of those things don't stop The Cotton Club from being the great film that it is and in my opinion this is a movie that deserves more respect. The Cotton Club is a film that right from the very beginning pulls you into an experience that takes you back to the world of the 1920's and 30s that dazzles you and leaves you floored and will make your jaw drop. It's a film that is beautiful and visually stunning and is filled with great style and substance that is memorable and powerful. With TCC,Francis Coppola mixes together two genres the Gangster film genre and the Musical and when the two genres come together there is fireworks and excitement balancing out violence,Tommy Guns with singing and dances sequences giving The Cotton Club an unforgettable style. Coppola also uses the classic movie style of Gangster movies from the 1930s such as The Public Enemy,Little Ceaser,Scarface,Angels With Dirty Faces and The Roaring Twenties and Coppola does it in his own way with classic style montages mixing the violence and chaos of the Harlem,New York streets with the various singing and dancing at The Cotton Club. Coppola'a love for classic cinema is full display with this film. The Gangster style and trademarks of the 1930s is also on full display here as well with Coppola bringing a realism and accuracy to the period making viewers feel like they are actually there in the 1930s. Also,The Cotton Club depicts a Gangster world where Money,Guns and violence rule the streets and no one is safe from death and destruction and as a viewer you are disturb by the Actions of the Gangsters while at the same time you are interested in what happens next. What I also like about this film is how it includes real life Gangsters and crime figures of the 1930s such as Dutch Schultz,Owney Madden,Charlie 'Lucky' Luciano and Harlem Gangster Bumpy Johnson(as Bumpy Rhodes in the film). The violence in the film is horrific and at times dark and very unexpected coming out of nowhere and Coppola goes back to the violence and style of his early Gangster films The Godfather I and II with The Cotton Club. The Musical and dance sequences in the film are excellent,stylish and done in such a flawless way that is beautiful and exciting. In each Musical and dance scene is done with perfection and great attention to detail the only way Coppola knows how to do it. Each of the main characters are flawed people but are memorable and interesting because nearly all of them want one common goal:the common goal of being a success either with music,money or being a Gangster. If there is a flaw and problem with The Cotton Club is the movie's length that is 127 minutes. Now the 127 minutes length is great but I always feel when I watch the film is that the running time was too short for this film and that it should have been longer between the running times of 140 to 160 minutes. It seems like Coppola had to cut out a lot things because he was fighting with Orion pictures and producer Robert Evans. I hope someday that Coppola will release a director's cut of the film and have more scenes with the main characters. The ending of the film is excellent and masterful with sequences that are effective and amazing and will show you why filmmaking is such a beautiful art form. A great and truly unforgettable conclusion. The whole cast is great. Richard Gere is excellent as Dixie Dwyer,with Gere bringing depth and charisma to the role. The late great Gregory Hines is brilliant as Sandman Williams,a tap dancer working at The Cotton Club. Diane Lane is amazing and beautiful as Vera Cicero,Dutch's girlfriend and Dixie's love interest. Lonette Mckee is great as Lila,a dancer and singer at The Cotton Club and Sandman's love interest. Bob Hopskins is fantastic as Owney Madden,the owner of The Cotton Club. James Remar is terrific and frightening as Dutch Schultz,with Remar bringing intensity to the role. Fred Gwynne is wonderful and funny as Frenchy,Owney's right hand man. Nicholas Cage is fabulous as Vincent Dwyer,Dixie's hot headed younger brother who works for Dutch. Lawerence Fishburne(Bumpy Rhodes),Allen Garfield(Abbadabba),Tom Waits(Irving Stark),Maurice Hines(Clay Williams),Julian Beck(Sol),John P. Ryan(Joe Flynn),Lisa Jane Persky(Francis),Glenn Withrow(Popke),Ron Karabatsos(Mike Best),Jennifer Grey(Patsy Dwyer),Gwen Verdon(Tish Dwyer),Joe Dallesandro(Charles 'Lucky' Luciano),Diane Verona(Gloria Swanson),Woody Strode(Holmes)and Ed O'Ross(Monk)give good performances as well The direction by Francis Coppola is brilliant and stylish,with Coppola always moving the camera and giving the film a beautiful visual style and tone. Great direction,Coppola.The score by John Barry is amazing,beautiful,haunting and intense and truly matches the film's style and tone. Fantastic score,Barry.In final word,if you love Francis Coppola,Gangster Films,Musicals,Crime Dramas or films in general,I highly suggest you see The Cotton Club,a brilliant,underrated and dazzling film that deserves a second chance. Highly Recommended. 10/10.

