qttroassi

I agree with most of the other people posting on this site that the movie was horrible. If there has ever been a film that has been defaming/disparaging to Italian-Americans this is it, not to mention just about every other ethnic group depicted in the movie. One of the main reasons for this is because the story is crude, obnoxious, and in bad context, there's maybe just one funny moment where a group of young boys are asked if they know the Italian alphabet, the rest of it is just crash and burn.

It's actually strange that although Italian-American activists that have complained about "The Godfather" and other similar films most of which were considered monumentally well made and won academy awards (oscars)(with the exception of Disneys' "Mafia") didn't complain about "Spike of Bensonhurst". This may very well be because it is was much lesser known film that hadn't received much attention.

This is the story of Victor Malarek a man who becomes a reporter inspite of his troubled childhood and attempts to expose the problems of a juvenile facility.

If you are a fan of Elias Koteas, you MUST see this film. Koteas gives a tremendous performance in one of the only films where he is the main character. The soundtrack is OK and Michael Sarrazin is also pretty good as "Moorcraft" although he seems tired in the role. The only real flaw in the movie is that Koteas was approximatley 27 years old during during production playing a 23 year old combined with him also playing flashbacks of the characters teen years (you could clearly tell that Koteas is much older) however, his performance by far makes up for this.

This is a fine performance by Gregory Hines as a extremely talented tap dancer who also uses his flexibility and physical agility to be a cat burglar and comes to a crossroad in his life. Sammy Davis Jr. is also very good as an elder hoofer(tap dancer) who is trying to convince him to do the right thing.