What a waste of my time!!!

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I remember going to see this movie when it first came out. It's sort of a formula picture with the struggle to get to the top, the fame/power corrupting, the fall, then the redemption. Two things made this work, first the musical numbers were very good. This is a very difficult thing, making a movie about hit records and having to write original music that sounds like a hit. The movie shows how much work goes into the preparation and planning required to make it. This aspect was surprisingly good.The main thing that holds your attention though is Ray Sharkey. I just saw it again on Encore. I knew Sharkey was good in the part but looking back now I can see he is very good. It almost seems that Bruce Willis copied Sharkey's style from this movie in several of his own. I could see Sharkey in the "Die Hard" movies. He brings so much energy to the part and is totally believable as wise guy with a quick temper.When I first saw this movie I thought Sharkey was going to have a great career. I don't know if it was the drugs, a poor choice of parts or both but he really had talent and charisma. If he hadn't gotten hooked on drugs and contracted AIDS he could have been a Joe Pesci if not a Jr Robert DeNiro. If you think I am making this up get a copy of this movie and take a look. He did show flashes of what he could do in some television work but just couldn't keep it together for any length of time.If you have any interest in the pop music of the late fifties early sixties or just want to watch what a talented actor can do with a formula picture take a look at this.

Nearly a quarter-century before directing Jamie Foxx in "Ray," director Taylor Hackford paid his first respects to the power of early rock 'n' roll in this equally galvanizing, sadly overlooked film.It's the end of the 1950s, and struggling songwriter/impresario Vinnie Vacarri (Ray Sharkey) is trying to find someone he can mold into a rock singer, filling the void left by Elvis Presley's Army stint. He discovers a young sax player who has the right look and voice, and recasts him as teen sensation "Tommy D." Now Vinnie is riding high. Trouble is, Tommy's a creep and Vinnie's hungry to prove he can do it again. Can he, or will he lose everything he has trying?"Success has no conscience, Vincent," says his father, a rich man who abandoned him and his mother. Vinnie doesn't believe that, though, and unlike 99% of the agents and promoters you see in movies, he actually tries to do right by his young stars and their fans. Sharkey challenges himself and us by essaying a character who's compelling for both his slickness and decency. His control freakiness may grate, but he's hard not to like, especially as Sharkey plays him with such electricity he comes through the screen.Sharkey won a Golden Globe, and deserved an Oscar nomination at least for what should have been a breakthrough performance. Whether he's paying payola to a crooked DJ or saving Tommy D from an underage fling, Sharkey does it with panache and charm. He lights a mean cigarette but lets us in with his eyes, "the windows" as Vinnie calls them.Of course, the irony of Vinnie is that unlike most agents, he actually has more talent than his stars. He just doesn't have the right look and knows it, so he must convince others to play the roles he creates. Maybe the film suffers a bit from the fact it's the thinly-disguised autobiography of Bob Marucci, the real-life impresario who broke Fabian and Frankie Avalon. I'm sure Fabian and Frankie would have different takes on who made who, but Sharkey's so consistently involving and engaging you don't care.In addition to Sharkey, "The Idolmaker" is lifted by a killer soundtrack by Jeff Barry that is blended with some fantastic staging, lighting, and dancing. Like Poseidon-3 noted in another review here, the songs are hardly vintage-sounding, fed through a 1980 pop sensibility that utilizes more chord changes and orchestration than the teen-idol songs of Fabian's day. That's actually a good thing, especially as the score begins with the coy but catchy "Here Is My Love" and keeps getting better from there. It's a shame the songs never found a home on radio, or they'd be remembered still. Yes, "The Idolmaker" flopped in theaters in late 1980, but so did "The Jazz Singer" and "Xanadu," and they had hits. What kept out the brilliant Spectorized "However Dark The Night," with Peter Gallagher's terrific vocal performance? Gallagher's great on screen, too as Vacarri's second project, kind of doing Mick Jagger as lost choirboy and giving Vinnie his greatest star. If this film had come out just three years later, when MTV was established, Gallagher's looks alone would have sold the film.The plot is the film's weakness, not bad but labored. There's a romantic subplot between Sharkey and Tovah Feldshuh that goes on too long, as when she asks "Where are you, Vincent? I'm looking for the human being and I can't find him anywhere." Maybe if the film didn't stack the deck so heavily in Vacarri's favor, those trite words might have a little more resonance, instead of feeling tacked on to create the impression of moral ambiguity in Vinnie's character.Frankly, Sharkey doesn't need the help. You watch him here and wonder why he didn't turn out to be one of the 1980s' biggest stars, instead of a drug casualty lost to AIDS. Maybe he had too much passion to keep inside. But here, for this one film, he found the perfect channel to let it all out. "The Idolmaker" is a fitting monument that way, as Sharkey centers an entertaining spectacle worth your time.

