Johnny Handsome

1989 "They changed his looks, his life and his future... but they couldn't change his past ."
6.1| 1h34m| R| en| More Info
Released: 12 September 1989 Released
Producted By: Carolco Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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A career criminal who has been deformed since birth is given a new face by a kindly doctor and paroled from prison. It appears that he has gone straight, but he is really planning his revenge on the man who killed his mentor and sent him to prison.

Genre

Drama, Crime

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Director

Walter Hill

Production Companies

Carolco Pictures

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Johnny Handsome Audience Reviews

Tuchergson Truly the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater
Mjeteconer Just perfect...
AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Michael_Elliott Johnny Handsome (1989) *** (out of 4)John Sedley (Mickey Rourke) is a deformed criminal who goes to pull a heist with Rafe (Lance Henriksen) and Sunny (Ellen Barkin) but they double cross him, which leads him into prison. Inside there's an attempt on his life but he barely survives and that's when Dr. Fisher (Forest Whitaker) offers him an option for plastic surgery. He's let out of prison and starts his new life, which is based around revenge.Director Walter Hill was riding a wave of success going into this picture. If you go through his career you'll see that he took at stab at several different genres throughout the 1980's with this one here being his attempt at a film noir. All the elements of the noir are on hand here but of course it's been updated for the era, which means it's in color, has a lot more sexuality and of course the nature of the material has been boosted to a R-rating.JOHNNY HANDSOME works on many different levels but we can just focus on the payback aspect of the story. The character is someone that you actually like and he's someone who end up caring for and feeling bad for. When you like a character so much it's easy to root for them and the film then gives us a couple great villains to root against. The entire revenge aspect work so well and Hill pulls you into this life and really takes you along for a terrific ride.It certainly helps that the cast are so wonderful with Rourke leading the way in what's really a double role. He did a wonderful job at playing the deformed character and he really comes to life once he becomes the handsome guy who sets out for revenge. Hendriksen is also terrific as the main bad guy as he certainly makes you hate the character. Barkin brings the same type of toughness and sexuality that she displayed in SEA OF LOVE. You've then got a nice turn by Whitaker, a good performance from Elizabeth McGovern and then there's Morgan Freeman playing a cop who you never know what he's up to.The film contains a great score, some really good cinematography and of course there's Walter Hill's eye that helps pull all of this together. The film really isn't as violent as some of Hill's previous films but it also contains some glorious style that the director really didn't show in earlier movies. JOHNNY HANDSOME is an extremely entertaining film that's worth watching.
sydneyswesternsuburbs Director Walter Hill who also created other classic flicks, Bullet to the Head 2012, Supernova 2000, Last Man Standing 1996, Trespass 1992, Extreme Prejudice 1987, Southern Comfort 1981, The Long Riders 1980, The Driver 1978 and Hard Times 1975 as well as an episode of the classic TV series, Deadwood 2004-2006 has created another gem in Johnny Handsome.Starring Mickey Rourke who has also been in other classic flicks, Skin Traffik 2015, Dead in Tombstone 2013, The Expendables 2010, The Wrestler 2008, Sin City 2005, Spun 2002, Get Carter 2000, Thursday 1998, Point Blank 1998, Buffalo '66 1998, The Last Outlaw 1993, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man 1991, Year of the Dragon 1985 and Rumble Fish 1983.Also starring Lance Henriksen who has also been in other classic flicks, Stung 2015, Bone Dry 2007, Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes 2006, Abominable 2006, AVP: Alien vs. Predator 2004, One Point O 2004, Dead Man 1995, The Quick and the Dead 1995, Stone Cold 1991, Pumpkinhead 1988, Near Dark 1987, Aliens 1986, The Terminator 1984, The Right Stuff 1983 and Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977.I enjoyed the violence.If you enjoyed this as much as I did then check out another classic revenge flick, Blue Ruin 2013, Bad Day for the Cut 2017 and The Foreigner 2017.
romanorum1 So hideously deformed in his face that even his speech is affected, Johnny Sedley (Mickey Rourke) – called Johnny Handsome for obvious reasons – nevertheless knows how to plan robberies. But the robbery of the Prestige Jewelry store is very violent and goes haywire when two of the robbers betray and shoot the other three. One of the three is Johnny, who, although left for dead, survives. In jail Johnny is attacked and knife-wounded by two inmates and sent to prison hospital. The attacking inmates were bribed to kill Johnny by scoundrel robbers Rafe Garrett (Lance Henriksen) and Sunny Boyd (Ellen Barkin). Lt. Drones (Morgan Freeman) visits Johnny to tell him that he is "nothing but a cheap crook." He gets five years prison time in Louisiana Penitentiary at Angola. Thoughtful prison doctor Fisher (Forest Whitaker) offers Johnny a new face. He feels that recidivism sometimes relates to physical deformities and so believes that Johnny will get a second chance. Plus he doesn't want to blame Johnny for the actions of his mother, who was both a drug user and prostitute. Not only do the operations work well, but Johnny now has a new identification, Johnny Mitchell. Meanwhile, speech therapy has taken a long time. The newspapers report that Johnny has died while incarcerated. On parole, Johnny has a construction job at Commodore Shipyard waiting for him courtesy of Dr. Fisher. Johnny works hard and eventually strikes up a courtship with office secretary Donna McCarthy (Elizabeth McGovern). Donna had dated slimy Earl, who stole items from the tool shop. Donna, herself stained, had covered for him by removing the items from her inventory list. Johnny strong-armed Earl, who then disappeared from the scene. At this point Johnny has a choice: He can go straight with Donna or return to his life of crime and take his revenge on Rafe and Sunny. The latter thought prevails as Johnny's close friend was double-crossed and killed by Rafe and Sunny in the jewelry holdup, and Johnny, who had a downtrodden life, believes in payback. Lt. Drones stops by to remind Johnny that – despite his new face and new name – he will regress into his life of