Let's be realistic.

Better Late Then Never

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Shame on anybody who is trying to defend this absolute waste of studio money. Dennis Quaid - what happened, man? This movie sucks...real, real hard. The writing, the acting, the crappy lip-synching. I mean, is the story of Jerry Lee Lewis really worth telling? Ultra-fanatical bible belt redneck pianist marries his child cousin. Great - can I see a movie about someone interesting now? So sad that this is one of Trey Wilson's last acting jobs. That John Doe guy as Myra's dad was alright, though.

one reviewer here said Quaid "channeled" Jerry Lee...problem is, Jerry, still very much with us, thankfully, in 1989, was busy nursing a fifth of Bourbon at his club in Memphis > especially since JLL insisted on recording the soundtrack himself, no Quaid in imitation, there is no need for any mystical transference.having said all that...this film is okay for the young, or those who just want to enjoy the music and get an "idea" of his career, say from 1956 to 1966.Quaid's portrayal is (teenage) letter thin, Lee Lewis a real wild child who goes on impulse 24-7. no deep thinker...not the genius who found a way to reconcile musically, gospel and pop. he marries his 13 year old 2nd cousin because... he can. any thought about how a 23 year old can actually be *in love* with someone so young? no...he's just rockin' up a storm! I did enjoy the portrayals of Sun Record Owner and Music Visionary Sam Phillips' Brother Judd and Jerry Lee's cousin Jimmy (Reverend Jimmy Swaggart). production numbers look like MTV rejects.

A story about the early days of rock and roll. Add the user comments here, a wide mixture of views and detail that sometimes even support each other's views, and there is stuff here for me to piece together bits and pieces of further understandings about those early days. Get to watch it more, it also helps appreciation of that early music. A useful feature, it has legs, others help to give it more useful legs, it even has great balls of fire. * I purchased this as it is early Winona and that is a greater puzzle to me. I had thought that this was her at age 15, playing a 13, yet the feature date says age 17 to 18 and other comments say 18. Yet her look, coupled with her 14ish look in Lucas (1986), make 15 feel real. I would like to get to know production dates for this early stuff. In 1969 (1988) she looks so 18ish to me, In Heathers (1989) so 17ish, in Beatle Juice (1988) so 16ish. A fast-ish browse of fan sites did not uncover any reason to doubt the dates as the order in which these features were made. Some sites also include early reviews and what I have read goes along with that. Guess that I just have to accept that actors are actors, inhabiting different worlds and realities than what is obvious to me. * Sympathies to those growing up in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, etc in those days. It is very different to 50's England in many respects, but not so different in others. Lewis and Jimmy and the others will have found it to be going against the grain to actually find any worthwhile sense. Oh so different to now, oh so very much the same. Nothing like the tit for tat worlds shown by the Lizzie McGuire series 2001+, which is also big and great and scary if deliberately a trifle unreal.

Dennis Quaid struts around like a rooster in "Great Balls of Fire," a 1989 biopic about Jerry Lee Lewis, one of the great entertainers. Discovered by Sam Phillips, the man who discovered Elvis and Johnny Cash, Lewis came up the ranks quickly and was poised to become the King of Rock 'n' Roll when Elvis went into the Army. But the scandal that broke when it was revealed he was married to his 13-year-old cousin Myra (Winona Ryder) and was in fact a bigamist - which today would be shrugged off - just about ruined his career. Soon he was prone to violence on and off stage and imbibing in alcohol.I have always loved Jerry Lee Lewis' music, but the only thing I knew about him was that he married his cousin - so that will show you where all the publicity was focused. I had no idea that Jimmy Swaggert (played here by Alec Baldwin) was also his cousin. I was struck by the qualities he had in common with Elvis - they both were highly-charged performers with so much energy a stage couldn't hold them, both completely original, natural talents inspired by music they heard in their communities, and both were discovered by Sam Phillips. What each one was most of all was just like one of the kids that he sang to, who could pulsate, dance and let their hormones run wild with the music. Lewis remains today an electrifying performer with an unmistakable sound. His high gear "Great Balls of Fire," "Breathless," "High School Confidential," and of course, "Whole Lotta Shaking' Going' On" are unmatched.Now, how accurate was this film? Jerry Lee himself claims he never acted the way Dennis Quaid portrayed him in his life, though others say Quaid was right on. It's a little like Scottish people hearing a Scottish burr on an actor and saying, we don't talk like that when they do. I will quibble with the depiction of Sam Phillips as a snake oil salesman who, according to this script, "lost Elvis." Phillips didn't lose Elvis - his record company was too small to promote Elvis as he needed to be promoted, and Phillips badly needed the money Elvis' contract would bring. Elvis, Vernon and Gladys Presley thought they had it good - no one dreamed Elvis could accomplish what he did - so Sam Phillips could have kept Elvis with Sun for a longer period of time, but rather than stifling Presley's career, he let him go.Quaid does an excellent job as a thrilling performer who perhaps isn't the most likable person off stage - in fact, might be a little sleazy - and Ryder captures the teenage silliness beautifully. Baldwin doesn't get to do much but proselytize.The most interesting thing about "Great Balls of Fire" is its relevance today. Rock 'n' Roll was perceived as the way to complete degradation for teenagers and the performers were servants of the devil. Rap music is viewed the same way today. With rock 'n' roll, the road to degradation was a sexual one - swinging those hips and getting all charged up could only mean trouble. Today, with rap, it's the message of violence against women and attitudes towards them, the use of violence and foul language. In between, we had the schools ruling that no one could have a Beatles haircut. Maybe someday it will occur to somebody that many things can destroy a generation - war and drugs being two - but music doesn't seem to be one of them.