starring: Michael Paré, Diane Lane, Willem Dafoe
directed by: Walter Hill

the plot: Fresh out of the military, Tom Cody (Paré) drifts back into his old neighborhood just in time to find his rock star ex-girlfriend Ellen Aim (Lane) putting on a big show at a local club. Before she can finish her opening number, though, members of The Bombers, a biker gang led by Raven Shaddock (Dafoe), bum rush the club and kidnap Ellen. Though he initially wants nothing to do with it, Ellen’s scuzzy manager (Rick Moranis) convinces Tom to infiltrate The Bombers’ turf and get her back. Aided by tomboyish wheelwoman McCoy (Amy Madigan) and members of a stranded doo-wop band, Tom must rescue Ellen, sort out the unresolved issues between them and get her back to the club in time to finish her set.

why it’s good: Nobody does tough guys like Walter Hill. He made his name with the iconic cult flick “The Warriors” and then further refined his style with pictures like “48 Hours” and the criminally underrated “Extreme Prejudice.” Even when he frames his tough guys in an anachronistic setting full of elaborate rock ’n’ roll musical numbers, he still manages to make them tough guys. “Streets of Fire” was supposed to be a huge blockbuster feature in 1984, but it suffered the unfortunate fate of being released only a week prior to “Ghostbusters” and sunk like a rock in the box office. It’s a shame, because as ridiculous as it is, it’s an entertaining picture that was supposed to launch a franchise of Tom Cody adventures. The soundtrack at the heart of the picture is representative of both the good guys and bad guys, with Jim Steinman providing a number of tracks for Ellen Aim that sound like outtakes from Meat Loaf’s “Bat out of Hell” and The Blasters providing tracks for The Bombers. Everything else is overblown, like panels torn from a ’50s crime comic and inserted into an ’80s setting. At times, you get the feeling that “Streets of Fire,” minus the high-flying pop music soundtrack, is what Hill was going for with “The Warriors” but found himself limited by budget.

why you should own it: The soundtrack will have you coming back again and again just to see the songs in action. The musical numbers by Ellen Aim and the Attackers that bookend the movie are both so Wagnerian in scope, shot with the emerging art of the music video in mind, that it’s easy to get carried away. Periodically, you’ll remember the opening song “Nowhere Fast” and you’ll want to watch the scene. And hey, while you’re at it, you may as well settle in and catch the whole movie again. It’s such a strange film, obviously trying to exploit the success of “Footloose,” that it’s hard to believe it exists at all. Like most great cult flicks, it’s the sort of picture you’ll occasionally break out to show friends who have never heard of it. Everybody knows “The Warriors,” but “Streets of Fire” is on par and deserves a wider audience.