X
- 1989
- R
- TriStar Pictures
- 1 h 34 m
- 1989
- R
- TriStar Pictures
- 1 h 34 m
Summary After being double crossed and thrown in jail, a deformed gangster gets a new face and rehabilitation, but his desire for revenge looms.
Directed By: Walter Hill
Written By: John Godey, Ken Friedman
- 1989
- R
- TriStar Pictures
- 1 h 34 m
- 1989
- R
- TriStar Pictures
- 1 h 34 m
Johnny Handsome
60
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Where to Watch
Summary After being double crossed and thrown in jail, a deformed gangster gets a new face and rehabilitation, but his desire for revenge looms.
Directed By: Walter Hill
Written By: John Godey, Ken Friedman
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
60
47% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
53% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
60
47% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
53% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
This is a movie in the true tradition of film noir -- which someone who didn't write a dictionary once described as a movie where an ordinary guy indulges the weak side of his character, and hell opens up beneath his feet.
Johnny Handsome does indeed put Hill back in the ballpark, close enough to his best work to make its imperfections seem that much more maddening. [29 Sep 1989, p.A]
This is a B-movie through and through, and no less fun for that. [29 Sep 1989, p.G12]
The only sanity here is in some of the acting. Rourke does a fine, competent job, but the movie is stolen clear away by Morgan Freeman and Forest Whitaker as antagonists -- a tough minded veteran police detective and a warm, idealistic prison doctor.
Barkin and Henriksen perform with relish, Whitaker and Freeman are pleasantly understated. Rourke tries harder than ever to minimise, nay obscure, his good looks, a process which merely serves to emphasise them.
This movie can spot the handsome face that lies beneath an ugly exterior, but it seems to get fooled by the rot that sometimes lurks beneath the sweet and the safe, the formula and the sure-fire.
Walter Hill directed this 1989 feature from a pulpy script by Ken Friedman (based on John Godey’s novel The Three Worlds of Johnny Handsome), and its nasty, predictable plot and unpleasant characters aren’t made any more bearable by Hill’s customary smoke, sweat, funk, and neon.
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Awards
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
• 2 Nominations
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
• 1 Nomination
Jupiter Award
• 1 Nomination