Richard Gere is a trumpet and piano player who is hired by the famous gangster Dutch Schultz to provide some music at parties and to squire around Dutch's girl friend, Diane Lane, when Dutch is busy browbeating and killing people elsewhere. Gere and Lane fall for each other. Complications ensue. There is a sub plot involving alienation between Gregory Hines and his brother, a duo tap-dancing act, and they finally make up. The plot centers around -- or whirls around -- the Cotton Club, a fashionable night club in Harlem in which talented African-Americans provided entertainment for rich white couples and celebrities.Frankly, I found myself confused about some of the turns in the plot. The one thing I was able to keep straight is that all the murderers and thick-necked traitorous goons were white, while the black folk were all good. Dutch Schultz (James Remar) is particularly contemptible. The guy has no sense of humor. He's always scowling. And he gives too many orders like, "Get me a cigar," and "Tie my shoes," and "Where is my garter belt?" After a scuffle with Richard Gere and Gregory Hines in The Cotton Club, he and his sour henchmen drive to The Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey, where they are shot to pieces by a rival gang. I was honestly glad to see Schultz get it. With Newark the way it is today, I don't think he'd have made it as far as the chop house.The Cotton Club was famous, really famous, and Harlem was aboom in the 1920s and part of the 30s. Duke Ellington played there, Fletcher Henderson, Cab Calloway, everybody who was anybody. It was called "going slumming" and was a must-visit for movie stars. An unrecognizable Diane Venora plays Gloria Swanson, who gets Gere a job as an actor in a Hollywood movie.How does is the Cotton Club's entertainment fitted into the movie? Not so neatly. There are some great performers, including "Honey" Coles, and Coppola lets the camera roll while they do their stuff -- once in a while, for two or three numbers. But he makes the same mistake he made with Fred Astaire in "Finian's Rainbow." Too often he cuts directly from a dancer's upper torso to a close up of the dancer's feet. And the cuts are too fast to allow the audience to appreciate what's going on. And there is a LOT going on during a well-choreographed dance, with the performer's whole body involved. I can say this with some certainty because I studied dance and, after a good deal of effort, found that, as a dancer, I had all the finely honed skills of a performing seal. It really puzzled me. I asked myself, "Self, what the hell is wrong with your kinetic sense?", but the answer was a confusing explanation of myoneural plates and I gave up trying to understand. Some people have it. Some don't.Richard Gere is the central figure and he does all right by the role. He's edgier and more impulsive than ever, which is saying a lot. When he gets the proper role, Gere can do it to death, although I must say I found him no more than adequate as my supporting player in the poetic masterpiece, "No Mercy." I had to carry the kid through the whole picture by giving him sound advice like, "Just say your lines and make sure you don't look at the camera". And, I swear, whoever dubbed his trumpet solos couldn't find anything inventive in the subdued variations on the melodic theme. Listen to Gere's solos and then listen to a CD of Bix Beiderbecke or Louis Armstrong.

Dixie Dwyer is a jazz musician who begins working with mobsters to advance his career.Then he goes and falls for Vera Cicero, the girlfriend of the famous Jewish gangster, Dutch Schultz.He eventually becomes a Hollywood film star.His younger brother Vincent becomes a gangster in Schultz' mob.The Cotton Club (1984) is directed by Francis Ford Coppola.It's produced by the 80-year old producer Robert Evans.In the writing team there were Coppola and Mario Puzo, writer of The Godfather novel.The movie was a flop, even though everybody had great expectations for it.Richard Gere does very good job in the lead.The part was originally offered for Sylvester Stallone, who turned it down.Coppola's nephew Nicholas Cage is great as Vincent Dwyer.Diane Lane is fantastic as Vera.The great late Gregory Hines is terrific as the dancer Sandman Williams.Lonette McKee is wonderful as his girl Lila Rose Oliver.Gregory's brother Maurice Hines is great as his film brother Clay.Her character is loosely based on Lena Horne.Bob Hoskins is brilliant as the mobster and club owner Owney Madden.Fred Gwynne is one of the kind as his right-hand man Frenchy Demange.James Remar plays Dutch Schultz and he does it with style.Great job by Allen Garfield, who plays Abbadabba Berman.Laurence Fishburne is very good as Bumpy Rhodes.Musician Tom Waits plays Irving Starck.Jennifer Grey portrays Patsy Dwyer.Diane Venora is Gloria Swanson.Bill Cobbs is Big Joe Ison.Woody Strode portrays Holmes.Robert Earl Jones is Stage Door Joe.The young Sofia Coppola is seen as Child in Street.Mario Van Peebles is Dancer.This movie is better than its reputation.It does give a good portrayal of the 1930's.The movie has got some good scenes.The drive-by shooting, where Vincent and his men accidentally kill the kid, is one of them.And so is where Vincent is shot by Schultz' men in a drugstore telephone booth.Coppola did a fine job.The result may not be a masterpiece, but a good movie anyway.