Product Details

• Actors: Gregory Hines, Suzzanne Douglas, Sammy Davis Jr., Savion Glover, Terrence E. McNally
• Directors: Nick Castle
• Writers: Nick Castle
• Producers: Fran Saperstein, Gary Adelson, Richard Vane
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Etd
• VHS Release Date: June 24, 1993
• Run Time: 111 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301379616
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #140,647 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

With Tap, viewers are reminded of the late Gregory Hines' formidable skills not only as a dancer, but as a dramatic actor. This 1989 film isn't wholly original--the plot borrows from countless movies where the hero is a flawed man trying to do good. The audience is asked to believe he might revert to his ne'r do well ways, but we're confident that the ending will reveal his true, heroic colors. Hines (Will & Grace, White Nights, Running Scared) portrays Max, the son of a tap dancer, as a good-hearted man recently released from prison. Once back home, he's torn between returning to a life of crime for that promised big pay-off, or living up to his dance heritage. Rooting for the latter are Little Mo (a superb Sammy Davis Jr.) and his daughter Amy (Suzzanne Douglas), who want Max to help them take tap dancing back to its glory days. Hines and Davis Jr. are so poetic when they dance that an entire movie showcasing just their tap skills would be worth watching. But the actors bring heart to this charming film, which understands that the line between right and wrong can sometimes be as simple as a tiny misstep. --Jae-Ha Kim

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tribute to a Star, August 15, 2003

By 

Gerald Booth (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tap [VHS] (VHS Tape)

It's strange and a bit sad to watch this movie now. Earlier this week the world heard that dancer/singer/actor Gregory Hines had passed on at the age of 57. In his obituary there was a comment that, while multi- talented, Hines always considered himself first and foremost, a dancer. This movie from the late 80s shows that to be true in all it's wonderful glory.

Possible Spoilers.....

The movie opens on a man in a cell. The darkness surrounds him and he looks pained. Slowly he begins to listen to the noise around him. Before you know it the man in on his feet and dancing to the rhythms and sounds of the life in prison. The dance is one of pain but also as it goes forth brings out relaxation as anger is spent but most importantly the man begins to feel joy. Jump forward to the man, Max Washington (Gregory Hines) being released on paroll. He has just spent a few years in Sing Sing. Originally he was sentenced for Grand Theft but time was added on for Assault & Battery of a prison guard.
Max returns to his old neighborhood and takes a hotel room across from a run down building which houses the "Sunny Side of the Street" tap dance studio. As time goes on we learn that was his father's studio but first you see the various classes taught on the first two levels by an old love interest, Amy (Suzzane Douglas) and her son Lewis (Savion Glover). The true joy of the building is the third floor where the old "Hoofer's" reside. Here we find a virtual who's who of the tap dance world with many of the old masters portraying themselves and of course Sammy Davis, Jr. playing Little Mo.
Max is not originally totally welcomed back by everyone except for Lewis who looks up to Max as a father, which strongly portrays some of the real life feelings that occurred between Hines and Glover, and Little Mo who has some big ideas of how to get the rock and roll world interested in the tap world. Unfortunately for Mo, Max has a chip on his shoulder regarding the life his father led and the lack of finances that he grew up with. It seems that Max has another family, one in which Max was a first rate second-story man...until the night he got caught and ended in jail.
The movie is one of conflict between the worlds of the alleged easy and plentiful money and the hard work, no glory, no money world of music. As much as Max hates it this is the world that is within him and continues to draw him back time and time again.
Hines was a supremely talented man. He could act, he could sing, and man he could dance like no other. He expressed himself in so many ways that it almost didn't seem fair to the rest of us. Here his character of Max is full of rage and anger. He bears a lifetime of resentment at what he perceived his father's life to have been worth and he knows what he has to do to make it better. The anger is almost palpable as it floats off his body. The look in his eyes and the set of his jaws tells people that he isn't going to take any more. That same rage appears at first in his dance. He doesn't just lightly dance on the floor a la Fred Astaire. He pounds the floor and lets it feel his frustration. He attacks it with percussive beats and syncopated rhythms that make the listeners instantly step back...but then the joy appears. First it come in the way he dives across the floor and moves free for all the world and then it reaches Hines eye's and you know at that moment that all will be well for this man.
The dance sequences alone in this movie are worth sitting through. Hines has most of them starting with the dance inside the jail cell but there are also moments such as the instruction at the construction site as well as the end sequence when he is working with the rock band that are almost hard to sit through. For long time fans of the genre, the "Challenge" segment is a treat as all the old greats get out and show just why they made the business what it was. Also, there is a brief flash of the style from Savion Glover's character at one moment that shows why he was a star at such a young age and gives hints as to his future success with Bring in the Noise, Bring in the Funk!
The world has lost a great talent this week. But movies like this and Bojangles will be around for years to come and will allow fans to share one last time the joy of seeing a true talent at work in his field.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I love this movie, it's in my top 10 fav's, November 28, 1999

By 

Dorrie Burgess "trulydivyn" (US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tap [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you are a fan of tap, dancing, good rhythm, toe tapping and cheering on an underdog, you will love this movie also! I think there was genius involved in using all the old greats, including Sammy! The story is a little weak, but who cares when the dancing starts? That's what this movie is all about.....and what a start for a promoting such a talent as young Mr Glover......

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Forget the plot.... See if for the dancing!, July 6, 2003

By 

Rizzo (Nowhere) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Tap [VHS] (VHS Tape)

See this movie for the dancing only! The dancing. It's difficult to imagine Gregory Hines as a criminal, ex-prisoner, so that portrayal doesn't come off well. He's not that, he's Gregory Hines the tap dancer. The plot sandwiches typical scenes perfunctorily - the release of the prisoner into society, looking for a job, love interest, crime, etc. There really isn't a storyline, just a remanufacture of stale overused scenes. The cohesive element that makes a story work is missing, characters don't build, and it's predictable.

But what works is the dancing. See it for that. The film was shot with a smoky sepia-tone image, that impression of both black and white and color. Watch youthful Savion Glover shine! The older hoofers, Jimmy Slide, Arthur Duncan (from the Lawrence Welk Show), Sammy Davis, etc. This dancing ensemble might just be the "best" part of the film. ....MzRizz