The greatest movie ever made..!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

A box office bomb at the time of it's release, and as flawed of a film as it is, it's one that's always stuck with me. With the subtitle "A Rock & Roll Fable," this film tells the story of singer Diane Lane returning to her hometown for one performance, only to be kidnapped by Willem Defoe's biker gang. That's when Deborah Van Valkenburgh sends a wire to Lane's old flame, her brother, Michael Pare as Tom Cody, a mercenary for hire, shows up from parts unknown to rescue her. It's the type of stripped down, no-nonsense story that writer/director Walter Hill ("The Driver," "Southern Comfort," "Undisputed," etc.) excelles at, but what made this film so memorable for me was stylized setting and genre mashup, mixing elements of action, musical, and juvenile delinquent films. I remember Hill saying he was trying to make the type of film he would have loved at a kid. The film features cars, fashions, music, and locations that look straight out of "Blackboard Jungle" or "The Cool and the Crazy," but with a neon soaked 1980s twist. In many ways, "Streets of Fire" feels like a stylized extension of Hill's earlier film "The Warriors," which at once felt gritty and realistic while also had an unreal aspect to it. "Streets of Fire" takes the visual stylistics of "The Warriors" to the next level, but instead of a Homeric Odyssey, this film is more of a fairy tale with greasers. 18-year old Diane Lane, in what was probably her first glamorous adult role, is amazing as Ellen Aim. She's strong, gorgeous, and overcomes Hill's usual misogyny. Her singing had to be dubbed, but she looks great on stage during the musical numbers. Incidentally, Stevie Nicks wrote all of the Ellen Aims songs. The villain of the picture, Willem Dafoe as biker gang leader Raven Shaddock, without question steals the movie and every scene he's in. At this point in his career, Dafoe was a complete unknown and his only lead role was Katherine Bigelow's little seen "The Loveless" (where he also played a bike gang leader), but it's so clear from his performance, even when playing what's essentially a comic book villain, he's a talent to be reckoned with. It's also a lot of fun that Dafoe's sidekick/number two/lead henchmen is played by Lee Ving, the harsh voiced lead singer for the seminal punk band FEAR. There's also a early appearance by Robert Townsend as a backup singer. Which brings us to the films major weakness, which is a laconic and lifeless performance by Michael Pare in the lead. Pare looks the part, tall, dark, handsome, but lacks the charisma to pull off a hero the film needed. When we needed a Steve McQueen or a James Dean, we end up with a Tab Hunter or a Troy Donahue. Pare is not terrible, but he's not what the film needed. Still, the music, the 50s/80s production design, the strong cast (minus Pare), and that awesome climactic sledgehammer fight are terrific and enough to make this film something of a minor classic in my mind. Overall, this hybrid musical/comic book/1950s juvenile diligent picture/action film somehow manages to overcome it's shortcomings to remain worth watching and deserving of cult status. And if you needed to know, as I finish writing this review, I now have "I Can Dream About You" stuck in my head. FUN FACT! A low budget unofficial sequel called "Road to Hell" was made in 2008 with Pare not as Tom Cody, but as Cody, and Valkenburgh playing "Sister," and the Ellen Aim character now called Ellen Dream. Hill has no involvement in this spiritual sequel, but he had originally planned for there being a series of Tom Cody stories (a plan that was scuttled after the film's disappointing box office returns).

This was the first version of Matrix. I just love this movie. Motocyle gang and their leader The Raven. Diane Lane is great in role. Everything in this title is like a dream. We can really say that, now in 2017, the year of dreams come true. Whenever I see this movie it remindes me on my childhood and a place I come from. Sincerelly, yours Dushan Petrovic from Belgrade, Serbia.

I'm sorry, but films in the 1980s were pure entertainment. And by and large they were better than some of the offerings in the 70s, and certainly better than the films of the late 90s up to this day."Streets of Fire" is one of those "serious" films that you don't take too seriously. Like the copy says, it's a rock and roll fantasy. You'll go into this film and wonder where civilization went, and why the story and things in general unfold the way they do.And that's your first mistake. You're just supposed to go along with it for the pure adventure. And that's what this film is, an adventure.The cast is actually quite perfect for this, and it was cool seeing a YouTube clip and spotting Robert Townsend as one of the backup singers before he became a director in his own right.The music is a kind of 80s take on traditional 1950s rock and roll, but with some modern and electronic flares.The characters are from central casting, but work. The scenes are right out of Hollywood screen writing 101, but I think I remember my friend quoting director Walter Hill who said he wanted to put every movie cliché into this film. In an era of commercial film making when everyone was trying to top the other guy, when films like "The Right Stuff", "The Empire Strikes Back", and in particular for the year this film came out, "The Terminator", "Sixteen Candles" and "Ghostbusters" and others as the decade rolled on, it became harder and harder for film makers to top one another. But top they did, and Walter Hill really made a fine effort in showing what else could be done with commercial feature film making.And it works. One scene rolls into another, and we're taken on an adventure that's familiar in terms of general theme, but has an added twist of a place far away and unknown in spite of being tragically familiar all at once. When you make a movie, you have to have fun doing it so the audience can have fun. It's grueling work, but you do it because you want to please the people who are counting on you to tell a rocking tale. And that's what "Streets of Fire" does in spades. It's the kind of film that many a 1950's director, were they alive, would have liked to have made. It's that kind of movie. It's pure 80s.Enjoy.

Streets of FireThe best thing about being judge, jury and executioner is the three paychecks.Mind you, the merc in this action-musical is getting revenge pro bono.The head of a local gang (Willem Dafoe) kidnaps the singer (Diane Lane) of a new wave band at the exact time her solider-of-fortune ex-boyfriend (Michael Paré) returns home.To retrieve her, he must team with her new boyfriend (Rick Moranis) and another mercenary (Amy Madigan). But freeing the songstress is only half of the battle as a hammer fight is the only conclusion.A stylish blend of 1950s aesthetic and 1980s music, this cult hit from the ladder time period is in a class of its own. But a notable soundtrack and an indistinct era isn't enough to save the dull lead or the script's comic-bookish narrative.Furthermore, if you did blend the '50s with the '80s you would get McCarthyists with feathered bangs.Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca