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 ****

brtndr I would have given this movie a 2 star review if it wasn't for Diane Lane, because back in the early 80's Dianne Lane was every young boys dream girl. I know, because I was a young boy back in the early 80's. And, if you want to see Diane Lane at her most enchanting hotness, then you might want to check out The Cotton Club? That is, if you don't mind sitting through a mess of a movie that's over 2hrs long, and you don't care what happens to any of the multitude of characters story lines. Except, maybe Diane Lane's character, because she was just that HOT.But, don't worry Cotton Club fans out there, I will include a few positive aspects in this review about the movie. That doesn't involve murder conspiracy's of drug dealing movie producers. Only because IMDb requires at least a 10 line minimum written review before it can be posted on their website. Which is about, 9 lines longer than I care to spend writing about The Cotton Club. But the rules are the rules.The best thing The Cotton Club has to offer an audience is its stellar ensemble cast of actors and actresses. Even the ones that aren't Diane Lane. Some were already well established TV and Movie stars like Richard Gere, Fred Gwynne, Gwen Verdon and Gregory Hines. While others weren't house hold names yet like Nicholas Cage, Laurance Fishburne, Diane Lane and Bob Hoskins. But, would go on later to become huge Stars despite their appearance in The Cotton Club. I guess someone up there likes them?However, despite the movies great ensemble cast, you just DO NOT care about any of the characters in the movie. It's really hard to say exactly why you don't care if Nicholas Cage's character is gun downed in a phone booth. Or if Gregory Hines, Richard Gere and Laurance Fishburn ever get the girl at the end of the movie. Maybe, it's because there were so many different characters, that you never cared about, who couldn't get the girl until the very end of the movie. The only time I ever cared about any of the characters who didn't get me aroused while watching them, like Diane Lane for example. Is when I felt Sad that the evil Mob boss Dutz Sholtz was eventually killed, because he was the only interesting character in the entire movie. The Cotton Clubs' writer/director Francis Ford Coppola has made some great movies and some stinkers. The Cotton Club is definitely at the top of Coppola's 'Stinker List'. I hope I finally have the required IMDb 10 line minimum to post a review this time? I really don't want to spend any more time writing about The Cotton Club. The movie gets a D- from me, but I will change my review to a C+ if someone knows if Diane Lane does any texting.

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?