The Cotton Club

LIKES:Great Production - high-end musical numbers, well-done re period costumes. It was visual eye candy.Great Actors - LOTS of BIG NAME actors although it was a bit cheesy, but I will get to that laterPARODY - it was directed like they directed early talkies - OVER-ACTED when acting wasn't meant to look real, but overly-dramatic. WHICH is also a con for me.CONS - It was like someone got in a time machine and did this in the style of the early gangster films. It was like a HOMAGE in some ways, a PARODY in others. Where this UNTOUCHABLES with Kevin Costner wasn't cheesy like The Cotton Club, it felt like a film done in the 80's.Nicolas Cage is so bad in it, but I think it was how he was directed. Most of the actors were over the top, like they were channeling James Cagney.I watched The Cotton Club when it first came out and it was fun to watch it decades later.

The script for this film has some trite moments, but the film is very stylish, well produced, and features some highlights that are very effective. Critics were often critical of Richard Gere's work in this one, but I thought the role was well handled. The choreography, particularly the tour-de-force tap dancing of Gregory and Maurice Hines is unforgettable, particularly when utilized to establish a rhythm for the movie's violent climax.....an masterpiece of film editing, reminiscent of numerous highlights from "The Godfather" movies. Some Italian subtitles (translations of newspaper headlines) are distracting, but, at this time, there is no copy available which is as good as this handsome Region B Blu Ray edition.

As a Coppola fan, I bought this blu-ray hoping for the best that it was region free and that I could play it in my Region A blu-ray player. I wasn't dissapointed. It is region free and you can buy it safe. Don't pay attention to the back cover that states Region B only. (The same happened with the Umbrella's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and THE BLOB, which I bought.) By the way, very good movie, THE COTTON CLUB.

the cotton club is a great movie. part gangster, part musical, part comedy, part drama, something for everyone! highly recommended for all who like to be entertained. sixties aficiandos will remember fred gywnne from the old comedy show, "the munsters" now cast as a big scary gangster in owney madden's irish mob. richard gere and gregory hines give stellar performances, and boy can mr gere blow that horn! lol the dancing girls will knock your socks off, and the story line is very realistic. tradgedy mixed with comedy, sort of like life itself. don't want to spoil the ending/plot, but i must confess i was a little envious of dixie dwyer and his flapper girl riding off into the sunset on the love train. lol, enjoy it over and over again. peace.

In the intervening 35 years, i've become FAR more conversant with the original gangster movies, and thus, Cotton Club comes off MUCH better! My dad and i saw it opening day,and i just remember it as being one of those movies where the parts were better than the whole. Boy,was i naive.

I love this movie and I am estatic to have it on Blu-ray. I have been a fan of James Remar since I saw him plsy Dutch Schultz.

Doesn't work in dvd player BAD

This DVD is defective. I have played this DVD of The Cotton Club on 6 DVD players. On one, it kept scrambling. Then it would play for a few minutes, pause, scramble, and play again until it finally just went blank. On the last 5 DVD players, it would not load at all. I purchased it in February and held on to it until I was ready to view it for a paper I am writing. Now, I have to ask for an extension from the editor as I wait for the movie to arrive from interlibrary loan. What is puzzling to me is that it came wrapped as if it was brand new, but this DVD is defective. Plus, I am out $12+ I will not use this vendor again.

The cover art is sub-Pirate quality. The picture quality is very grainy and resembles an up-scaled DVD. Although the description says this version is available in English, the actual audio options are Spanish, Spanish with Spanish subtitles or English with Spanish subtitles that you can’t switch off. Vendor refunded the cost of the Blu-ray but refused to accept that there was no English version without Spanish subtitles, so I was clobbered for postage both ways. Not impressed.I am only marking the Spanish Blu-Ray down as I love the film. It has a slight identity crisis in that it doesn't know whether it's a Gangster movie with singing and dancing or a musical with gangsters. The big regret is that Coppola has remastered and expanded this movie into a 2 1/2 our epic which adds more performances and dancing. Sadly it's unlikely we will ever see this version outside small film festivals.

Stunning music and convincing period gangland backdrop make this something of an underrated movie. In the absence of a restored (rumoured to feature extra footage by Coppola) bluray ever being released, this Italian bluray may offer little in the way of extras but it plays fine on uk players and the quality is a definite improvement on previous dvd available. Recommended!

I love this film. Had it on video and had watched it so much it was wearing out so bought the DVD to replace it. An utterly brilliant film with great music and humour. Well worth it.

Often criticized, The Cotton Club remains a very stylish recreation of the thirties, balancing carefully on the thin line between parody and homage.The central story about a cornet player and a gangster's moll runs along nicely without being spectacular. But a few things make The Cotton Club memorable. The singing and dancing is never less than sensational. Rather than go for a lavish Moulin Rouge-type approach, Coppola recreates what it must have been like in reality to play in a small club in Harlem. The production values (decors, costumes etc) are lush.This brings me to the really interesting part: although it's not really part of the main story, the sub-text about black people coming to terms with the inequality of the time is far more interesting as a dramatic motor. As the cast (that includes Nicholas Cage, Laurence Fishbourne and a stunning cast of secondary characters) is just about half and half, the interplay between their stories is fascinating.I'll dip into this one again for the many song and dance routines.

Excellent film about the famous cotton club and the surrounding violence of that time in New York.First rate dance routines,earl hines is a revelation with his brother as the Williams brothers,wonderful music courtesy of Cab Calloway,Duke Ellington et al all mixed in with the gangster life going on around them at the same time and all based on real events.Good angles on the race issue too e.g black peoples club and stars but white only clientel and even in their own club certain areas were out of bounds.Highly recommended.