Alek is an immigrant from the Soviet Union who was a talented boxer in his day, but he was not allowed on the Soviet national team because he was a Jew. Depressed and discouraged, he meets two young amateur boxers. As their coach, he trains them for glory.
A lot of the film was shot in Brighton Beach, and looks authentic, but everything else is either synthetic or derivative, like the musical score.
– Vincent Canby,
New York Times,
20 May 2003
fresh:
It's a wonder nobody had thought of casting Brandauer as a boxer before -- his work is so full of devilish feints and tricky, misleading expressions.
– Paul Attanasio,
Washington Post,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
Streets of Gold starts out to make a statement about the kind of person this Russian emigre was, and it ends up using him as the backdrop for a tired Hollywood formula.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
1 Jan 2000
fresh:
A rousing ringside drama with Austrian hunk Klaus Maria Brandauer.