X
- 1989
- R
- Paramount Pictures
- 2 h 5 m
- 1989
- R
- Paramount Pictures
- 2 h 5 m
Summary Two NYC cops arrest a Yakuza member and must escort him when he's extradited to Japan.
Directed By: Ridley Scott
Written By: Craig Bolotin, Warren Lewis
- 1989
- R
- Paramount Pictures
- 2 h 5 m
- 1989
- R
- Paramount Pictures
- 2 h 5 m
Black Rain
56
6.9
Where to Watch
Summary Two NYC cops arrest a Yakuza member and must escort him when he's extradited to Japan.
Directed By: Ridley Scott
Written By: Craig Bolotin, Warren Lewis
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
56
39% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
56% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
6% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
56
39% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
56% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
6% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Rain is a 126-minute genre movie stacked for effect; when you see Douglas racing his motorcycle at the beginning, you know what the climax will be. Scott, though, may be the definitive state-of-the-art moviemaker right now - and violent Rain is the most aggressively cinematic movie in a while. [22 Sep 1989, p.1D]
It's risky making an action picture that breaks its violent stride to emphasize the difficulties of living up to preconceived ideas of masculinity. But it's that risk that makes Black Rain distinctive. By refusing to beat its Eastern and Western protagonists into comic-book pulp, the movie pays them, and the audience, a rare compliment.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 27 User Ratings
6.9
52% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
41% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
7% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 27 User Ratings
6.9
52% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
41% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
7% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
This is a pretty typical US rebellious, out of control cop chases Asian killer to his home turf and swears to get even malarky. There is a lor of action and some good visual effects and the like and if your especially squeamish then you won't like the sometimes gory violence present but there is some good dialogue and the cast do ok, so its not a bad film. It dates from the time of the Lethal Weapon films and while I wouldn't say its a clearly comedic film, there are some mildly amusing elements perhaps. Michael Douglas as a cocky cop, whatever next... as long as you don't expect too much of this, its probably worth a watch, yes.
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At a little over two hours, Black Rain is a good half-hour too long, and the style gymnastics are eventually wearying. But Scott's work is always fascinating to watch, even as it grinds you down. And Douglas now has something heroic about him that enhances, if it doesn't quite transcend, the plot-by- numbers. It's fun watching the two of them volley. [22 Sep 1989, p.G5]
Director Ridley Scott's Black Rain belongs to the blunt instrument school of filmmaking. This cop thriller, set largely in Osaka, Japan, is so full of screeching tires, flashing neon and extravagant violence that it's almost physically painful to watch, yet that seems to be the effect the director had in mind. If you smack the audience around enough, you'll be respected for your power.
Visually, the film is at its most interesting when Scott's camera rises over Osaka and photographs it in ways that make it look like a modular electrified Lego city with neon and plexiglass trim. We get the feeling that in Osaka we're staring the near future in the face. But if Scott has gone to Osaka in search of a new Blade Runner, he comes up with nothing more than an Asian French Connection II. Many exchanges play like truncated pieces of scenes that originally existed more fully. And the film's frequent nocturnal motorcycle revvings don't have the panache of The Warriors, much less The Wild One. [22 Sep 1989, p.31]
At its best, Black Rain has the glitzy quality of an extremely long and clever television commercial. One can't be sure what is being sold, but the eye isn't bored.
Black Rain is the sort of movie where, if you see a motorcycle race at the start, you know you'll get one in the climax. The script is routine formula swill, at best. [02 Oct 1989, p.70]
Hidden within the dark and forgotten corners of the late 80's lies a movie within the filmography of Ridley Scott that I think many people have come to forget. And, though it did make a decent amount of money back when it originally came out, I think it can be said fairly confidently that whatever impact "Black Rain" impressed upon us back in the day has now faded and left. That doesn't mean, however, that an exhumation isn't worth the old college try, so to speak, and after watching this pulpy, gritty, and dark army crawl through the filth that is the Osakan underbelly, I can say that my efforts were rewarded -- at least partially. "Black Rain" often doesn't make any attempts at masquerading as some kind of complex, higher thematic study on "what it means to be a cop," or even "what it means to be an outsider in a strange land." But what it does do is latch on to some very simple ideas -- friendship, honor, justice -- and run with them. And though, because of this, some of the film's less action-packed scenes do suffer from a palpable lack of depth, it doesn't erase some of the more universally entertaining aspects at hand here. Scott and cinematographer Jan De Bont, for one, make the steamy, neon-lit streets of Osaka look brilliant and almost Blade Runner-esque at times. The synth heavy score from composer Hans Zimmer is terrifically nostalgic and fun. And the set piece design all throughout is engaging, with the use of setting within said set pieces also representing a high mark of creativity on the parts of the powers-that-be. Again, I can see why this particular project sort of "came and went." It's very simple. It's very breezy. It's very flashy. Almost like a plain chocolate bar. It's inoffensive, exactly what you're expecting, lacking in any kind of surprise or complexity. But, hey. It is chocolate.
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Sur un postulat déjà bien peu crédible en soi, Ridley Scott construit son polar bancal vaille que vaille, contre vents et marées, quitte à ce qu'il s'effondre de tout son long bien avant le dénouement que l'on attend, de façon plus ou moins prévisible, à la fois très ennuyé et souvent irrité par tant de maladresses et de clichés...
Il faut dire qu à ces maladresses dans le scénario, à ces clichés tout pourris resservis régulièrement à tort et à travers (moi Américain, toi... Japonais ! moi vulgaire et con, toi coincé et con...stipé !) se joignent des personnages qui ne sont que de pauvres caricatures de tous les côtés, gentils, méchants et tutti quanti... A dire vrai, on est constamment gêné de voir le film se rouler ainsi dans ces clichés fatigués jusqu'au ridicule le plus absolu.
Mais avec un aplomb, un sérieux, un premier degré qui fait frémir... Douglas est donc insupportable de beauferie et de bêtise, son collègue Garcia est carrément débile et le Japonais se demande ce qu'il fait là tout en pensant au cachet conséquent qu'il va se goinfrer. Mais en se disant en même temps qu'il l'aura pas volé parce qu'ils sont vraiment très cons ces Amerloques... à se donner encore le beau rôle, y compris et surtout à l'étranger.
Le pire est atteint (un peu comme le point Godwin en somme mais en version sushi) lorsque ça parle de la "black rain" (nous tarés de Japonais fanatisés, vous salauds d'Américains et vos deux saloperies de bombes atomiques...) où on touche du doigt un ridicule épais comme une couche de béton frais (mais nous amis, malgré nos différences, même si toi par exemple, toujours gros con d'Amerloque qui vient nous apprendre notre métier de flics !).
Bon, j'avoue que ce n'est pas la première fois que je le vois mais c'est assurément la fois de trop et qu'à peu près la moitié du film, je me suis mis en position latérale de sécurité. Je ne veux pas revoir cette stupidité, ni de près ni de loin : c'est repoussant de bêtise à la totale insu de son et de leur plein gré.
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Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 2 Nominations
Jupiter Award
• 2 Nominations
Golden Horse Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
