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Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Brilliant and touching

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Streets of Fire (1984) *** (out of 4)Pop Queen Ellen Aim (Diane Lane) returns to her crap hometown to perform a benefit concert even though her manager Billy Fish (Rick Moranis) didn't want her to. Before long she is kidnapped by Raven Shaddock (Willem Dafoe), the leader of a motorcycle gang. The police can't do anything so Ellen's ex-boyfriend Tom Cody (Michael Pare) agrees to try and save her.Walter Hill's string of hits came to a crashing halt with STREETS OF FIRE but thankfully home video was right around the corner and the film eventually found it audiences and turned into a cult favorite. The film starts off with a title card call this a rock and roll fable set sometime during the future. What you've basically got here are elements of THE WARRIORS with a pinch of THE SEARCHERS thrown in but of course it's surrounded by a 50's rock and roll vibe.STREETS OF FIRE might not be the director's best film but it's certainly a good one and one with many fun elements to it. I think a lot of credit has to go to Hill and his eye as he certainly knows how to build up an atmosphere and make you feel the locations that you're in. As with THE WARRIORS, both films were set in an unknown future but the films don't look like science fiction movies or the type of futures that they offer. Instead the director creates his own little world and he does a wonderful job at it. The costume design and set design are wonderful and add to the entertainment as well.Another major plus are the performances including some future stars. Pare is wonderful in the lead role of the mercenary who agrees to take on this gang to get his former woman back. I really loved the laid back approach that Pare brought to the film and his comic timing, when needed, was also quite good. Lane is good in her role and Moranis adds some nice comic touches as well. Amy Madigan, Dafoe, Richard Lawson, Bill Paxton, Robert Townsend and Mykeltii Williamson are also good in their supporting parts.The film also benefits from a good rock and roll soundtrack that once again helps add to the film's look and style. There are certainly some flaws with the picture but for the most part Hill has created a very fun and entertaining mix of action, music and comedy.

Set in 50's Chicago, it's a story of a singer who is kidnapped by a biker gang off a stage in the middle of her concert in front of a thousand people. They almost break into a tap-dancing scene, but don't.Naturally, the police are hopeless, so the current boyfriend (her manager) hires the ex-boyfriend to go rescue her for $10,000, because of course you do. Note, he only gets hired after her sister gets him back in town, which she does by WRITING HIM A LETTER. HOW LONG WAS THIS GIRL IN CAPTIVITY FOR?Armed with a shotgun that's accurate as a sniper rifle, he takes out the gang and rescues her, and naturally they all head back to the exact same place where she got kidnapped, because the gang, who are hunting them, will never suspect that. They almost break out in song, but don't.But the ex doesn't want her in harms way when the bikers come for revenge, so he punches her in the face knocking her out, because of course that's what you do, and tells the sidekick to get her out of town.The biker gang turn up for revenge, so it's a one-on-one fight between the ex and the biker leader. 3 minutes later the girl turns up, so what was the point in punching her in the face? The perfect time for the big dance number, but it got cut.She wants to get back with the ex but he thinks the emotionally abusive band manager is better for her, so he leaves. The end.Paxton plays the part of bartender, who gets knocked out twice (once by the bad guys when he tries to save the girl, once by the sidekick who then steals a bottle of tequila from his bar), but rallies the town at the end to arm up and defend themselves from the biker gang. He's the real hero.Starring Kathy Griffin, as uncredited person in the crowdOlivia Brown, her 2 lines "Can I help you? {Coffee.} "Cream or sugar?", then gets on Miami Vice for 111 episodesMarine Jahan, a dancer in a bar, the dancing body double for Jennifer Beals in FlashdanceElixabeth Daily, as random on the street who sort of just tags along because why not when you're being hunted by a biker gang, you know her voice as Buttercup (Powerpuff Girls) and Tommy Pickles (Rugrats)Mykelti Williamson as a harmony singer (needs his insulin in Con Air and "You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo...")Rick Rossovich (previously in The Lords of Discipline with Paxton) Deborah Van Valkenburgh, I mention her only because she's been in The Warriors, one of the best movies everWillem Dafoe, who plays the leader of the biker gang wearing shiny latex overalls. All. The. Time. If you thought his Green Goblin was over the top, you haven't seen nothing yet.Rick Moranis, the unfunny versionDiane Lane aka Martha Kent from the Batman moviesMichael Pare, this was going to be his big break, this was supposed to be a trilogy, but it bombed. Oh well, he's still got The Greatest American Hero

I honestly did enjoy the film and its soundtrack. I loved the songs "TONIGHT IS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE YOUNG" and "ONE BAD STUD" because they both were just powerful, danceable and just marvelous to hear. The soundtrack reminds me a mix of "Blues Brothers" and "Rock of Ages". Now I have to say, Michael Paré and Willem Dafoe didn't have good wardrobe.I thought the brown shirt Pare had was just disgusting on him, hes not playing a farmer for god sake! As well with Defoe having no shirt on and a black thing around him, he also looked like a farmer guy rather than a greaser. Also the clothes he wore as being the bad guy, looked really too small for him!Good movie, you can't get the songs out of your head because they are just so brilliant! Watch it if you haven't seen it, its really good and has amazing stars in it!

Wait, was that the future? Or the past? Or the Café 50s even Elijah Wood wouldn't play baby games in?Admittedly, in this terrible movie, I loved the music! I know, sooo 80s, but sometimes didn't sound like it. Or maybe I'm just an old-timer. Eh, it was good music in a bad film.At the four-way intersection of Streets of Fire are the four worst aspects of this "movie:" bad acting, horrifying script, shoddy editing and laughable scene transitions. In the middle of the intersection are the WTF moments, like the male/female go-go dancer, the "Oh, I guess they blew a tire" missing scene or the sucker punch to safety. The only pedestrian is the one that creepily stares at his ex on stage for an incredibly long time.Actually, though I just ruined a part of the "climax," that's a common theme during this: so many very long segments that either made zero sense or should've been cut all together. One of the funniest was the over long rescue of the princess chapter that ends with the "good" guys getting away…for-evah…always worrying about being followed. In normal movies, or I guess in life, yeah they would be easily followed. Nope. Some rogue ex-military dude is hired to save his thankless ex from unmotivated non-gay, gay kidnappers in leather chaps. When he does save the soulless singer ex-girlfriend, the Queen B(iker) merely threatens to come get him, but I guess in a civilized way? He/she needn't worry about the round-the-clock, 2-person police force that wouldn't know the law if it were written on the cue cards they obviously used.There's barely a character to cling to, or anyone with an ounce of charisma sans the non-lesbian, lesbian McCoy. She's pretty badass. Everyone else was there for a paycheck. Lucky for them, most of their careers weren't affected by this rubbish. I am divided if I should recommend this. On the positive, (again) the music's great and there are so many outrageous scenes that it almost qualifies this as a So-Bad-It's-Good flick. But, flipping the coin, it's a lazy "action" movie that has no clue what decade it's in and feels like a 2-hour film with a half-hour of crucial plot points cut out.I know! Just YouTube (or buy, you cheap bastard) the soundtrack. You'll hear all the good songs without the crap these filmmakers put in-between the music.***Final thoughts: I only watched this for that great How Did This Get Made? podcast where they talk about bad movies usually for about as long as the movie itself. I don't think I ever even heard of this movie and spent most of the movie staring at the singer of the story, Ellen Aim(less) and trying to picture the Diane Lane I know of from more modern and better films, like Under the Tuscan Sun and Man of Steel. Weird to see her not at all looking like her.