crime. Right after Johnny enters the sleazy bar where Rafe and Sunny operate. It is obvious that the situation between the two lowlifes is less than charming. Anyway, Johnny eventually convinces them of a potential $5 million heist at Commodore Shipyard. When Rafe and Sunny inquire the particulars of Johnny – like why he chose them, the jobs he pulled, the folks he knows – Johnny says that he met a fellow by the name of Johnny Handsome who died in jail. Rafe and Sunny seem convinced, but Sunny seems to take an additional liking to Johnny. She says that $5 million divided by two is better than divided by three. Of course, she has no scruples. Anyway, the film's second robbery goes as planned. Of course there is the eventual double dealing. Before the end Johnny will get his revenge, but will have sustained a beating beforehand. And although he kills his enemies, he is mortally wounded. In the end Lt. Drones mutters, "Well Johnny, that darn doctor didn't understand this part, did he?" The New Orleans atmosphere of this "modern" noir works decently in its darkness and grittiness although the dialog is rather so-so. Folks will cringe at the beating at the end. Rourke is good enough in the lead as a tragic character, especially his replication of a speech impediment in early scenes. Still, despite other good performances by Freeman as a cynical detective and Whitaker as a sympathetic doctor, the movie offers nothing unusual. The menacing character of bare-armed villain Henriksen is strictly one- dimensional. Barkin is sufficiently sleazy, but her southern accent is not too convincing. McGovern is a less than intelligent lass who consistently makes imprudent choices. On a final note, the key hair stylist could at least have changed Johnny's hairstyle after his facial reconstruction! It would have made him more convincing.
jzappa Johnny Handsome emerges from the film noir envelope of the 1940s, out of movies with bleak streets and bitter laughter, with characters who dwell in sourpuss crash pads and regard bars as their personal salons. It is set in New Orleans, a city with a film noir essence, and it stars Mickey Rourke, who siphons himself into the role of a burnt-out down-and-outer who has as good as withdrawn himself. The only real friend he has is a father figure named Mikey, who brings Johnny in on a jewelry store job with a couple of really shady characters. They call him Johnny Handsome since his face has been miserably deformed since birth. He and John Merrick look closely related. Johnny has also trained himself to talk despite some sort of nasal or vocal obstruction by his disfigurement, resulting in a rhinal, phonetic mutter. As the movie opens he and Mikey have been double-crossed resulting in Mikey dead, Johnny the patsy, the haul in the hands of their despicable associates.In jail, he's accorded a deal if he'll single out his co-conspirators. He declines, because it is of course gangland decree that you do not rat on your partners, and of course also because he intends to kill them when he gets back on the street. But then an intriguing thing happens to him: In jail, a caring surgeon recommends that plastic surgery could turn Johnny into a fairly attractive guy, and speech therapy could make him into an adequate contender for rehabilitation. Johnny is such a miserable and achingly sad character in such a bleak world that we are overjoyed by this ray of sunlight.Johnny has nothing to lose, and subjects himself to the surgery which, faithful to the customs of movies like this, is no problem at all. Out on parole, he walks the straight and narrow. And he happens on a girl who loves him. However Johnny has an inner dilemma: Since the day he was born he's been walking around feeling repulsive, fearful, rejected, that he has a hard time grasping any real fortune. In fact, the choice is clear all along: He can go straight, mind his p's and q's and be content with this woman. Or he can resume with crime and see his vengeance through. As a man who's spent his entire life made to feel like a waste and a good-for-nothing, he has a choice between something that at this point he finds difficult, and something that comes very very easily. As per Rourke's usual, he adopts a challenging physical transformation that complements his emotional one.Made during the late '80s, '90s stretch of typically unintelligent action pictures, with audiences less enterprising in a way than those of the 1940s and stars who like to maintain their hero worship or avoid any threat to their masculinity at the end, there is the expectation that Johnny will choose the path of improvement and hopefulness, not without some difficulty, naturally, but he is endowed with every emotional, practical and legal clean break to be able to do that. Nevertheless, the charm of this film, especially as an American action movie from 1989, is that it takes a level-headed gaze at the natural progression of its character. If you've been jeered into the shadows all your life, no matter how much light you suddenly get, where would you feel most at home? And what is happiness? Satisfaction, peace of mind. If you were him, what would really truly give you those things? This old film noir wine poured into a gritty, hazy new bottle is filmed with genuine flair. Matthew F. Leonetti, the cinematographer, smokes out the scrappiest alienation in the most sordid sections of New Orleans, and the Ry Cooder music is a merge with the blues and a weep. It is strange how Walter Hill's intensely dark and violent dramatic thriller is given little to no reference literature, hardly anyone has heard of it, is all in all a buried treasure. Not that many movies have the utter nostalgia, ruefulness and grit that this movie evokes throughout.And the movie is definitely enhanced by tenacious supporting performances by a remarkably notable cast including Ellen Barkin, playing one rotten apple riding roughshod over any and everything that even comes close to boring her; Morgan Freeman in a rare role as a mean, cold man, a lone-wolf cop just waiting for Johnny to slip up; Lance Henriksen, on the other hand, breaking out of all those stoic roles to eat up the scenery as a formidably wicked character of almost comic-book proportions; and Forest Whitaker, that urgent ray of sunlight in Johnny's life, that one presence who is highly educated and highly compassionate and ennobled by his profession. And though he's largely identified with the action genres of post-classical American cinema, Hill directs with an almost maligning disinterest in Reagan-era Hollywood formality. This is a movie in the real practice of film noir, a movie where heroism is simply being able to survive, where an everyday person treats himself to the darker proclivities of his character, and destiny arrives.