The Cotton Club
Orion Pictures | Release Date: December 14, 1984 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
EmpireStaff (Not Credited)
The film's period settings and spectacular on-stage showbiz set-pieces are fabulous, its meandering script much less so. The thing feels like a movie with its heart ripped out. Read full review
60
TimeRichard Corliss
The Cotton Club is not a bad film, just a bland one; not inept, just inert. 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. Read full review
60
The New YorkerPauline Kael
There's so much going on you can't take your eyes off it, but none of it means anything.
50
The New York TimesStaff (Not Credited)
The Cotton Club is not a complete disaster, but it's not a whole lot of fun. It just runs on and on at considerable length, doing obligatory things, being photographically fancy but demonstrating no special character, style or excitement. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldBill Cosford
The Cotton Club never seems to go anywhere, so that we are caught up short when it seems to have gotten somewhere. Then it's over, finished in Hines' blaze of glory, and a few minutes later one wonders what one has seen. It's big and colorful and terribly thin. [14 Dec 1984, p.E18]
40
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
The narrative is a mess despite the simplistic twinning of tales, and - worse yet - keeps interrupting the heart-stopping hoofing. Read full review
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