beauzee one reviewer here said Quaid "channeled" Jerry Lee...problem is, Jerry, still very much with us, thankfully, in 1989, was busy nursing a fifth of Bourbon at his club in Memphis > especially since JLL insisted on recording the soundtrack himself, no Quaid in imitation, there is no need for any mystical transference.having said all that...this film is okay for the young, or those who just want to enjoy the music and get an "idea" of his career, say from 1956 to 1966.Quaid's portrayal is (teenage) letter thin, Lee Lewis a real wild child who goes on impulse 24-7. no deep thinker...not the genius who found a way to reconcile musically, gospel and pop. he marries his 13 year old 2nd cousin because... he can. any thought about how a 23 year old can actually be *in love* with someone so young? no...he's just rockin' up a storm! I did enjoy the portrayals of Sun Record Owner and Music Visionary Sam Phillips' Brother Judd and Jerry Lee's cousin Jimmy (Reverend Jimmy Swaggart). production numbers look like MTV rejects.

classicsoncall About the time Myra Gale Brown would have been worrying about the hydrogen bomb destroying mankind, I was in parochial school doing duck and cover drills for the same reason. So even while Jerry Lee Lewis was becoming the Wild Man of Rock and Roll, I don't recall what a stir he was causing with his 'savage animal rhythms' back in 1957. What I do know is that it's impossible to sit still with a whole lotta shaking going on, and the rock and roll world is a lot better off for Jerry Lee having made his contribution.With that said, the film comes across as somewhat disappointing. Maybe it's Dennis Quaid's pouty and exaggerated portrayal, or maybe it's the severely restricted view one gets of virtually a single year in the life of the rock star. Perhaps a treatment in the style of "The Buddy Holly Story" or "La Bamba" might have fleshed out the singer a little better, instead of subjecting us to the one dimensional character that appears here from open to close. Some reviewers on this board insist that this was Jerry Lee right from the get-go, but I find it hard to believe that his life wasn't more nuanced than the picture we get here. Not only that, but if comparisons were going to be drawn along side Elvis and Chuck Berry, then maybe we could have seen some interaction between Jerry and his contemporaries instead of the flip brush off he gave them in the story. Jerry and Berry jamming would have been a whole lot more fun to watch.But if you dig Jerry Lee's style of manic raunch and roll, you won't hear any better than what's on display in "Great Balls of Fire". Jerry Lee himself provides the vocal power to Quaid's ferocious delivery, the only part of his over the top performance that rings true throughout the film.

jc-osms An energetic and colourful, if somewhat sanitised bio-pic of controversial 50's rocker, Jerry Lee Lewis. With few exceptions it seems, the lives of the first wave of rock 'n' roll greats took some mighty unusual twists and turns, but outside of the tragic death of Buddy Holly in early 1959, Jerry Lee's meteoric rise and fall probably contains more grist for a movie than any of them.Director McBride gives us a full-on take on Lewis' spectacular emergence and brief time when he appeared to be the number one challenger to the King Of Rock 'n' Roll title held by ex-Sun records label-mate, one Elvis Aaron Presley, but in truth, Lewis, whose first two hits are as good as anything Elvis himself mustered in his golden era in the 50's, was probably not good looking enough and certainly was too rebellious and unstable to really carry his fans with him thereafter, although a shrewd, no-nonsense manager like The King's much-criticised Colonel Tom Parker, might have helped.The film itself is highly stylised and is so apocryphal in its treatment of events that I had to make a decision to stop wincing at every convolution in the story-line - worst example, Elvis, Army satchel on his shoulder, dropping by Sun Studios to tell Jerry that he can have it all, i.e. his position as the King - and enjoy it as much as any other Hollywood bowdlerisation you can name. And did Jerry Lee ever really set fire to his piano over a disagreement with Chuck Berry...?Anyway, the depiction of the era is great, with T-birds cruising up and down the streets and the down-home feel of the legendary Sun Studios brought to life. The narrative tries to play up Lewis' contrasting relationship with his since disgraced evangelical Bible-punching cousin Jimmy Swaggert, but there's more of interest in the Killer's liaison with his thirteen year-old wife Myra. The film holds back a little on this sensitive subject, but in the end doesn't shirk it completely (impossible not to, really) and certainly gets across Lewis' self-destructive "kiss my ass" outlook, particularly during his ill-fated visit to England.Dennis Quaid gives the challenging role of maverick Lewis his all and even if he can't quite put across the undoubtedly darker side of Jerry Lee, his vitality (and spot-on lip-synching!), particularly in the musical numbers, makes up for this. The movie-stealer though is unquestionably Wynonna Ryder as his child-bride Myra, not yet a woman but still drawn to this wild man with a mixture of child-like wonder, innocence and curiosity.There's good support too with none of the acting jarring with the evocation of the period and even if the whole sometimes looks like a slightly heavied-up re-run of "Happy Days" with its choreographed dancing routines and occasional tricksy devices like for example the telephone wire split-screen device during a telephone conversation, all paying due homage to the era.As stated, this day-glo approach doesn't always serve Lewis' sometimes darker story too well but on the whole, Lewis deserved this affectionate tribute and no-one will question the greatness of his early music, which more even than this very entertaining movie, will be what we remember him by.

headhunter46 What more could a viewer want? Great sounding music from the original Jerry Lee Lewis, pretty girls, handsome guys and cars. OH THE CARS! So many incredible cars from the fifty's in pristine condition. I watched it a second time just to hear the music and see the cars.This movie does a good job of portraying Jerry Lee and his life. Some may think it a bit overacted but Jerry Lee was an up front, over the type kind of guy in almost everything he did. It was his passion for the music. Like he wrote, "you're driving me crazy." And maybe he seemed a bit crazy to average folks but hey, he had soul and it wouldn't let him sit still. He had to move, to play it out and sing it as well. Some reviewers felt the scenes depicting his alcoholism and on stage outbursts were detrimental to the movie. In reality, artists with the passion of Jerry Lee have a burning drive within that pushes them to emotions the average person can usually control. Artists who have the pride and passion of Jerry find it most difficult to deal with setbacks because they are driven to excel. That is what makes them artists. Whether they be musicians, painters, sculptors, architects, etc. They are constantly pursuing ways to express what they think and feel. And sometimes they are crushed when others don't appreciate their efforts. They have above average skill at what they do and yet they are emotionally more fragile than the average John or Jane Doe. I rated 8of10 (which is high for me) because it takes a Lawrence of Arabia or a Gone With the Wind to get a 10 from me. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes the early rock and roll era music or someone who wants a bit of insight as to what it was like to be around back then.I found my version at Netflix....