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 - Worth it for great Blues music and a young Jami GertzI really enjoy this film. The fascinating legend of Blues pioneer Robert Johnson, and his alleged deal with the Devil at the Crossroads, is the backdrop of this story. With fine performances by Ralph Macchio and especially Joe Seneca this movie is a delightfully entertaining journey. Eugene (Macchio) takes Willie (Seneca) down South to Willie's old stomping grounds all in hopes that Willie will teach Eugene the "lost" Robert Johnson song that no one has heard. Willie was a friend of Johnson's in their youth. Eugene is a talented Julliard trained guitarist with an obsession for the Blues. Along the way, they meet Frances, a runaway 17 year old girl who joins them. Played by a stunning 20 or 21 year old Jami Gertz, Frances is determined to get to L.A. to start a dance career. After Eugene falls for her, she then leaves during the night causing Eugene to get the Blues. He then has a guitar battle (with Steve Vai) to retract the contract that Willie also made with the Devil. Entertaining all around. Rating:  - CrossroadsDo not let the mixed reviews about this film deceive you. I would say however, it's wider appeal will be for blues fans and those who are interestd in Robert Johnson in particular. Some parts of the movie are based on either facts or legends of Robert Johnson, mostly on the legend of Johnson selling his soul to the spirit Legba at the crossroads in return for the ability of being the best blues player alive. The same happened to one of his associates, Blind Dog. Blind dog later tricks the young Ralph Macchio to help him escape a nursing home in order to go back to the delta in an attempt to nullify his own bargain with Legba. Short of money, they must play the blues in roadhouses and juke-joints along the way to survive, allowing for many adventures. A surprise ending with a "blues head-cutting contest", giving a great array of guitar licks. If macchio wins, then Blind Dogs gets his deal with Legba nullified, but if Legba's man wins, then Macchio then loses his own soul. This is a must for any blues enthusiast! Find out he outcome! John Cole Rating: - Guitar Hero in real life!!Crossroads is a decent attempt at drama from men (John Fusco and Walter Hill) who are known for anything but drama. However, even if it weren't entertaining, the final scene is worth the price of admission. On the other hand, unless you can ignore Macchio it's basically a reason to punch yourself for two hours, as he plays an extremely unconvincing Julliard-schooled, classicly-trained guitarist with a love of the blues. Eugene "Lightning Boy" Martone (Macchio) has a gift for classical guitar; only, he's too stupid to take advantage of that fact and run with it. Instead he incessantly harps, whines, and pouts about his fascination with the blues. His teachers hate him. He is so fascinated that he begins to stalk an old blues player named Willie Brown (Joe Seneca), who has a plethora of aliases such as Smokehouse Brown and Blind Dog Fulton. After tormenting the old man who wanted to live the rest of his days in anonymity, Eugene breaks Willie out of an old folks' home. Their mission: walk and hitch-hike (aka hobo-ing) down to Mississippi where Willie promises to teach Eugene a lost song that was written by Robert Johnson. Only, there's no such song. The real reason Willie leads the naïve, gullible, dumb-as-a-rock Eugene down south is to get out of a deal he made with the devil in the 1930s. It is during this journey that Eugene gets his first sexual interaction with another person (not with Willie, with Jamie Gertz), and "truly" learns what the blues are after she dumps him for a rocker or a drug-dealer. Presumably. Throughout the entire movie, Eugene made me cringe and wish for Johnny from Karate Kid to come in and dish out a beating. How someone could be so unaware of the world around them is beyond me. I'm completely convinced that if there had been a sequel to this movie - thankfully there was not - it would have been about 45 minutes long, and Willie would have traded Eugene to a garage band for a bottle of whiskey and some smokes. Anyway, Macchio fumbles through his performance as a blues guitarist so much that the musical scenes alone should have garnered this film an R rating. Don't get me wrong; the music is beautiful. But it's just too hard to overlook the fact that it's Macchio attempting to give off a convincing performance as a blues man. The final scene, however, saves him. In a guitar version of Dueling Banjos - without the inbreeding - Eugene must utilize all of his skills, aided by some slick harmonica work from Willie, to beat the devil's representative, Jack Butler (Steve Vai), in a musical duel for souls. I ended up being quite pleased with this movie, despite Macchio. It's full of American folklore, good music, a great tale, a nubile Jamie Gertz, and one of the eeriest portrayals of the devil I have ever seen. Rating: - awesome musicthis is definitely a 4 star movie.the plot was good but what made it great was the awesome music that was played...joe senneca and ralph macchio were great together...i would recommend anyone to get this dvd...there is quiet a bit of bad language in this movie,that is why i gave it 4 stars instead of 5... Rating: - Daniel-San's Toughest Challenge....Steve Vai!!Imagine my disappointment when I kicked back with my Reese's peanut butter cups all ready for a good ol' Britney Spears movie and ended up with a movie about Blues people! That was a joke, and probably not my best either. Crossroads is a great film that takes that old legend of Robert Johnson's deal with the devil and uses it as the basis for an on-the-road Blues saga. Ralph Macchio may study classical guitar at school, but the Blues is where his heart is. He locates the only living person who had worked with Robert Johnson and claims to know the one song Johnson never recorded. His name is Willy Brown and he's in the slammer for murder. Macchio strikes up a deal with Brown: He'll help Brown escape and return to Mississippi and Brown will teach Macchio the unrecorded Johnson song, thus paving the way for Macchio's entry to the Blues scene. You see, Brown also made a deal with the devil at the crossroads, but he feels he got hosed on that deal and wants to terminate his contract. Most of the film is the little adventures "Lightning Boy"(Macchio's Bluesman name) and Brown get into while on the road to Mississippi. At one point they pick up Jami Gertz and she becomes a love interest for Macchio. Macchio, who has lived in New York and comes from a wealthy family, finally gets to live the Blues life and finds it's a poor man's life and very different from simply reading books on the Blues. The last act of the film delves into supernatural territory when Brown finally meets the devil once again at the crossroads. The price of a terminated contract is a guitar duel between "Lightning Boy" and another guitarist under the devil's contract, Jack Butler, who's played by none other than Steve Vai! This is quite a cool scene, but a little comical seeing Vai in his leather pants doing all this metal shredding while Macchio tries to keep up playing Blues. It ends up becoming a duel of neo-classical metal(thank God for Macchio's classical guitar training)! The film was directed by macho action film director, Walter Hill, and he does a great job creating some southern atmosphere. Jami Gertz is okay, but nothing special. Macchio is miscast if you ask me. Even though he's given this opportunity to live what he's dreamed, he spends the whole movie whining and complaining. Remember in the Karate Kid how he gets so impatient and angry about having to paint the fence and sand the floor? Basically he's doing the same thing here and it becomes rather annoying. He just doesn't come across as "into it" as his character is supposed to be. The real inspired acting choice is Joe Seneca as Willy Brown. Damn this guy gives a good performance! Unfortunately this movie has kinda slipped through the cracks over the years and now people think I'm watching that wretched Britney Spears movie when I tell them I'm watching Crossroads. Oh, well. I'd highly recommend this movie. You really don't even have to be a Blues fan to enjoy it, the story is more than enough to make this a very entertaining film. Thanks go to Amazon Friend Dave K for making me think of this.
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