BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

marknjulie-73088 The summary is already told in other entries on this site. I just love these two movies.Some people are so critical. I don't get them. These two movies had great acting, great music, and a compelling story line. I've watched them both about 50 times!!! (I am a 67 year old female musician). My friends have watched these two movies and all love them, too!!! It captures a time that I can relate to, but it's for people of any age whole just like movies about musicians.I agree with Michael Pare's own analysis when he said this movie made him a movie actor.He has been in tons of B- movies and some television an after "The Cruisers" and apparently he always has work, so his style of acting obviously is in demand !!!!! He is not a big name star, but there is somethingvery intriguing about him. As Eddy Wilson, he was totally believable. Of course I developed aa crush on him with those beautiful blue eyes and sweet smile. But he played the lead singer part with perfection. I thought the lip-syncing was great. I don't understand how critical people can be about a movie like this!!! i am so glad they made this movie and I hope it continues to make money through the decades. It deserves a prominent place in the archives of movies about musicians.

lisamariebaker I was 15 when this movie was released, and I LOVED IT. Eddie and the Cruisers is one of those AWESOME movies. I remember partying to it and watching at least 100+ times. It is a movie the seems to describe a lot of what was going on in the 80's even though it was supposed to be set in the 60's. Eddie was a music "ICON" for us, John John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band were awesome, and the music still lives on today. As a child of the "80's" a Gen."X" child, we are called the Lost Generation and Eddie was also lost,and showed how a lot of us felt, just disappear... Again, if you haven't seen this movie, you really NEED to. It is truly a Classic 80's movie. Also, watch garage sales, flea markets, thrift stores. You can sometimes find the Soundtrack which is also awesome. My Ex-husband recently found it in a box a friend gave him, and the first time he listened to "The Dark Side" it took him back again..

DarthBill Plot in a nutshell: Eddie Wilson (Michael Pare) was the lead singer of "Eddie & The Cruisers", an on the rise rock band in the early 1960s that played late 1970s/1980s style music. They cut one successful album, "Tender Years", which featured the hit song "On The Dark Side", and it looked as though Eddie (and his band) had overnight fame & fortune almost within his grasp, but Eddie could not see beyond his own arrogance to recognize and accept the fact that if he wanted to be in the spotlight, he would have to play by certain rules, and at times could mistreat his band mates, even lyricist/piano player Frank "Word Man" Ridgeway (Tom Berenger). Following the death of their original sax player and the rejection of their 2nd album, "A Season In Hell", rejected because the style of music was dismissed as little more than "weird noises", Eddie apparently committed suicide, driving his car off the bay docks... but since his body was never found, an urban legend formed around him. Years later, in the early 1980s, Eddie's music has experienced a resurgence in popularity & appreciation when his old record label re-releases the Tender Years album, and a debate is sparked as to what happened to the lost performance tapes and recordings of the "Season in Hell" album. Then someone starts ransacking former band members homes in a desperate search for those tapes... could it be Eddie? In the midst of this, more about the band's tragic downfall comes to light.Major Spoiler: at the end we see the older, long lost Eddie Wilson alone in the streets watching as his lost music is played on a big store TV; he smiles serenely, proud to know that his work, misunderstood and rejected all those years ago, is finally being heard, and disappears into the night.All in all, a well made, well acted film that speaks for all those rock singers who almost had it but for whatever reason couldn't hold on. Michael Pare (in the role that should have made him a star) is well cast as Eddie Wilson, the charismatic but self-destructive rock singer, though the true star is Tom Berenger as the lyricist who must uncover the truth of it all.Excellent showcase for the music of John Cafferty (Eddie's singing voice) and the Beaver Brown Band.

melody23 This is one of my favorite small movies of all times. It draws off a lot of artistic partnerships for inspiration with its underlying theme of "words and music" and the seeming contradictions in life, art and relationships that go into making something beautiful and real. The characters are wonderfully rendered and the performances are pitch perfect. The music is haunting when it should be and always exciting to listen to. Eddie's struggle is the eternal struggle of the artist, who wants to be great, in contrast to his friend who suggests, "They're just some guys from Jersey". The ending is the perfect ending. The film, while not the perfect film (since a perfect film doesn't exist), is one of the few of which I actually own a copy. It you haven't seen "Eddie", I promise you, it's nothing that you think it is ... any more than "Eddie and the Cruisers" are "just some guys from Jersey".