when i heard about DEUCES WILD back in late 1999 early 2000,i was elated at the prospect of there finally being another 50's/early 60's type of street gang melodrama on the horizon.
yet,of course,because of the 9/11 incident in new york,the a-holes in hollywood decided to push back its release for quite a while,so i had to be content with the occasional promo photo in random movie magazines.
finally the movie came out without much fanfare,alas it was also the 'spiderman' weekend,and also the innocuos 'lord of the rings' was in theatres as well that weekend,but luckilly that meant i was in the movie theatre with just myself,my girl and about ten other people.
i thought the movie was excellent,great costumes,great cars,great period music,great locations,good yet hammy acting,gorgeous leading ladies,stylized violent rumble scenes,cheezy yet touching overacted scenes between familys,decent period detail.
yet then the reviews started coming in,and everybody who had ever had freshmen english or drama class compared it annoyingly to west side story,a 1961 singing and dancing musical,when they should have made comparisons to another tho far superior 1961 gang film,john frankenhiemer's black and white opus,'the young savages',or even to photographer bruce davidson's late 50's photo essay,'brooklyn gang' or even the short comic story in the late 70's underground comic,'50's funnies',called,'turf',about a gang in the 50's fighting with another gang who wanted drugs in the neiborhood and who had mob backing and a character was even named marco.....awfully convenient dont you think?
anyways,while this movie was'nt as good as 'the young savages','lords of flatbush' or 'the wanderers',to name but a few,but it was a hundred times better than the wimpy 'west side story' could ever be.
i dont know if this review helps,but the leads in this film were really good,stephen dorf,brad renfro,drea dematteo,faruiza balk,matt dillon,normon reedus and james franco putting in good performances......also i liked the fact that they did,nt over saturate the film with to much music from the past,it was just the right amount,very good choices of songs by 'dion and the belmonts','jerry butler and the impressions','the valentines','dee clark' and a few others.
and of course,faruiza balk and drea dematteo,tho a little long in the tooth to be playing teenagers,looked absolutely scrumptiuos.

Scott Kalvert did an outstanding job directing this movie and making the time period as realistic as possible. The similarity between this and Westside Story is the gang rivalry. In Westside Story, you have The Jets vs. The Sharks and in this movie you have The Deuces vs. The Vipers. I didn't see all of Westside Story though but it seems like its less intense than this movie. This movie has some Rebel Without A Cause as well but I didn't see that movie either. I compare this movie to Rebel Without A Cause because of the gang element and Stephen Dorff is The Jimmy Dean of this movie. Stephen Dorff does a great job as 'Leon', the noble yet violent leader of The Deuces. Brad Renfro also does a great job as Leon's younger brother Bobby. He is easily influenced by his brother's hatred towards The Vipers and his life-style is even more chaotic when he meets 'Annie', who is played by Fairuza Balk. Drea DeMateo was so so as 'Betsy', Norman Reedus does a great job as 'Marco', and Matt Dillion does a great job as 'Fritzy'. Overall, its a powerful and intense movie and a must see for movie fans. You'll be pleasantly surprised!

Unless you like cheesey, poorly written, poorly acted, and poorly executed movies save yourself the money. If you just have to have a nostaglia trip, get The Outsiders instead

Well like most others have commented yes the basic plot of the movie has been too many times to count . And yes there have been dozens of movies about the big-greasy hair and white t-shirt gangs of the late 50's and early 60's . But how many of those involved heroin dealers? or how many were as violent but as well written as this movie ... Yes , I will admit that the casting is a little weird in places . Most of the characters are suposed to be in their late teens or early twenties , and Fairuza Balk and Drea Demateo are just a little too old to be playing girls in their late teens . Or the head of the Deuces and his brother are really out of place , the are suposed to be in their early 20s! Couldn't they have found actors with less receaded hair lines?

The film itself is ok and is filled with ok writting, decent acting , and tons of nostalga ( all the cars and the BROOKLYN Dodgers). And if you want to know the honest truth I saw the movie mostly because I'm obssessed with Fairuza Balk (dont ask why , Im not sure "why") .Yeah overall the movie does leave something to be desired in some areas but you should find something to like and will probably watch this again when you dont know what else to rent or need to kill an hour or two. So yeah its an ok movie.

This movie has many, many flaws. Fairuza Balk is way too old to be playing a teenager dating (portly) Brad Renfro; the dialogue is totally corny; and the camera work is awful. Other than that, it's not a bad movie. The story is very, very much like many movies you've already seen that were better: The Outsiders, West Side Story, A Bronx Tale, etc., etc. The soundtrack is excellent; the scene with Fairuza and Brad in a steamy pool is hot. Definitely worth watching for any one who likes movies about the 1950s/Italians/gangs/teenagers. My favorite BAD line is when Brad Renfro says it's 115 degrees outside, even though HE is the one wearing a leather jacket!