Konterr Brilliant and touching

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

guywhoacts Take this review for it's worth because I'm a sucker for some good jazz. This film is full of great jazz. The Cotton Club was a famous Jazz nightclub. It was also a hotbed of corruption and a seedy underground for the mos of the time.This film is gorgeous and its aesthetic helps to make you feel like you're in the club, bouncing along to the tunes of the day. Finally, there are some wonderful performances from Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and some great moments with Nic Cage that help to give the film structure.Go see it! You'll be tapping your foot to the music for weeks to come.

moonspinner55 Two pairs of brothers--one white, one black--find triumphs and tragedies on the streets of Harlem in the late 1920s and early '30s: coronet player Richard Gere, having saved the life of Dutch Schultz after an assassination attempt, is put on the gangster's payroll along with ne'er-do-well brother Nicolas Cage, with Gere assigned to "watch over" Schultz's girlfriend, vamp-singer Diane Lane; tap dancing siblings Gregory Hines and Maurice Hines perform their act at the Cotton Club, which employed black singers, dancers and musicians for the enjoyment of white audiences. It's obvious that director Francis Coppola, who also co-authored the screenplay with William Kennedy ("suggested by" the pictorial history "The Cotton Club" by James Haskins) meant the two halves of the picture to underscore each other, what with sibling rivalries and jealousies and failed affairs with women, but we rarely feel a connection between the characters (and not just the brothers, but the mobsters, racketeers, hangers-on and showgirls to boot). Coppola knows where to put his camera, and his visual style often results in exhilarating moments, but the shallow writing defeats the extraordinary cast as well as the filmmaker--who plows ahead as if all this mercurial melodrama actually meant something to him. I doubt it did. ** from ****

Robert J. Maxwell 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.

barrwell Francis Ford Coppola exploded onto the scene with the stylishly original classic 'The Godfather' in 1972. A little over a decade later he made the lesser renowned but yet more notorious (for its production problems and bloated budget) 'The Cotton Club', a fact meets fiction throwback to the movies of the 1930s when gangster films (as well as comedies, etc) often incorporated musical and dance scenes. Today, while the Godfather resides on most of the best-ever movie lists, the Cotton Club is mired in obscurity…a largely forgotten near-miss. The film is stunning visually and has many other redeeming qualities however; James Remar chews the scenery effectively as a rabid Dutch Schultz, women can watch Richard Gere, men can watch the delectable Diane Lane, and the rest can watch the dazzling tap sequences of the Hines brothers and bask in all the period music.Trouble is brewing in 1930s Harlem as Dixie Dwyer (Gere), an up and coming actor, musician and mob fringe-dweller is asked by Schultz to chaperon his mistress, aspiring wannabe club owner Vera Cicero (Lane) and sparks immediately start to fly. Meanwhile Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins), the owner of the Cotton club is preparing for an upcoming prison stint and the local mob figures are vying for position and it appears a mob war is on the horizon.Also, Sandman Williams is starting his dance career and, along with his brother(Gregory and Maurice Hines), is seeking stardom at Harlems' famous Cotton Club. Sandman is also trying to court one of the clubs other entertainers (Lonette McKee) and his aspirations are coming between he and his brother and they eventually split. Also in the mix is Dixie's little brother, a young overzealous mob hit-man "Mad Dog" Dwyer (Nicholas Cage), who like the Sandman seems to be letting his ambition get the better of him.These (and other) story lines will all intersect in and around the Cotton Club as the strong-willed Vera fights for independence from the psychotic Schultz, which in turn puts Dixie in a dangerous predicament. Owney's prison term approaches, Mad Dog gets in over his head and Sandman has a heartwarming on-stage reunion with his brother. As we reach the climax Schultz's behavior has become intolerable and as Madden is leaving for prison we are treated to a masterful cinematic display as images of a high profile mob hit are alternated with shots of Sandman's stair step tap routine; beauty and brutality both captured in one memorable montage.There is a lot to enjoy in The Cotton Club; we get some of the great character actors like Fred Gwynne, Tom Waits, John P. Ryan and Remar, as well as future stars like Lawrence Fishburne, Jennifer Grey and Cage (who is Coppola's nephew by the way). Many of the characters are real such as Schultz, Sandman, Lucky Luciano and a young Bumpy Johnson (the same Bumpy Johnson that Denzel Washington's character worked for in the beginning of 'American Gangster').No it's not the Godfather but just as entertaining in its own way. In the early 90s when I first saw this I'd have rated it 8 or 9…but hey, it still plays well but this is an unappreciated film, for whatever reason. It is a tad long and the vast array of characters are mostly one-dimensional, but still the Cotton Club is well worth a watch.It gives us a glimpse into the culture and the fantastic jazz music of this long gone era. This was the era when common guys like Dixie Dwyer had a good chance of making it big, an era where a strong willed woman could overcome the clutches of a madman, an era when people in movies were liable to break out in song or dance at any time…even in Union Station, and it was an era when the hero got the girl and they rode off happily ever after. What's so wrong about that?