Late, great character actor Ray Sharkey gives a sensationally dynamic, throughly brazen and completely on the money bravura performance as shrewd dude late 50's rock'n'roll hustler/producer/ manager/songwriter/all-around shyster sleaze-ball extraordinaire Vinnie Vacarri, who's got everything but the requisite good lucks to cut it as a teen scream sensation. Resigned to this bitter fact, Vinnie instead decides to groom callow, but promising handsome lads Paul Land and Peter Gallagher into fluffy bubblegum teen pop idol sensations so he can vicariously live through their monumental successes. Vinnie transforms raunchy slob Land into an irresistibly dreamy, well-mannered Adonis. Vinnie pulls off an even more miraculous metamorphosis with Gallagher, a klutzy busboy who under Vinnie's masterful tutelage becomes a devastatingly hunky stuff muffin on wheels. Alas, Vinnie's ego and over-controlling nature skyrocket along with his newfound popularity and teeming bank account, leading to inevitable conflicts and Vinnie's painful downward spiral back into the dismal obscurity he started from.Loosely based on the real-life story of legendary South Philadelphia pop music impresario Robert Marcucci (the man who discovered both Fabian and Frankie Avalon; he gets a "technical adviser" credit for this picture), Taylor Hackford's terrifically tart rock bio is more notable not for what it does, but for what it bravely and commendably avoids doing. Although set in the much sentimentalized 50's, Hackford's boldly unromanticized movie certainly isn't some plasticky rosy nostalgia piece. Instead Hackford, working from Edward Di Lorenzo's smart, cheeky, astutely observed script, offers a tantalizingly tawdry warts'n'all depiction of the blithely amoral behind-the-scenes music business wheeling and dealing: payola, groupies, wheedling, backstabbing and betrayal, sneaky advanced promotion tactics, rock music as strictly a hot marketable commodity to make money off of -- y'know, all that tasty lowdown dirty stuff that goes on backstage that the record-buying public isn't supposed to know about.Moreover, the songs and on-stage performances are both top-notch: Veteran songwriter Jeff Barry penned the bouncy, moony, incredibly perky and catchy tunes while Denny Terrio did the vital, mildly lewd, daringly impertinent and provocative dance choreography. The acting is across-the-board excellent as well: Land and Gallagher (the latter also does his own strikingly fine singing) are amiably wide-eyed and convincing, while Joe Pantoliano as Vinnie's loyal songwriter best friend, Tovah Feldshuh as a canny, demanding teen mag editor, Olympia Dukakis as Vinnie's loving mom, Richard Bright (Al Neri in all three "Godfather" films) as Ray's ineffectual loser uncle, and everyone's favorite Brady girl Maureen McCormick as an eminently desirable teen zine writer acquit themselves superbly in supporting roles. Ultimately, it's nonetheless still Ray Sharkey's show all the way: forcefully projecting a certain low cunning, oozing scintillating reptilian charisma from every vibrantly oily pore, dressed to the nines in sharp suits, perpetually on the make and furiously talking a dazzling line in rhythmic rat-a-tat-tat pitter-patter bulls**t, Sharkey's spot-on, positively electrifying characterization deservedly nabbed him a Golden Globe Award and now serves as a sterling reminder of just how remarkably tragic his untimely AIDS-related death truly is. Rest in peace Mr. Sharkey and thank you for all your wonderful performances.

This movie is one of my all time favorites. Ray Sharkey and Peter Gallagher were amazing. The songs were great, in fact I use to own the sound track. To this day I know the words to every song. It was clear from the first time I saw the movie that Peter would go on to have longevity. I wish I knew what happened to Paul Land. He made a really good Tommy Dee. I saw the movie the other day and I still find myself having as much fun as I did when I saw it on Cable in 1981. Oh yeah Joe Pantiliano (Bad Boys, Sopranos) made a lasting impression as well. Great acting, fun for all. It is a must see for anyone with a dream. ( smile)