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.

A classic love story in the 50s style. Great cars,great music and everyone's cool. The soundtrack is the best of any movie. Numerous stars before they were. Classic if you like blues brothers, or any of the movies that take you somewhere this it. Getting harder to find but well worth the time when you find it. Tell em chemie-82406 sent you

It's a very simple little story, I don't particularly like Michael Pare, Diane Lane & Rick Moranis in the lead roles or the 80's music BUT this is one hell of a tight and fast moving tale, catching its own reflection in the neon drenched puddles as it goes. Fantastic set design and a sure camera draw one into this near apocalyptic vision as the streets burn and that music roars away like some death rattle. Amy Madigan is very good as potential sidekick to Pare (the part was written for a guy and apparently the film was the first of a proposed trilogy - abandoned when this visionary, ahead of its time movie flopped) and Willem Dafoe as good as ever despite a rotten costume. Influential and highly underrated.

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.