A Chance

Continuing my plan to watch every Tom Cruise movie in order, I come to to his third and final movie of 1983, All The Right Moves.

Plot In A Paragraph: A high school football player (Cruise) desperate for a scholarship and his headstrong coach clash in a dying Pennsylvania steel town.

Like with Risky Business, this is another movie that I don't get people's love for. I find it watchable, and nothing more. Cruise is OK, everyone's favourite TV coach, Craig T Nelson is his usual reliable self, and Leah Thompson (who shares the most unsexy and uncomfortable life scene I have ever witnessed) looks cute, but doesn't really bring much.

One plus is, it has a decent rock soundtrack, which is usually listed first in the end credits with each song stating what scene it was played it.

This was the first movie Tom Cruise's name appeared above the movie title on a poster.

All The Right Moves grossed $17 million at the domestic box office, to end the year the 42nd highest grossing movie of 1983.

Stef Djordjevic is one of a team of football players in Pennsylvania that is relying on a scholarship to leave the dying steel town and go to college. The only options open to them in the town are to work in the steel mill which is currently laying off workers. The film shows the many barriers that trap the youngsters in the town.

This is one of Cruise's first films and it is a lot less glossy than many of his star-driven projects now, it's a lot more rough and ready than he would let it be if he made it now. It is a very simple story and a very short film - it basically shows a group of friends trapped in the town who have dreams of more but must overcome obstacles to get to college. Cruise must overcome the team coach's dislike for him to get a recommendation, Penn finds himself with a pregnant girlfriend who he must marry, Paul Carafotes finds himself drawn into crime to make ends meet. The lesson of the film is that it's difficult to break a cycle where you're in an industrial town and are expected to go into the same type of work as your father etc.

The most interesting thing about this is how young all the actors are! We've all got used to their faces now and it's weird seeing how young Cruise, Penn and Lea Thompson once were. The story is OK but is a little clichéd and is all a bit tidy towards the end. The football action is not exciting but I suppose is a muddily realistic representation of small town school sports. The performances are good considering the young cast and Chris Penn and Craig T. Nelson provide the two best roles. Cruise is a little too overplayed and brings a bit too much teenage anger and angst to the role.

Overall it's an interesting film, a little clichéd but OK. Personally I found it a little boring and didn't really care what happened to Cruise but it's not too bad.

All the Right Moves (1983)

*** (out of 4)

Nice slice-of-life drama about a high school football player (Tom Cruise) living in a small PA town where there's not much hope for a future except for getting a scholarship. He eventually gets thrown off the team by his coach (Craig T. Nelson) and soon realizes that his entire life might have just got thrown away. Even though the story is quite predictable, this is still a pretty entertaining little movie that actually has a lot more grit than you might expect. Cruise was still wet behind the ears and he certainly doesn't give a great performance but I thought he handled the role of this poor kid trying to get out of a failed life pretty well. Cruise certainly faired a lot better during some of the more dramatic scenes and his relationship with Lea Thompson, who plays his girlfriend here, was quite good as well. Thompson comes off very natural here and it really does feel like they were playing a real couple going through real problems. Chris Penn is also pretty good in his small supporting role. The film belongs to Nelson though and it's a real shame that he didn't have more screen time as he and Cruise work extremely well together and for my money the heart of the story was in their relationship yet for some reason it's not explored as deep as it should have been. The ending is quite predictable and you'll see it coming from a mile away but it was still touching in its own right. Director Chapman really doesn't shy away from many of the subjects and I thought it fairly looked at life in a small town via kids not wanting to turn out like their parents and how the majority of them are given up for dead even before they're out of school. The film contains a nice bit of drama from start to finish and it's certainly worth viewing even if it's not one of the greatest sports movies out there.

A younger, different looking Tom Cruise (old jaw/nose?) stars in this movie about a high school student aching to leave his dying steel mill town and study to be an engineer on a football scholarship. He watches his best friend, also on the team, marry his pregnant girlfriend; another member of the football team is arrested for armed robbery; his brother gets laid off from the mill; and his girlfriend (a young, fresh Lea Thompson) complains that no one gives music scholarships, just football ones, and she's going to be stuck in the town. After turning down initial scholarship offers to middle of the road schools, Cruise finds himself blackballed after an incident at his coach's house with which he was only peripherally involved. Off the team, and with the word out that he has an "attitude problem," he sees his dreams turning to dust.

Craig T. Nelson plays the coach and does his usual fine job, and Lea Thompson is a vibrant, passionate Lisa. Cruise here gives a truer performance than usual - I usually find him a very external and not terribly believable actor. In "All The Right Moves," he's sympathetic and heartfelt. I much prefer this to the perfectly handsome, glossy figure he is today. Time to get back to basics, Tom, and get some of those right moves back.

Ah, the classic 80's film, the big hair, the bad lighting, the lame music, everything that embodies the great American films of 1983. And "All the Right Moves" is no exception. I'm 24, and just viewed this movie for the first time last week by stumbling upon it at my parent's house while I was visiting for the weekend. Why do you care? I live in Johnstown, where this movie was filmed (as was 1977's Paul Newman classic "Slap Shot") and I had never heard of this film! So, I find this dusty VHS copy and take it home with me to view. As i pull it out of its slip sleeve, a yellowed napkin falls out; with Tom's autograph on it! Turns out when I was about 1, my parents brought me down to Johnstown to ride on the Inclined Plane, and I was introduced to Tom Cruise. I never knew?! So knowing that, I had to give the movie a thorough watching, and I must say, I have a little pride that that film was shot here. It was an enjoyable movie, although the ending was a little dry. The sad part of the film is, all the activity and energy that takes place in the movie with the steel mills is no longer here. The mills have been shut down for about 20 years, and the city is pretty much in a depressed state. It's good to watch the movie just to get a glimpse of what this area use to be. So watch it, enjoy it, heck, you can even rent it from the rental place a block from my house. That place is called "All the Right Movies." Enjoy! P.S. For the Kid's sake, It is rated R for strong language and some intense nudity.