Francis Ford Coppola is considered one of the greatest directors of all time due to The Godfather Trilogy as well as Apocalypse Now but once the 80's began his films started to decline in quality.
Granted he made some great films after his masterworks of the 1970's Peggy Sue Got Married, Tucker the man and his Dream and Bram Stoker's Dracula were all great efforts.
However outside of those his filmography after 1979 with Apocalypse Now was a mixed bag.
I was interested in this one mainly for the cast including Fredric Forrest whom I had loved in Lonesome Dove, Terri Garr of course in Tootsie and Raul Julia.
Coppola has created a fake and realistic looking Las Vegas in this film that is simply amazing, and the choreography and cinematography are fantastic.
Unfortunately in the script co-written by him the biggest problem is the blandness of the story as well as characters who are hard to identify with and care about.
The love story here is unoriginal and uninteresting as a whole and Coppola uses a music soundtrack with songs set to the mood of what the characters are feeling.
That definitely is an original touch but the songs seem distracting and dont really add anything significant to the plot.
Forrest, Garr and Julia do their very best with the script they were given.
I think if the story itself had been more original with better characters this would be just as good of a film as The Godfather or Apocalypse Now in the directors filmography.
Unfortunately it was a huge flop that bankrupted Coppola and he spent the 80's and 90's making as many movies as possible to recover financially.
It's not the directors worst film. That spot of dishonor goes to Jack Coppola's 1996 dramedy with Robin Williams, but its definitely a film that has merits and some excellent creativity but just needed a better overall story.
Not a terrible film by any means. I can admire the creativity that went into the set design. If you're a fan of Coppola's films or any of these actors I would say it is worth at least one watch for its strengths. The story overall is pretty underwhelming but there are some things to admire all the same.
Coppola definitely has made better but he has also made worse which is why I feel this film is in the middle in terms of quality in his filmography.
Granted he made some great films after his masterworks of the 1970's Peggy Sue Got Married, Tucker the man and his Dream and Bram Stoker's Dracula were all great efforts.
However outside of those his filmography after 1979 with Apocalypse Now was a mixed bag.
I was interested in this one mainly for the cast including Fredric Forrest whom I had loved in Lonesome Dove, Terri Garr of course in Tootsie and Raul Julia.
Coppola has created a fake and realistic looking Las Vegas in this film that is simply amazing, and the choreography and cinematography are fantastic.
Unfortunately in the script co-written by him the biggest problem is the blandness of the story as well as characters who are hard to identify with and care about.
The love story here is unoriginal and uninteresting as a whole and Coppola uses a music soundtrack with songs set to the mood of what the characters are feeling.
That definitely is an original touch but the songs seem distracting and dont really add anything significant to the plot.
Forrest, Garr and Julia do their very best with the script they were given.
I think if the story itself had been more original with better characters this would be just as good of a film as The Godfather or Apocalypse Now in the directors filmography.
Unfortunately it was a huge flop that bankrupted Coppola and he spent the 80's and 90's making as many movies as possible to recover financially.
It's not the directors worst film. That spot of dishonor goes to Jack Coppola's 1996 dramedy with Robin Williams, but its definitely a film that has merits and some excellent creativity but just needed a better overall story.
Not a terrible film by any means. I can admire the creativity that went into the set design. If you're a fan of Coppola's films or any of these actors I would say it is worth at least one watch for its strengths. The story overall is pretty underwhelming but there are some things to admire all the same.
Coppola definitely has made better but he has also made worse which is why I feel this film is in the middle in terms of quality in his filmography.