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Movies / On DVD / The Cotton Club
The Cotton Club

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The Cotton Club (1984)

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74 %
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Reviews Counted:23

Fresh:17

Rotten:6

Average Rating:6.3/10

Runtime: 2 hrs 45 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: It's the height of the 1920s Jazz Age and Harlem's famous Cotton Club is the home to both talented performers and gangster molls. Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere) is a cornet player who unexpectedly... It's the height of the 1920s Jazz Age and Harlem's famous Cotton Club is the home to both talented performers and gangster molls. Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere) is a cornet player who unexpectedly saves the life of mobster Dutch Schultz (James Remar). When Schultz takes Dixie under his wing, Dutch's girlfriend Vera Cicero (Diane Lane) and Dixie become dangerously entangled. Meanwhile, the performers at Owney Madden's (Bob Hoskins) club, led by Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines) and his brother Clay (played by real-life brother Maurice Hines), balance their lives as stars on the stage with the real-life discrimination of being black. Sandman falls for ambitious light-skinned chanteuse Lila (Lonette McKee) while Dixie moves to Hollywood to become a movie star. The supporting cast is a colorful mix, including musician Tom Waits as club manager Irving Stark; Fred Gwynne (aka Herman Munster) as Madden's sidekick, Frenchy; Broadway legend Gwen Verdon as Dixie's mom, Tish; Andy Warhol star Joe Dallesandro as Charles "Lucky" Luciano; and founder of New York's Living Theater, Julian Beck, as the sinister Sol Weinstein. [More]

Starring: Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Lonette McKee

Starring: Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Lonette McKee, Bob Hoskins, James Remar, Nicolas Cage, Allen Garfield, Fred Gwynne, Lisa Jane Persky, Maurice Hines, Julian Beck, Tom Waits, Laurence Fishburne, Gwen Verdon, Jennifer Grey

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Screenwriter: William Kennedy, Francis Ford Coppola
Story: William Kennedy, Francis Ford Coppola, Mario Puzo
Producer: Robert Evans
Composer: John Barry

[See More Credits]

Reviews for The Cotton Club

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Bubble View | 1 2 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 
Reviews
Tomatometer Critic Review Category
tomato

This musical gangster movie is a tour de force, even if a little muddled.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Mar., 13 2009 03:36 PM

Channel 4 Film

splat

The narrative is a mess despite the simplistic twinning of tales.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jun., 24 2006 03:44 AM

Time Out

tomato
4/5

Rich Cline

Energetic and involving.

comment Comment | Jun., 05 2004 03:25 AM

Shadows on the Wall

splat
3/5

This feels like a movie with its heart ripped out.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jun., 06 2001 12:01 AM

Empire Magazine

splat

Richard Corliss

Given its garish production history, one rather expected The Cotton Club to sing with hot-jazz desperation. Instead, we get the mediocre craftsmanship of a pit band in Vegas.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Mar., 13 2009 03:37 PM

TIME Magazine

tomato
3/5

Cole Smithey

No review available.

comment Comment | Sep., 13 2008 07:13 PM

ColeSmithey.com

tomato
3.5/4

Lavish, interesting, evocative but strained and self-conscious, Cotton Club is all watchable curiosity.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Dec., 11 2007 03:04 PM

TV Guide's Movie Guide

tomato

Dave Kehr

It was the most assured film Coppola had made in a decade, full of casual wit and visual invention.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Dec., 11 2007 03:03 PM

Chicago Reader

tomato
3/5

Felix Vasquez Jr.

No review available.

comment Comment | Oct., 24 2007 05:47 AM

Cinema Crazed

tomato
3/5

Joe Williams

No review available.

comment Comment | Jul., 07 2005 04:34 PM

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

tomato
3/5

Emanuel Levy

No review available.

comment Comment | Jul., 04 2005 02:11 PM

EmanuelLevy.Com

splat
2/5

Clint Morris

No review available.

comment Comment | May., 06 2005 02:21 AM

Film Threat

tomato
4/4

Roger Ebert

Whatever it took to do it, Coppola has extracted a very special film out of the checkered history of this project.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Oct., 23 2004 10:37 PM

Chicago Sun-Times

splat
2/5

Carol Cling

No review available.

comment Comment | Mar., 05 2004 02:09 PM

Las Vegas Review-Journal

tomato
3/5

Nell Minow

No review available.

comment Comment | Aug., 20 2003 10:38 PM

Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies

tomato
3/5

Jeffrey Westhoff

No review available.

comment Comment | Feb., 17 2003 02:27 PM

Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

tomato
5/5

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Coppola's most shamefully underrated movie.

comment Comment | Jan., 17 2003 11:57 AM

San Francisco Examiner

tomato
3/5

Brian J. Arthurs

No review available.

comment Comment | Oct., 04 2002 03:26 PM

Beach Reporter (Southern California)

splat
2/5

Chuck Rudolph

Ambitious, but like many post-Apocalypse Coppola films, it doesn't quite hit the mark.

comment Comment | Jul., 25 2002 11:33 PM

Matinee Magazine

tomato

Jimmy Summers

There're always something and someone interesting just around the corner; and, if Coppola seems to have difficulty with the story's narrative line, he does manage to help the audience keep straight the huge cast of characters.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jun., 05 2002 08:24 AM

Boxoffice Magazine

 
 
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