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This was a bad movie. The acting was mediocre, the plot was mediocre, and the characters were mediocre. However, the gymnastics were excellent and saved this movie from being a total waste. 4/10 for style, and being mediocre instead of dreadfully awful.

Andrew White pretty much steals the show as Julie's cousin, Arthur, a musician who lost his parents and was injured in a car accident. Not hard to do when you've got charisma vacuums like Mitch Gaylord and Janet Jones playing the leads. What you've heard about this film recycling elements from Rocky IV and Purple Rain is absolutely true, but it does so without any of the style or interest. I've also seen reviews that trash Alan Silvestri's bombastic score, and I'll admit that it's melodramatic in the extreme, but it's also one of the few things aside from some great gymnastics footage that kept me awake. It's a real shame considering a great film could be made about gymnasts. This just isn't it.

I didn't get to see this film until a year after it was in the theaters, one of my first experiences of seeing a movie on VHS (my parents didn't have cable or a VHS player). I was working as a camp counselor at a summer camp for the mentally disabled with a few weeks of youth summer camp in a small town east of Seattle the summer between my junior and senior years in high school. It was an important formative experience of my youth. I watched this movie so many times in the decade following, and I had the theme song on cassette, (I can still hear it in my head "Two hearts beat as one together" 25 years later). It it is viewed in the cultural light of 1986, and you are still young at heart, are a fan of competitive gymnastics, and can remember what young passionate love is like, you should enjoy this movie. Makes me want to watch it again!

There's really not much better than the high concept films of the '80s, and this one has it all. Ever notice how in these films, everyone in the ENTIRE TOWN seems centered around whatever miraculous achievement the star is involved in?

In this case, it's a whole group of friends, a whole family and a WHOLE TOWN focused on gymnastics! This movie made me want to rush out and become a gymnast, though I think that may be tempered by the fact that my teeny-bopper mind wanted to fall into the awaiting arms of Mitch Gaylord.

Granted, Mystic Pizza made me want to work in a restaurant and North Shore made me want to...uh...go to Hawaii and make fun of people, but as a film rooted in its conception of gymnasts, nothing's better than the would-be star who fails and fails until he finally gets it right.

Hoo-yeah.

Somewhere underneath, there is a solid, warm-blanket piece of 80s nostalgia. Fluid, European inspired visuals and a kicking 80s soundtrack move along this mtv-era sports drama. Much of the story is told visually, through montage and flashback. Features some incredible gymnastics, but hampered by some wooden acting and dialogue. It has enough zest for a light recommendation, and would be essential for anyone wanting to zone in on the bygone comforts of days gone by. They don't make em like this anymore.