If you like blues music in a glitzy chorus girl setting you'll enjoy the good but not great soundtrack and initially fun choreography. The sets -- uh, make that set for most of the movie -- is initially intriguing. The problem is, the movie never goes anywhere once the table is set. The choreography becomes repetitive, the nightclub becomes boring, and most of the rest of the movie is the distinctly unlikeable protagonist walking around in the dark and talking to people. None of the acting is outstanding, the plot not only telegraphs what is coming, it rather explicitly lays it out in the narration, leaving no room for twists, surprises, tension, or anything else. It's like reading through a book you didn't really want to read just because there is no other way to reach the end. You keep hoping a gem will show up but... alas. Talk about the blues.

I was looking forward to seeing this film as someone I know was involved with the production. But the movie I ended up seeing had nothing to do with what they told me was shot by the director. All I can figure out is that it was chopped up and edited to the point where it no longer made any sense. And the casting was awful. I read a copy of the shooting script. This is not the movie I read at all. I've been told this happens all the time to movies. Too many cooks in the editing room end up spoiling the soup. Boy, this movie should be used as an illustration on what not to do to material in an editing room in film schools.

The soundtrack is great but it's so overwhelming that half the time you can't even hear the dialog. What started out as a sci-fi noir ended up in a blender.

Maybe someday someone will make the movie I read and heard about. That one was truly original and could have been great.

If you are a fan of Salomon Burke, Etta James, Dr. John, or just love blues and swing, "Dark Streets" would appear to be dream come true. In this tale of a doomed 1930s rich boy turned night club owner, even actresses Bijou Phillips and Izabella Miko hold their own as club singers delivering their songs with plenty of gusto and sex-appeal while the dancers and music scorch the screen. But the music and club act scenes cannot hide the movie's inept screenplay.

Besides the music, the cinematography is also stunning creating the noirest of atmospheres in the middle of the Great Depression. Murderous dark streets, threatening characters, a decadent night club, presented in rich palette of dark hues and swirling camera work. Unfortunately, soon this becomes irrelevant when the plot fails to deliver.

The story borrows heavily from "Chinatown" and 1940s/1950s film noirs, involving electrical power, greed, dissipation, betrayal, and murder. In able hands it could have been a compelling moral tale, but this poorly written movie lacks the required tension to maintain interest resorting to noir clichés (femme fatale) and contrived situations (heartbreak leads to cocaine) with subplots and characters that go nowhere. The dialogue attempts to generate some sparks here and there but the results are noir light - even Bogart and Bacall would have come out flat delivering the lines. To make matters worse, the main character is an uninteresting weakling who does not inspire much sympathy played by Gabriel Mann as if sleepwalking. Parts of the plot are ludicrous: a corrupt police lieutenant who wears a metal chest plate, a large amount of money that is never seeing again, a shrewd hostile governor is set up having sex at the club, characters murdered for no reason, etc.

If you like bluesy music, Busby Berkeley, a 1930s noir atmosphere and flashy camera work, you should enjoy some of this movie. Alas, "Dark Dreams" is neither "Chicago" nor "Chinatown" and while the musical acts sizzle the rest of the movie fizzles. If one would be able to only listen to the music with the voices turn off, it would be perfect. It gets 3 starts only for its music and some of its visuals.