Eddie and the Cruisers Movie Review

The coming attractions trailer for Eddie and the Cruisers was so awful that I almost didn't see it theatrically. Apparently, there were quite a few other people who felt the same way because Eddie and the Cruisers didn't attract much attention until it hit the video stores. Then it became so famous that the soundtrack became a hot item, and a 1989 sequel was filmed in Canada with Michael Pare and Matthew Laurance (but none of the other original participants). Anyway, you either like this movie or you don't. Ellen Barkin (as reporter Maggie Foley) doesn't. She is quoted as saying, “(It's) the only movie I've made that really upsets me. I hate it. And now it's out on video, so it never dies. People come up to me and say, ‘You were great in (it).’ And I say, ‘Sorry, that wasn't me.’” She says all those mean things about THIS movie and not one squawk about Mary Lambert's Siesta??? Aaargh…. I enjoy Eddie and the Cruisers. Barkin IS great in it. Pare was then at a fairly confident point in his career when you could actually see how Eddie Wilson could become the focal point of a cult. Tom Berenger as outsider Frank Ridgeway gives the viewers someone with whom to identify during Eddie and the Cruisers’ many inhouse fights. And Joe Pantoliano is especially good as Doc, the group-manager-turned-dee-jay. Another probable factor in the film's popularity is the fact that, a dozen years after Jim Morrison's death, there were many fans who wished he were still around to create music; the script here plays around with that wish fulfillment fantasy quite a bit. You could do a lot worse on a rainy night than to rent this well-acted little film from 1983.

1983 (PG) 90m/C Tom Berenger, Michael Pare, Ellen Barkin, Joe Pantoliano, Matthew Laurance, Helen Schneider, David Wilson, Michael “Tunes” Antunes, Joe Cates, John Stockwell, Barry Sand, Howard Johnson, Robin Karfo, Rufus Harley, Bruce Brown, Louis D'Esposito, Michael Toland, Bob Garrett, Joanne Collins; D: Martin Davidson; W: Martin Davidson, Arlene Davidson; C: Fred Murphy; M: John Cafferty. VHS, LV, 8mm, Closed Caption