IMDb RATING
6.3/10
9.6K
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A young avid skateboarder uncovers a conspiracy while investigating his adoptive brother's mysterious death.A young avid skateboarder uncovers a conspiracy while investigating his adoptive brother's mysterious death.A young avid skateboarder uncovers a conspiracy while investigating his adoptive brother's mysterious death.
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I love Gleaming the Cube, with the exception of the coyingly senitmental dialogue going on and some of the forced grief by Slater. It's a pretty cool 80s action movie for skaters.
A kid mysteriously winds up dead after he goes poking his nose into questionable problems with shipping orders for the Vietnamese Relief. The cops say all signs point to suicide (or at least they're not conclusive of any other cause of death), but his skater brother is determined to prove that he was murdered. Gleaming the Cube, as Brian's (Slater) friend Yabbo (Perlich) explains, is about finding your place. A soul searching that is bound by no rules and standards, in other words. It's actually a pretty fun, if not different, story involving athletes, nevermind skaters. Although, I'm pretty sick of the super-patriotic themes. Plus, you have a few of the Bones Brigade cast in the main role (actually only Tony Hawk and Tommy Guerrero get lead parts) while the rest of the Bones Brigade took up stunt parts (Cabby and Rodney Mullen, most noteably). Plus, you have a pretty rad soundtrack, and Christian Slater and Max Perlich make believable teenagers, and entertaining ones at that (rather than obnoxious or totally stupid). Skaters saving the day? What could be better?
The music, the story, and the actors, it's a score! It's one of my favorite skating movies and certainly one of my favorite 80s movies.
A kid mysteriously winds up dead after he goes poking his nose into questionable problems with shipping orders for the Vietnamese Relief. The cops say all signs point to suicide (or at least they're not conclusive of any other cause of death), but his skater brother is determined to prove that he was murdered. Gleaming the Cube, as Brian's (Slater) friend Yabbo (Perlich) explains, is about finding your place. A soul searching that is bound by no rules and standards, in other words. It's actually a pretty fun, if not different, story involving athletes, nevermind skaters. Although, I'm pretty sick of the super-patriotic themes. Plus, you have a few of the Bones Brigade cast in the main role (actually only Tony Hawk and Tommy Guerrero get lead parts) while the rest of the Bones Brigade took up stunt parts (Cabby and Rodney Mullen, most noteably). Plus, you have a pretty rad soundtrack, and Christian Slater and Max Perlich make believable teenagers, and entertaining ones at that (rather than obnoxious or totally stupid). Skaters saving the day? What could be better?
The music, the story, and the actors, it's a score! It's one of my favorite skating movies and certainly one of my favorite 80s movies.
What a sweet movie. This movie just about wraps up the "rad" pop culture of the 1980's, and puts it into one film. The skateboarding is incredible, and it features Tony Hawk who developed into the #1 skater in the world. While this movie might not be realistic, it made me laugh all the way through. The best scene by far involves Tony Hawk and a Pizza Hut truck. Enjoy this movie and remember the 80's.
Gleaming the Cube is the only half-way decent skating movie around. As far as cinematic art goes I don't know how I'd rank it, but as there aren't any others like it we'll just have to settle. The tricks are good, being that they're over a decade old and all and I have no real problem with that. After all, we can't progress if we don't know our history.
I absolutely love this movie, no doubt about it!
10/10. A great display of tacky, bad acting, bad storyline, eighties brilliance at it's best.
Drop me a line if you the same way. There has to be more than just myself out there who love this kind of trash.
10/10. A great display of tacky, bad acting, bad storyline, eighties brilliance at it's best.
Drop me a line if you the same way. There has to be more than just myself out there who love this kind of trash.
This is the story of a young confused high school punk who loses his adopted Vietnamese brother to a couple of gun runners. What is he to do? Well he could figure out who these people are and when he's frustrated, he could just skateboard while he's pissed. To lighten things up, he could hit on his dead brothers girlfriend.
There are many famous skaters who lent their abilities to this film. This does rank above the break dancing movies ('Breakin'')and the evil dancing movies ('Footloose' and 'Dirty Dancing') of the eighties, but I don't think it comes close to bike movies ('Rad' and 'The Dirtbike Kid')
There are many famous skaters who lent their abilities to this film. This does rank above the break dancing movies ('Breakin'')and the evil dancing movies ('Footloose' and 'Dirty Dancing') of the eighties, but I don't think it comes close to bike movies ('Rad' and 'The Dirtbike Kid')
Did you know
- TriviaFormer pro-skater Tommy Guerrero made $500 per day teaching Christian Slater how to skateboard.
- GoofsDuring the intense skate scene on the building site, Slater's skateboard miraculously changes from a regular skateboard to a freestyle board, which is less wide and differently shaped than the board he rides throughout the film.
- Quotes
Brian Kelly: I don't know what's worse: getting blown up in nuclear war or having a 7-11 on every corner.
- Crazy creditsRodney Mullen can be seen doing flatground tricks toward the beginning of the end credits.
- Alternate versionsInitial UK releases were cut for language and bloody imagery to achieve a PG rating from the BBFC:
- [Reel 2] During scene in orchard, after Vietnamese character has pulled out gun, remove dialogue "don't give me a jerk-off hand job" before he loses his gun and is killed (13 mins).
- [Reel 3] During scene between man in maroon jersey and boy in blue, after latter has swept objects off table, remove his response "Fuck, no" as he faces away from camera (6 mins).
- [Reel 6] After boy on skateboard has crashed through window and Vietnamese man has been shot, reduce sight of his lying on ground bleeding and being held by wife (4 mins).
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Making of Gleaming the Cube (1989)
- SoundtracksGleaming the Cube
Written by Robbin Thompson, Carlos Chafin and Eric Heiberg
Performed by James House
Produced by Michael James Jackson
- How long is Gleaming the Cube?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Al filo del abismo
- Filming locations
- Orange Grove - Jeffery Road, Irvine, California, USA(The Orange Grove Bobby drives into with Brian hiding in back seat, the grove is now gone & area is under development.)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $10,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $2,777,280
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $740,780
- Jan 15, 1989
- Gross worldwide
- $2,777,280
- Runtime
- 1h 45m(105 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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