Ultima occasione

Omg, Frankie, how hot is she.

I grew up watching the movie on vhs, loved it, and hated it, way to gansta for my farm life. But still, what a nice escape to realise my life was good.

The movie depicted a life style that scared me, along the way, learnt some good music!

Jim Carroll, thank u so so soooo much!

A good 30 years later ,till listen to u.

This one is a real relic of the '80s--the hair! The shoulder pads! The sweaters folded casually over the shoulders! The movie cheerfully steals from "Rebel Without a Cause" and winks at "The Warriors" and "Footloose" as well. Kim Richards is somewhat miscast as a "tough" girl but gives a very game performance and looks gorgeous as always. James Spader also gives a sincere performance, which couldn't have been easy with some of these scenes (he is forced to serenade Kim Richards on the piano). The best scenes, IMO, are the country club montage (Olivia Barash blithely asking the rich girls "You do swallow, right?"), and when Richards and Spader finally hit it off at a club. How do we know this? Because Richards breaks into a perfectly choreographed (albeit spontaneous) dance number! Truly enjoyable if you just let yourself do so.

Anyone with a music shout-out? 'Tuff Turf' is a uneven, but overly stylised and fashionable mixture ranging from a lesser take on 'Rebel without a Cause' with a constant spray of social and class references/forbidden romance in a L.A suburban backdrop and being backed-up by a pumping soundtrack led by Jim Carroll and Jack Mack and Heart Attacks. The music was non-stop and the story's tone and shape zips-around, as early on we seemed to move from one joint to another featuring blaring tunes and raving dance moves.

Morgan Miller and his family have just moved from Connecticut to Los Angeles, where he encounters and interferes with the local gang led by the psychotic Nick Hauser. To make matters worse, his fallen for Hauser's girlfriend Frankie and goes about trying to grab her attention, despite the warnings and beatings to stay away from her.

The young cast are quite good. James Spader genuinely fits blending a rebellious attitude with easy-going suaveness. The gorgeous Kim Richards is completely transfixing in who wholesome performance and punk appearance. Paul Mones nails down his role as the hot-headed thug and Robert Downey Jr. lends in with an agreeable performance. Also dependable character actor Matt Clark makes for solid support.

Director Fritz Kiersch truly gets the beat on with its breakneck pack (despite some editing in the story wouldn't have gone astray) and stylishly muscular verve. When it calls for it, Kiersch isn't afraid to pack a punch, as the jarring violence is sweaty and a bloody pulp. Jonathan Elias' booming, sullen synthesiser score helps cement the rough atmosphere and saucy energy. Some set-pieces seem to work better than others, but there's no question there are a couple of powerful, moving and harsh illustrations. The script isn't as foreseeable, but the humour at times seemed to get in the way or not entirely fit.

Just watched the movie that was #1 at the box office the week I was born, TUFF TURF (1985). Must have been a weak week at the theater because it still didn't do well. That's probably because this movie BLOWS. It was James Spader's first lead role and Robert Downey Jr's first co-star role. Kim Richards (the girl from Escape From Witch Mountain and Assault on Precinct 13) is really cute as the punk rock damsel in distress but aside from the 80's aesthetics and vibes on 10, this movie misses in pretty much every department. It tries to be a cool & cute high school flick in the first half but it's almost completely humorless and the story goes nowhere, in the second half it turns into an extremely heavy-handed dramatic action flick full of people getting beaten up, bloodied, or shot - but it never feels right. There's something missing. It's simply not an enjoyable film. It's far too long at 2 hours considering it has almost no story, none of the characters have any depth aside from maybe Kim Richards but it's still not that deep, and it doesn't function well as a comedy, a drama, OR an action thriller... whoops.

P.S. every SINGLE time I try to type Tuff Turf it ends up Tuff Turd first on accident

Tuff Turf brings back memories of watching movies on Select TV. This 80's cult hit is about a young rapscallion who's life is turned upside down when his upper class father hits financial trouble forcing his family to move out to the 'hood. James Spader slowly learns how to deal with street life whilst his family adjusts to dealing with people that are of "lower social class". Interesting film staring James Spader as the young punk rich kid, Matt Clark as his shell shocked father, Robert Downey Jr. as his high school buddy and Kim Richards (Escape To Witch Mountain) as his soon to be girlfriend. The only part of the movie that gave me the willies was when his older (more culturally refined) brother pays a visit, there's an oedipal conflict between the two (the scene where the older brother embraces his mom far too long and hugs her too close for comfort)that would have given Freud a thrill to try and psycho-analyzed.

Recommended for 80's fans.