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Deuces Wild

EMAILPRINTMGM / UA

Deuces Wild reviews
16
7.4 User Score:

Overwhelming dislike

Based on 21 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 7 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Romance

Written by: Paul Kimatian
Christopher Gambale

Directed by: Scott Kalvert

Release Date:
Theatrical: May 3, 2001
DVD: August 6, 2002

Running Time: 96 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for strong violence, language, some drug content and brief sexuality

Starring Stephen Dorff, Brad Renfro, Fairuza Balk, Norman Reedus, Frankie Muniz, Balthazar Getty, Max Perlich, and Debbie Harry

Set in Brooklyn in the summer of 1958, the year the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, this is the story of a gang war in turbulent times.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

50

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Brainless, but enjoyably over-the-top, the retro gang melodrama, Deuces Wild represents fifties teen-gang machismo in a way that borders on rough-trade homo-eroticism.

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50

Film Threat Heather Wadowski

With a couple of plot twists and a few powerful performances, Deuces Wild is worth checking out -- but only on home video.

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40

TV Guide Ken Fox

Director Scott Kalvert returns to wring every last cliché out 1950s juvenile delinquent movies, without adding anything particularly fresh to the formula.

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38

USA Today Claudia Puig

It would appear that director Scott Kalvert never met a cliché he didn't like. No telegraphing is too obvious or simplistic for this movie.

38

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Sort of "West Side Story" set in 1958 Brooklyn -- minus the music or competent storytelling -- is clearly not dealing from anything close to a full deck.

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33

Entertainment Weekly Steve Daly

If you put the scripts for ''West Side Story,'' ''Mean Streets,'' and ''The Warriors'' in a blender, you might wind up with something like Deuces Wild, a preposterously melodramatic paean to gang-member teens in Brooklyn circa 1958.

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30

New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein

The actors labor long and hard to bring some semblance of reality to the proceedings, but the whole affair has a distinctly faux '50s feel to it.

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30

Chicago Reader J. R. Jones

Writer-producer Paul Kimatian was once a still photographer for Martin Scorsese, who reportedly encouraged him to write this Italian-American soap opera. Given its tired dialogue, predictable situations, and vicious street fighting, Scorsese may wish he'd kept his mouth shut.

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30

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

A repellent orgy of gratuitous violence and hackneyed melodrama, Deuces Wild marks a grim nadir for everyone involved, including late cinematographer John A. Alonzo (Chinatown, Harold & Maude), who deserved a much better swan song.

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25

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

In its best moments, resembles a bad high school production of "Grease," without benefit of song.

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25

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Deuces Wild is the worst thing to have happened to Brooklyn since the Ice Age severed it from the mainland.

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25

Boston Globe Jonathan Perry

Just about the only things that remotely redeem this movie are the solid acting performances by the principals, who make the most of the one-dimensional material given them.

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25

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

At the very least, Corman would have remembered to make the movie fun.

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20

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Would have been smart to fold before it let its hand go this far.

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20

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Propelled not by characters but caricatures.

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10

The New York Times Stephen Holden

A film that desperately wants to be a music video circa 1983.

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10

Variety Robert Koehler

In its overwhelmingly artificial depiction of the street gangs that ruled Brooklyn's mean streets in the 1950s, Deuces Wild draws from a phony deck.

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10

Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour

Skip it. Just fill in the blanks and you too can brew the same bland, goopy mixture, right down to such clunker lines as "There is a Santa Claus, Ma. He just doesn't come to Brooklyn anymore."

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10

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It's so uncomplicated you could go out for spaghetti after the first 10 minutes and slip back into your seat just in time for the last 10, and you wouldn't feel you'd missed a thing, save a rumble or two.

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0

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Astonishing isn't the word -- neither is incompetent, incoherent or just plain crap. Indeed, none of these words really gets at the very special type of badness that is Deuces Wild.

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0

Village Voice Jessica Winter

An endless chain reaction of cartilage-crunching, organ-pulping brawls.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Matt C gave it a10:
Critics are crazy, which is why you shouldn’t listen to them. This movie was great. Good acting, good story, very entertaining. Like west side story without the dancing and singing. So don’t listen to the critics. Because I’ve learned that most of the they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.

Don't watch This Movie gave it a 1:
One of the crappiest movies i've ever seen.

Jessica P. gave it a 10:
This movie was amazing. Each actor had great chemistry. I will give that the movie had its cliche points, but not enough to say it was a bad movie. How else was Scott Kalvert going to set a Brooklyn street gang without putting in some cliche point? The movie was amazing and was well spent money.

Andrew W. gave it a 10:
I've never cried so hard since John Q. SO TOUCHING! But so tight at the same time, man. Frankie Muniz was the best Vietnam Vet since Ice Cube in All About The Benjamins. What cliches? What you talking about Willis? I'm glad that they got some real tough, great New York actors to play in this movie, especially after September 12th.

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