not as good as all the hype

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

This movie has everything. Suspense, love, great music.

Released in 1983 and directed by Jon Amiel, "Eddie and the Cruisers" is a rock drama about a TV reporter (Ellen Barkin) who picks up the story of a legendary early 60's rock band that prematurely ended when their charismatic leader, Eddie Wilson (Michael Paré), died when his Chevy went off a bridge, although his body was never recovered. The newswoman interviews the living band members 18 years after their heyday and tries to track down the missing tapes to their never-released avant-garde second album. The band members are Frank (Tom Berenger), Joann (Helen Schneider), Sal (Matthew Laurance), Kenny (David Wilson) and Wendell (Michael "Tunes" Antunes), while their bullcrappin' manager is Doc (Joe Pantoliano).This was the inspiration for 2009's "The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll" but both movies have their distinctions, as well as pros and cons. "Eddie" is about a band from the early 60s whereas "The Perfect Age" is about a Guns N' Roses-type band whose heyday was in the 80s. Each film starts out shaky as the story is set-up, but they progressively get better. Both films feature charismatic frontmen with diametrically opposed styles, but also very similar when you think about it. Each feature revealing chats amongst the characters with "Eddie" shining in the final act when it unveils Eddie's youthful place of solitude, Palace of Depression (which is an actual place in southern New Jersey, Vineland; a building made of junk built by the eccentric George Daynor, a former Alaskan gold miner who lost his fortune in the Crash of '29). Growing-up, my gang had several hidden spots where we'd meet, each with a name known only to us; I even had a personal "My Place" in the woods behind my parents house on a lake where I'd often go for private reflection. When I was 15 I planned to commit suicide there, but thankfully didn't go through with it. The movie gets points for including such an existential element.Was Eddie still alive or did he die in 1964? The ending reveals the truth and the way it's done is superlative.So which movie is better, "Eddie" or "The Perfect Age"? They both shoot for greatness and in some small ways attain it. Disregarding the rockin' performances, "Eddie" is more location-bound and therefore dramatically sedentary whereas "The Perfect Age" is a road movie in disguise and therefore seemingly more eventful. In my opinion the music's better in the latter, but then I prefer the heavier side of rock/metal over the Bruce-Springsteen-in-the-early 60s style of "Eddie" (which is good for what it is, don't get me wrong). "Eddie" stands out for including the Palace of Depression angle and contains superb lines in the final act, but "The Perfect Age" soars in its own way, like Spyder & Eric's brouhaha in the rain and the blues bar sequence (featuring cameos by legends Sugar Blue, Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith and Bob Stroger). Then there's the powerful climatic scene in "Perfect Age" at Spyder's ritzy mansion with Jane's Addiction's "Three Days" playing in the background, which just so happens to rank with the all-time best cinematic scenes utilizing rock songs, like the close of 1998's "Buffalo '66" with Yes' incredible "Heart of the Sunrise." The songs by the fictitious Eddie and the Cruisers were composed/performed by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. The main song, "On the Dark Side," became a #1 hit for the band and "Tender Years" was a minor one. Most of the cast weren't musicians, although Matthew Laurance (Sal) learned how to play bass for the movie. Only Michael "Tunes" Antunes, the sax player for the Beaver Brown Band, and Helen Schneider (Joann) were professional musicians.Speaking of whom, I can't close without mentioning how Helen really shines here. No, she's no Meryl Streep, but she's great for her role in "Eddie." You could say she's The Perfect Rage of Rock 'n' Roll (sorry, that was just DUMB). I should also add that it's interesting to see Berenger, Barkin and Paré when they were so young.The film runs 95 minutes and was shot entirely in New Jersey with the exception of the college sequence, which was filmed just across the Pennsylvania border at Haverford College.GRADE: B+

SPOILER ALERT I don't understand all the 10-star ratings. The movie is OK but the problem I have is with the music. First of all, Eddie is still stuck in the '50s, with his tough guy look, cut-off t-shirt, and music. The big problem I have is that the music from the 2nd (unreleased) album is so '80s! How do you make this story believable when it purports how ahead of his time Eddie was, going from horn-based frat rock to something considered "weird sounds" and progressive for the time. No way, I don't buy it. The writers of this film should have made that supposed transition of his music (they called it being "ahead of his time") something harder but still with a 60s mindset, lyrically and musically. Wow, what a stretch, Eddie has an 80s sound! The movie really portrays Eddie as a one-hit wonder, with that annoying "On The Dark Side" constantly popping up every 30 minutes or so. Lastly, the unreleased album was called "Seasons in Hell"? Come on, that is no 60s title! What's next, Eddie has long hair and bell bottoms too because "he was ahead of his time?" Why is everyone worshipping this one-hit wonder? They could have made these aspect of the movie a bit more believable.

This is one of my favorite small movies of all times. It draws off a lot of artistic partnerships for inspiration with its underlying theme of "words and music" and the seeming contradictions in life, art and relationships that go into making something beautiful and real. The characters are wonderfully rendered and the performances are pitch perfect. The music is haunting when it should be and always exciting to listen to. Eddie's struggle is the eternal struggle of the artist, who wants to be great, in contrast to his friend who suggests, "They're just some guys from Jersey". The ending is the perfect ending. The film, while not the perfect film (since a perfect film doesn't exist), is one of the few of which I actually own a copy. It you haven't seen "Eddie", I promise you, it's nothing that you think it is ... any more than "Eddie and the Cruisers" are "just some guys from Jersey".