Nadando Contra a Corrente

You can probably use the old Woody Allen line, "I like your earlier, funny ones" in describing the ENTIRE career of writer/director John Hughes.

The list rattles off like 80's Night on TBS: from "National Lampoon's Vacation" and "Sixteen Candles" to "Pretty In Pink" and "Planes, Trains & Automobiles". Hughes was a filmmaker who literally caught lightning in a bottle - a former advertising copywriter who had the marrow of moviegoers' funnybones and could write smart dialogue and smart situations like nobody else at that time. Hughes literally cranked out some of the most hilarious, most loved films of the 1980's, ones that will stand the test of time.

Over time, Hughes also seemingly asked himself that, in the movie biz, why improve on a good thing when you can just repeat it. His canon of work ALSO includes "Some Kind Of Wonderful" (a hollow sex-reverse of "Pretty In Pink"), "Career Opportunities", "Home Alone 2" (awful), "Curly Sue" (incredibly awful), "Baby's Day Out", "Dutch" (a "Planes, Trains..." ripoff) and others.

By finally, completely tarnishing his former luster by cranking the same few movies out, he cruised into a lazy write-o-bot/photocopier mode by catering to snot-nose "Home Alone" kids instead of speaking to his fan base that followed him from the promise of his articles in National Lampoon Magazine through to smaller pix like "Nate & Hayes", "National Lampoon's Class Reunion" and the hit "Mr. Mom", into his 'teenage' phase, and then onto more adult-themed projects like "She's Having A Baby".

Let me put this as forwardly as possible: I like John Hughes' work. He fueled some of the happiest movie-going experiences in the 80's, and even after burning audiences with (very) lesser efforts, his former glories made makes us look forward to the next "A John Hughes Production" title credit. And then he dropped off the face of the earth. Secretly, under various pseudonyms, he cranked out scripts for low class fare as "Beethoven" and more recently "Maid In Manhattan", and was frequently subjected to the scourge of being rewritten by others.

So, it was with great trepidation but certainly a great bit of interest that I recently took in the 1998 (basically) direct-to-video feature, "Reach The Rock". The film is another John Hughes-penned-but-not-directed youth tale, occurring over the course of just one hot summer night in Hughes's fictional "hometown" of Shermerville, Illinois. It's the simple, straight-forward story of a young "punk" (Alessandro Nivola - later of "Jurassic Park 3") with nothing much to do and not a lot going for him. When he crosses paths with town top cop William Sadler ("Die Hard 2"), the showdown is set for a quiet, chatty battle of wills between two very headstrong characters.

The film takes a very leisurely approach in the showdown between these two characters - the lion's share of the plotted dialogue slowly unfolds between each in the town's jailhouse, and the two cross wits, barbs and truths over the course of the film's running time.

Sound familiar?

That's right: Hughes is at it again, repeating former glories, going back to the same well. He has taken the showdown/confessional/plot points between Judd Nelson and Paul Gleason from Hughes' touchstone, "The Breakfast Club" and expanded that conflict into this picture. But guess what? It works! Perhaps the passing of time (say, 13 years) has allowed the prolific writer an opportunity to revisit that dogeared script and "stretch" well under the radar of film criticism (this Universal-backed film never received anything approaching a limited release by its distributor).

The film is SLOOOOOOOOW, but director William Ryan makes the timing work in the picture's favour. Over the course of one night, lives are changed, people are changed and attitudes are changed. And there's a LOT of talk. It's like a play - a showdown between the (conveniently) whip-smart kid and the cop who isn't the clichéd hardass.

The action on-screen is cerebral, and Hughes' writing is crisp and assured. Taking place over the course of the middle of the night, the movie has a great sense of time and small-town place. A subplot involving chief Sadler's horny deputy is prefunctory, and serves as a sluggish diversion to the main attraction. "Reach The Rock" is absolutely nothing special for the casual viewer without a modicum of patience, but for fans of the same John Hughes that wrote some of the smartest, funniest and most thoughtful pictures of 80's, we extend a warm "welcome back".

I wanted to say that I concur with the previous members' reviews of REACH THE ROCK. This movie holds a special place in my heart, because it was partially filmed in my own town, Westmont, Illinois. The park district and senior center were dramatically remodeled, with SHERMER POLICE DEPARTMENT on our senior center. John Hughes' crew and production company were in town a few weeks. The dramatic events that took place during the filming were amazing! Never being on a film set, and having our town being used for the film made it especially memorable. Only bad part was that the scene where the main character "escapes" from the jail, and steals the squad car were probably 4 mins. of the entire film. Another community about 25 miles away (West Chicago, IL) was used for other parts of the film. I was disappointed that it never made it to the big screen. I caught it on our local WGN-TV one Sunday afternoon, purely out of coincidence. It is a story worth watching, so I do recommend it.

Like the other reveiwers here, I accidently came across this movie - for me on cable TV in Australia. What a beautiful little film this is. It had a great script, was superbly acted , and was quite moving to me. Highly recommended.

This movie proves that you don't need a high dollar cast and/or special effects, violence or sex to make a good film. This had none of those things, yet it held my attention by the actors' performances and the silence that was there, between the lines, so to speak. The attention to detail in minor points was also evident. After watching this film, I think I should look at other films produced by this team of dream makers. At one point, I commented to my viewing companion that this movie had the feel of an older David Lynch production right down to the music, i.e. Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. Thank you Mr. Hughes for such a delightful movie.

The beginning recalls Nicholas Ray's "rebel without a cause"(1955) .What follows is very static and is not unlike a filmed stage production:with its hints at the past and its somewhat tortured characters ,it reminds me of very lite Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller.Never really funny ,and never really absorbing,in spite of good actors.The brunette character is eminently questionable :it's not the return of Natalie Wood in the movie I mention above.It seems that after a bout of rebellion against daddy ,she returned to his-father-who-owns-the -whole-town apparently without tears.

Does not reach anything.