Bob Hoskins as the club owner and Fred Gwynne as his henchman certainly make their mark, while the Duke Ellington soundtrack is sheer bliss.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2025

The Cotton Club is basically The Godfather with tap dancing.

| Jan 11, 2025

Coppola, with his staccato imagery fragmenting the songs and dances, knocks the life out of the performers.

| Sep 13, 2023

The original theatrical version of The Cotton Club was a mess, but it was never a boring mess... But Encore is simply a better film, transforming a collection of moments into a strikingly concise whole.

| Apr 20, 2021

For all its visual pyrotechnics, [the film] probably adds up the sum of its parts to nothing more significant than the largely empty stylistics of One From the Heart, The Outsiders and Rumble Fish. But at least those parts are consistently attractive.

| Feb 10, 2020

This movie would have been ruined by good taste. It is spendthrift on every level but logic, and at times inane, yet a smashing entertainment.

| Feb 22, 2019

The Cotton Club is an expensive fiasco that meanders through the '20s and '30s with flimsy characters and a pointless plot.

| Oct 22, 2018

The music and dancing isn't enough of a substitute to make this a satisfying film and it may seem more distended than it really is.

| Mar 12, 2018

It's the most entertaining art film of the year, the kind of movie you can't help smiling along with.

| Jan 3, 2018

Sharply uneven, Coppola's period musical about he famous Harlem club is lavishly produced but shallow.

| Original Score: B- | Aug 25, 2012

Dramatically, Coppola and coscreenwriter William Kennedy, juggle a lot of balls in the air. The parallel stories of Gere and Hines' professional rise prove more potent, thanks largely to a mixture of romance, music and gangland involvement.

| Jul 6, 2010

Given its garish production history, one rather expected The Cotton Club to sing with hot-jazz desperation. Instead, we get the mediocre craftsmanship of a pit band in Vegas.

| Mar 13, 2009

This musical gangster movie is a tour de force, even if a little muddled.

| Mar 13, 2009

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 13, 2008

Lavish, interesting, evocative but strained and self-conscious, Cotton Club is all watchable curiosity.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 11, 2007

It was the most assured film Coppola had made in a decade, full of casual wit and visual invention.

| Dec 11, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 24, 2007

The narrative is a mess despite the simplistic twinning of tales, and -- worse yet -- keeps interrupting the heart-stopping hoofing.

| Jun 24, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 7, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 6, 2005