American Anthem

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.

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.

Now I know why the logo for Lorimar Motion Pictures had a direct shot of the sun shining right into your eyes - to blind you so you wouldn't be able to see movies like "American Anthem." I saw this movie on video first, and later at a drive-in under its overseas title "Take It Easy" (named after one of the songs by Andy Taylor - yes, the one from Duran Duran - that clogs up this movie) as the supporting feature to "Dirty Dancing." Swayze blew away Gaylord then as he has now (hey, how many movies has Mitch done since then? Thank you).

From the director of another bad movie starring someone with no business acting ("Purple Rain"), this was a very poor time at the flicks. I can still remember the boring scenes, the undramatic gymnastic moments (except for the one where our hero went too fast on the parallel bars, flew off and crashed - but sadly lived to twirl another day), and I can still remember Janet Jones as our hero's girlfriend dancing to synth soft rock instead of the usual stuff.

Actually, Janet's hard body and Alan Silvestri's score (which Mike Clark from 'USA TODAY' dismissed at the time as the kind of stuff associated with political campaign ads - but let's face it, what do most movie critics know about movie music?) were the only good things about the movie - I got the soundtrack album hoping that there'd be some of it, and was not happy to find none of the orchestral stuff there; he only had two synth cuts in amongst the likes of John Parr (did this man ever record anything NOT for a movie?), the aforementioned Andy Taylor and Graham Nash. In other words, like the movie, it sucked apart from him.

Lorimar should've stuck with "Dallas" and "The Waltons."

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!

Coming off the highly successful 1984 summer olympics and seen as the hearthtrob of the games, Mitch Gaylord took his shot at the movies with this pic. The plot, such as it is, has Gaylord playing a gymnast, quite a stretch, who meets the new girl in town Janet Jones who is the only thing worth looking at in the movie, as they train for the olympics with a strict coach. Guess what, they fall for each other too. Obvious plot, dumb writing, clichés everywhere. Only if you are a fan of gymnastics, Mitch Gaylord, or Janet Jones and even then there are other choices out there. This and Kurt Thomas' Gymkata were the two and thankfully the only 2 gymnastic movies released. We were spared a Mary Lou Retton and a Domonique Moceanu movie luckily... My rating is one only because there is no zero