Great Balls of Fire!

PG-13

1989

1h 48m

Biography

Drama

Music

List

63%

27 Reviews

Tomatometer

53%

25,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Upstart rock 'n' roll singer Jerry Lee Lewis (Dennis Quaid) has just cut a record at Sun Studio. Jerry's cousin, pastor Jimmy Swaggart (Alec Baldwin), tries to steer him away from a depraved life in the music business, but Jerry was born to play the so-called "devil's music." With rock 'n' roll king Elvis Presley busy with military service, Jerry sees his chance to claim the throne of popular music. But, his unabashed love of his 13-year-old cousin, Myra (Winona Ryder), may ruin his chances.

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Critics Consensus

Great Balls of Fire romanticizes the more disturbing elements of Jerry Lee Lewis' controversial life story, but Dennis Quaid's crackerjack performance and a soundtrack stuffed with classic songs gives this flawed biopic some smolder.

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Jithin K

The only knowledge about Jerry Lewis I had was Top Gun and the use of the song in this title. Watching this film, it actually made sense of a lot of things going on in today's world. Like how incredibly dense and creepy people can be and how normalized that actually is in the world. This film just shows the two years of the musician's life. And you gotta admit that the makers did some impossible things with this film. They made a glamorous look at everything he did and also made it look like he was a psychopath at the same time. Every single choice in the film is stupidly convoluted so that, it is morally confusing without any actual depth to it. Dennis Quaid gave his everything to the performance and from what I'm getting to know about the actual musician, he did a really great job at it. Winona Ryder was also pretty good as Myra, especially considering the kind of role that is. The songs were good and mostly integrated okay. Being based on the book by Myra, the 13-year-old cousin Jerry marries, we might think it would be taking more of her side but the film is very ambiguous on which side it is ending up as against the audience side instead of an actual objective look. Taking for and against approach is not only with Jerry Lewis but also with fundamentalist Christianity involved at the time. That is such a fucked up approach. Especially when it comes to marriage, the film made it feel like they are trying to open a discussion about if it is okay to marry your 13-year-old cousin. I mean, they don't justify it but they don't stand against it either. The way they showed the problems in their lives being very individualistic, it's as if the marriage wasn't a problem at all, and that people didn't have any right to an opinion on their lives. Allowing Myra to be a part of the project and then fictionalizing was really such a dick move. Well, even the book this is based on was hijacked from her so she had to write a whole other book. The whole thing not just showed the normalized creepiness of the 50s when it is set on and of the 80s when it was shot.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

07/02/23

Full Review

Audience Member

If it wasn't so disturbing to watch it, I honestly think it would have been a great movie but it isn't so yea

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The movie is good. The movie has some of jerry lee Lewis best songs. The act of the character is good with jerry lee Lewis personality.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

steve d

It's a bit uncomfortable but the stars are great.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This film about controversial fifties rocker Jerry Lee Lewis is a must see. Dennis Quaid does a great job at playing Lewis and Winona Ryder is also great as his teen bride/cousin.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

the best movie of all time .

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/19/20

Full Review

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Jim McBride

Director

Dennis Quaid

Jerry Lee Lewis

Winona Ryder

Myra Gale Brown

John Doe

J.W. Brown

Stephen Tobolowsky

Jud Phillips

Trey Wilson

Sam Phillips

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Nell Minow

Movie Mom

Ryder and Quaid seem to be in two different movies, but Baldwin is brilliant.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 26, 2003

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Great Balls of Fire gives us a Jerry Lee Lewis who has been sanitized, popularized and lobotomized. Even then, the story ends in 1959 - before most of the events for which "The Killer" became notorious.

Rated: 2/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Rated: 1/4

Jun 30, 1989

Full Review

Candace Wiggins and Tia Nikolopoulas

Southern Voice (Atlanta)

Quaid is perfect as Lewis, donning the strutting near-innocent pomposity of one who truly believes he is the King of Rock and Roll.

May 9, 2023

Full Review

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...a relentlessly (and woefully) uneven true-life tale.

Rated: 2.5/4

Oct 18, 2022

Full Review

Jas Keimig

The Stranger (Seattle, WA)

This film is bad. Boringly bad.

Jan 20, 2022

Full Review

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Synopsis

Upstart rock 'n' roll singer Jerry Lee Lewis (Dennis Quaid) has just cut a record at Sun Studio. Jerry's cousin, pastor Jimmy Swaggart (Alec Baldwin), tries to steer him away from a depraved life in the music business, but Jerry was born to play the so-called "devil's music." With rock 'n' roll king Elvis Presley busy with military service, Jerry sees his chance to claim the throne of popular music. But, his unabashed love of his 13-year-old cousin, Myra (Winona Ryder), may ruin his chances.

Director: Jim McBride
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 28, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $13.4M
Runtime: 1h 48m
Sound Mix: Surround