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Movies / On DVD / Rumble Fish
Rumble Fish

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Rumble Fish (1983)

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68 %
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Reviews Counted:22

Fresh:15

Rotten:7

Average Rating:5.9/10

Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Francis Ford Coppola directs this stunning adaptation of the S.E. Hinton novel about coming of age in urban Oklahoma. Rusty James (Matt Dillon) is a troubled juvenile delinquent trying to live up... Francis Ford Coppola directs this stunning adaptation of the S.E. Hinton novel about coming of age in urban Oklahoma. Rusty James (Matt Dillon) is a troubled juvenile delinquent trying to live up to the legendary reputation of his older brother, Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke). One night, while Rusty James and his friends Smokey (Nicolas Cage), Steve (Vincent Spano), and B.J. (Christopher Penn) are involved in a rumble, Motorcycle Boy returns home from California after a two-month absence. Rusty James gets stabbed and Motorcycle Boy saves him, but their alcoholic father (Dennis Hopper) is oblivious to the brothers' lives and only Rusty James's girlfriend, Patty (Diane Lane), seems to care about him. After Motorcycle Boy reveals some family secrets about their mother, both brothers become determined to escape their lives or die trying. The film is shot in black and white except for the shots of the rumble fish--colorful Siamese fighting fish--that provoke Motorcycle Boy into desperate actions. Drummer Stewart Copeland (formerly of the rock group the Police) composed the film's score. [More]

Starring: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Dennis Hopper, Diane Lane

Starring: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Dennis Hopper, Diane Lane, Chris Penn, Laurence Fishburne, Tom Waits, Tracey Walter, Nicolas Cage

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Screenwriter: Francis Ford Coppola
Producer: Fred Roos, Doug Claybourne
Composer: Stewart Copeland

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Sep 13, 2005

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Rumble Fish

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1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Coppola's recent viewing seems to have been German silent films of the '20s, so he has decided to coat the whole enterprise in a startling Expressionist style, which is very arresting but hardly appropriate to the matter in hand.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Time Out

Visually stunning but dramatically inert coming-of-age tale

comment Comment
03/24/05
Daniel Eagan
Daniel Eagan
Film Journal International

No review available.

comment Comment
02/22/04
Daniel M. Kimmel
Daniel M. Kimmel
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

The action is clotted and murky, and Coppola obviously hasn't bothered to clarify it for the members of his cast, who wander through the film with expressions of winsome, honest befuddlement.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A number of the images in Rumble Fish are more memorable than the film is as a whole, sometimes for the wrong reasons.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/21/03
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Overwrought and overthought.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
12/11/07
Variety Staff
Variety Staff
Variety

No review available.

comment Comment
07/03/03
Walter Chaw
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central

Give it a try. It might change your life.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
07/30/03
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A bit too over-stylized to allow for any great involvement, the most interesting part of this is spotting the young actors before they became stars -- most notably nephew-of-the-director Nicolas Cage.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
08/01/07
Empire Magazine

Beautiful.

comment Comment
03/04/08
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

A seminal work in teen films, shot appropriately in B/W (except for the fish).

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

No review available.

comment Comment
06/19/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Art for adolscents, tricked out in quasi-seriousness. Once hip, now amusing.

comment Comment
06/29/04
Jake Euker
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)

An iconic outsider of 1980s teen cinema, Rumble Fish remains an intriguing anomaly on Coppola's chequered CV.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
05/24/03
Matt Glasby
Matt Glasby
Channel 4 Film

No review available.

comment Comment
08/15/03
Michael Szymanski
Michael Szymanski
Zap2it.com

No review available.

comment Comment
02/29/08
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Goatdog's Movies

No review available.

comment Comment
07/29/02
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

No review available.

comment Comment
06/10/04
Rebecca Murray
Rebecca Murray
About.com

If Rumble Fish fails as a traditional movie about real people, it is beguiling as an exercise in hallucinatory style.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment Comment
12/11/07
Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is a movie you are likely to hate, unless you can love it for its crazy, feverish charm.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
09/01/05
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating)
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Latest News for Rumble Fish

January 25, 2006: SUNDANCE: "Darwin" Actor Chris Penn Found Dead
Character actor Chris Penn was found dead Tuesday at a Santa Monica apartment. He was 43 years old. More...

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