
Johnny Handsome is a deformed gangster who plans a successful robbery with a friend of his, Mikey Chalmette, and another couple (Sunny Boid and Rafe Garrett). During the heist, Johnny and Mikey are double-crossed by Sunny and Rafe---Mikey is killed and Johnny sent to prison. While in prison, Johnny is invited to a rehabilitation program, where Dr. Steven Fischer rebuilds Johnny's face and helps Johnny get paroled. Johnny starts working in a shipyard, where he meets Donna McCa... (Full plot summary below)
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Johnny Handsome is a deformed gangster who plans a successful robbery with a friend of his, Mikey Chalmette, and another couple (Sunny Boid and Rafe Garrett). During the heist, Johnny and Mikey are double-crossed by Sunny and Rafe---Mikey is killed and Johnny sent to prison. While in prison, Johnny is invited to a rehabilitation program, where Dr. Steven Fischer rebuilds Johnny's face and helps Johnny get paroled. Johnny starts working in a shipyard, where he meets Donna McCarty and starts a romance. Lt. A.Z. Drones is a skeptical detective who follows the rehabilitation of Johnny. Johnny's new life is consumed by the desire of payback.
Leave your thoughts about Johnny Handsome.
| Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThis is a movie in the true tradition of film noir -- which someone who didn't write a dictionary once described as a movie where an ordinary guy indulges the weak side of his character, and hell opens up beneath his feet. |
| Fantastica DailyChuck O'LearyA stylish and tough crime-thriller with that underlying mournfulness which characterizes Hill's best work. |
| Combustible CelluloidJeffrey M. AndersonThe underrated, old-fashioned B-movie director Walter Hill (The Warriors) made this excellent action drama with an amazing cast. |
| Chicago TribuneDave KehrBecause Johnny Handsome is a film by Walter Hill (The Warriors, Streets of Fire), it crams the following things into its first five minutes: gunfire, screeching brakes, a drug-popping hoodlum, a moll in black leather, a violent robbery, one murder, sinister masks, shattering glass. But because this is Mr. Hill's work, these ingredients are slapped together with high style. |
| Washington PostHal HinsonWalter Hill's "Johnny Handsome" feels like a shiv jammed between your ribs in a prison-yard fight. It's clean and brutal and so ruthlessly efficient that it's opened a hole in you almost before you've realized it. |
| Boston GlobeJay CarrNew Orleans looks as photogenic as ever but ultimately Johnny Handsome never quite leapfrogs over its fundamental cracks. |
| The IndependentAnthony LaneThis movie can spot the handsome face that lies beneath an ugly exterior, but it seems to get fooled by the rot that sometimes lurks beneath the sweet and the safe, the formula and the sure-fire. |
| Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumWalter Hill directed this 1989 feature from a pulpy script by Ken Friedman (based on John Godey’s novel The Three Worlds of Johnny Handsome), and its nasty, predictable plot and unpleasant characters aren’t made any more bearable by Hill’s customary smoke, sweat, funk, and neon. |
| User ReviewMarcel SMickey does a fantastic job playing a disfigured man at the beginning and someone who gets a 2nd chance at life and revenge in the 2nd half.Good story and top notch acting. |
| User ReviewGeoffrey Y"Johnny Handsome" has a lot of great qualities in a film, acting, story, cast, need I go on? A disfigured man leads a life of crime till he and his partner are double-crossed and Johnny is left for dead in prison. Given a new face, identity, he goes to live a normal life, but wants revenge. A great cast and great action. |