Review of The Cotton Club (1984) by Alex S — 06 Jan 2008

This just seemed like one big, cheesy cliche to me. I was a little tired when watching this, but I don't think that affected my viewing too much.

First, the positives: I really liked the dance scenes in the club. Well, all except for one. When sandman takes his mulatto lover to the 'moocher' club, or whatever they call it, and all the old black men suddenly burst out into a rehearsed little tap dance, as if they've been rehearsing and just waiting for some woman to come in. That was stupid. Maybe I missed something, but sudden, obviously rehearsed dancing doesn't work unless you're making a musical.

Which, in a sense, maybe this was, but the other 'music' is in the club.

The set designs were really good. They really did good in depicting the roaring 20's.

I know that racism was a big deal back then, but that issue has been hammered to death in so many movies that anytime it appears it just bugs me. Basically, it automatically loses the credibility that film has, unless the director somehow depicts the issue in some creative way that hasn't been done before. That would be tough. Because it's been done many, many, many times before.

I thought the acting was cheesy. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it wasn't.

Near the beginning, when the Dutchman goes crazy and stabs that guy. That was the stupidest thing I've seen since the grand finale of Cube (another great idea that sucked because of acting).

Maybe I need to give it another try. Other than the Godfather films, I haven't yet seen a Coppola film that I've liked. I didn't even like The Conversation, but that's a different review.

To sum it up, good idea, and pretty good at depicting the era, but the acting did nothing for me, and neither did the script. There was no meat on the script, nothing there to keep you interested. We've all seen the love story and racism thing before.