Review of Rumble Fish (1983) by Greg S — 29 Jun 2009

Another in the long list of movies I should've seen by now but have not. Whatever Francis Ford Coppola got from S. E. Hinton, I wish he hadn't smoked it and made this movie. It's visually unique, sure, but this entire movie is an exercise in "trying too fucking hard to be cool".

Needless to say, there's a lot that's wrong with this movie. Melodrama so thick you could cut it with a knife. Metaphors that lack subtlety to a degree that there might as well be neon signs over them.

Matt Dillon got lost somewhere between Grease and The Outsiders. Mickey Rourke almost gives a good performance, except about halfway through you wonder if he's going to bend his little brother over and buttrape him.

Dennis Hopper takes a unique turn as an alcoholic who actually seems like a downright pleasant dad to have, so I don't know what they're so down in the mouth about. Tom Waits is interesting in one of his smaller movie roles, and it was fun seeing folks like Nicholas Cage & Lawrence Fishburne while they were still little fish.

Overall, though, I found this to be bland, overly dramatic, and filmed in such a way that the director was hoping that style would overcome the lack of substance. It doesn't.