Moving Target

By today's standards, this would be a decent feature.

It's solid and very engaging. Bateman is solid as is Skerrit. It won't stand out as the best of the 80's as a feature, but it does stand out as a strong lesser offering.

All these kids feel very real.

It's not perfect, of course. Jason Bateman does feel a bit old for the rebellious self centered kid he is playing. But, whatever, yes it isn't perfect, but it gets far more right than it gets wrong. The kids he deals with do feel very real, even the one with obvious moral shortcomings. Obvious as an adult, but kids as convincing kids. And this obvious kid with obvious kid failings pays a very real price, which he certainly as a dumb kid does not deserve.

I liked the 80s vibe here, because I like 80s movies.

Don't expect much, but I was impressed with Jason Bateman and he went on to do a lot of stuff.

It's your typical teen comes home to find family gone movie, if there is such a genre. Some OK action.

Plot is about what you expect from an 80s action movie, turn your brain off or go MST3K on it. But it serves the purpose.

Dialog is the weakness here I think, there's no imagination here, no flair.

Music is pretty standard 80s synth pop, but hey they actually show the girl playing a Yamaha DX7 synth, one of the most important 80s synthesizers. I would bet that the music in the movie used this same synth as the E Piano sound in one of the songs sounds like the DX& e piano.

I'm watching a marathon of Jason Bateman movies and I was really pleased with this one. For a made for TV movie, this is one in a million. The plot is concise, the actors are all talented and the movie as a whole really keeps your attention throughout. I really felt the sadness and confusion that Toby's going through over his missing family. I liked the whole "not knowing who to trust" point of view AND there's actually a lot of really good action in this movie. There's car chases, people jumping from buildings, scary hit men. And it seemed like Jason was doing all his own stunts, which were many. Pros: 80's cuties Action Drama Mystery Cons: Actress who plays Mrs. Kellogg seems half asleep. Movie drags on a bit in the middle before getting to the point.

I gave it a 9/10 because it highly exceeded my expectations and I got to stare at 18 y.o. Jason Bateman for 90 minutes :)

This is one summer camp musical that starts off like a teen comedy but begins to take some turns unexpectedly. Jason Bateman is well cast as a typical young teen kid from a middle class family. He is an adequate musician and he has plenty of friends.

His experiences at summer camp give us an insight into his musical weaknesses and his talent for finding trouble. His life takes a major change just as he is beginning to find some fame as a maybe rock star.

Action begins when the story is only into its first 15 minutes and the audience is taken for an adventurous ride. There is no bad language or nudity. This one is family safe. It is a little scary at times and there are some fine stunts with cars and people. It all looks top notch.

Jason at times reminded me of someone when he smiled or turned his head a certain way during the movie. It took me awhile to recognize who it was he resembled. If anyone is familiar with the smile of Joe Dallesandro during his youthful days, that is the same smile we see on Jason here.

I bought this one at Big Lots for $3. It seems to be part of a big closeout special from M-G-M. Highly recommended at any price.

If you like this I also recommend Emil and the Detectives if you can find it.

Tom Willett

It's not a feature film, it's a solid TV so see it that way.

And it's pretty good. Bateman was great, it seemed pretty real.

Very not perfect- no way the Feds would have one agent with this kid to not have attention- that's silly.

Really, it does fall apart in the third act, like so many movies.

But in this case, as a TV movie it works, especially when the lead calls the Feds for help. It does feel like infuriating red tape in a crazy urgent situation.

What this movie does well, it does REALLY well.

The third act thing where the Big Bad does moronic things- yes, that's here in glorious 80's stupid, but hey, it's an 80's flick, ;).