Wow! Such a good movie.

Sorry, this movie sucks

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Some great shots of the old New York, before the Disney-fication of it all. If you like sleazy strip clubs, mobsters, drug alleys, and brutal killings, then this is a solid thriller. And seeing Billy Dee is always welcome. He does a fine job as the intense cop, even though his role is small.

For sickies, Fear City is much like a lot of other glitzy and not so glamorous sleaze type movies. You could compare it quite strongly to Angel or many other if it's type, only it's directed by Abel Ferrara, which has you wondering, "Why is he wasting his time doing this?" Now realizing this flick was made earlier, has made me having to change my verdict with that question, where he was still only trying to get started. But even before I pondered that question, Fear City still comes off better than a lot of other sleaze films. Yes there's boobs, other nudity, and some sick violence, something you don't underestimate with this New York based director, but it's quite a tight neck, and effective psychological thriller, but still cliché'd and very predictable. It has some great drawn characters, and the sort of actors you wouldn't suspect of acting in this, well most of them. Berenger gives a take note performance. He plays an ex boxer, harvesting much guilt who spent some time in the pen, on the account of manslaughter while in the ring. He's now an owner and co agent of a nightclub, hiring out strippers who are being nastily disposed of by a boxing psycho, so you know inevitably a show down is to ensue. Billy Dee Williams is great to watch as a hard nosed cop, who really has it in for Berenger, even at this end. Hate is a great attribute on screen. You will have to turn your eyes for about a minute, as one really overweight stripper does an act with a toy horse. If you're an AF fan, is for you, where if to looking along the line of an Angel/Streetwalkin' slasher of bit better quality, you'll be right at home with this one.

A vicious martial artist psycho stalks and kills strippers in New York City. Hard-nosed detective Al Wheeler (smoothly essayed by Billy Dee Williams) investigates the case while moody former boxer turned booking agent Matt Rossi (well played with rugged conviction by Tom Berenger) makes it his mission to take care of the sicko himself. Director Abel Ferrara, working from a neatly seamy script by Nicholas St. John, relates the compellingly sordid story at a steady pace, maintains a tough lurid tone throughout, makes excellent use of the gritty Big Apple locations (it's a treat to see Times Square in all of its supremely seedy 80's glory), and pours on the sizzling sleaze with oodles of ferocious violence and tasty female nudity. Melanie Griffith positively burns up the screen as forlorn ex-junkie stripper Loretta (and, yes, Melanie does indeed bare her delectable body a few times). The sound acting by the bang-up cast helps a whole lot: Jack Scalia as Rossi's easygoing partner Nicky Parzeno, Rossano Brazzi as fearsome mob capo Carmine, Rae Dawn Chong as sweet lesbian Leila, Joe Santos as the short-tempered Frank, Michael Gazzo as irascible strip club owner Mike, and Jan Murray as Rossi's shrewd rival Goldstein. The big confrontation between Rossi and the killer delivers a handy heap of bloody brutality. James Lemmo's glossy cinematography provides a glittery neon sheen. But it's the vivid evocation of a dirty and dangerous New York City which sadly no longer exists that in turn gives this picture an extra raw edge and exciting vitality. While not one of Ferrara's best movies, it's nonetheless still worth seeing for fans of 80's grindhouse fare.

This may be worthwhile to rent if you're a Melanie Griffith fan, since she's nude in about 40% of her scenes, but the movie leaves a lot to be desired overall.Much of the tension is supposed to be derived from Berenger's guilt over the outcome of a boxing match several years earlier, but we never really connect with him in this regard. In fact, Berenger's acting is really sub-par here...worse than "Sniper". The idea of personal redemption is there, it's just not realized.Jack Scalia does a good job with a thankless part. Billy Dee Williams is handed a role with ridiculous dialog and ultimately looks like an idiot when he reverses himself completely in order to express respect for Berenger's character following the "final conflict".The assorted character actors do a much better job, but they can't make up for the absence of any logical plot progression and realistic dialog.Finally, unlike some other reviewers, I don't really have any problem with the fact that we never really understand what motivated the murderer. These sorts of answers usually don't come tied up in neat little packages labeled, "Sexually Abused by Father", or "Sister Died at the Hands of a Drunken Physiscian". In the ORIGINAL version of "Two Minute Warning", we never found out why the sniper went a-sniping, which was, in my opinion, an order of magnitude superior to the butchered version with the sub-plot of the burglary thrown in to make sense of it all for the middle-class viewers.Not recommended to buy or rent, but it may be worth watching if you see it come on the late show and you can't sleep. By the way, the "uncut" version is not substantially different from the other versions, except for a bit more skin.