DVD REVIEW: STREETS OF FIRE

Shane | 20 December 2017 | Reply

DVD REVIEW: STREETS OF FIRE
Shock Entertainment
August 2017
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
6 1/2 /10

Co-written and directed by Walter Hill, 1984’s Streets Of Fire suffers from the same thing as a lot of fashion and music of the era: a vacuous fascination with the superficial, without proper time spent considering foundation or legacy.

It is undeniably enjoyable in parts, and without a doubt influential in some ways – noticably stylistically, and in the way Hill attempts (not always successfully) to blend rock n’ roll musical, film noir, neo-dystopian themes and comedy together.

Michael Pare stars as Tom Cody, a ex-soldier searching for his ex-girlfriend, rock singer Ellen Aim, played by Diane Lane, who has been kidnapped by biker gang leader Raven Shaddock, a cruel and convincing Willem Dafoe.

The problems start with Pare and Lane’s performances – rigid and unconvincing – and chemistry – none. Throw in a ridiculously inappropriate turn as Aim’s manager and new boyfriend Billy Fish by Rick Moranis, a bewidering style that is late ’50s New York meets ’80s pop video clip, and a plot which simply doesn’t hold up under close scrutiny, and there are a lot of cringable moments.

But as previously stated, there is something to this, despite all its problems.

Plans were quickly shelved to make the originally planned trilogy of films, but Pare did eventually reprise the role in 2008’s Road To Hell, which we will have to dig up and watch, if only to see if any redemption was found twenty-some years later.