Kid

My review was written in April 1991 after watching the movie on Live video cassette.

C. Thomas Howell makes the transition from teen heartthrob to screen tough guy with okay results in "Kid", a routine vengeance melodrama that is being released directly to the video market Stateside.

Lesle Bohem's well-designed but highly derivative script recalls elements of Eastwood Westerns as well as John Sturges' "Bad Day at Black Rock".

Howell breezes into the small town of White Brush in a mythic cloud of dust. As flashbacks reveal, he returned to avenge his parents' murder by so-called respectable townsfolk.

Howell is a convincing antihero who systematically kills the villains in creative ways. He falls in love with young dreamboat Sarah Trigger whose father predictably turns out to be one of the murderers.

Blessed with a good cast, including reliable R. Lee Ermey as a particularly hissble sheriff, film sufers from an unconvincing finale. Also annoying is Tim Truman's repetitive music that fails in its attempt to conjure up Ennio Morricone's grandiose Western scores.

C.Thomas Howell stars as a nameless man who returns to the small town where his hippie parents were killed ten years later, however this time he's armed and he's out for revenge in this solid low budget actioner which casts Howell in a good role as the vigilante kid. Some excellent editing and some entertaining fightscenes highlight the movie.

This has become one of my favorite movies. This is partly because I am the biggest C. Thomas Howell fan out there. The plot: young man comes back to get revenge on the people who killed his parents when he was still a kid. The scene of their death is so sad. This movie makes you laugh, cry, and grab the edge of your seat. The inside joke with the dog is really cute. The romance between the Kid and the leading lady (Sarah Trigger-terrific job) is so sweet. Even though I don't believe in getting revenge, especially when it has to do with murder, I felt very sorry the main character. It shows a great sign of talent a viewer feels compasion for a character whether or not that person agrees with the action he/she takes in the movie. Rent it, buy it, see it. You won't be sorry.

"Kid" is one of those movies where you're not going to be mesmerized by the acting or script; instead, it pulls you in with its scenery of beautiful Arizona, the music which is something out of a "80'S Hair Metal" CD, and by the story itself. Haven't we all wondered just a little about growing up with no family...always having to rely on no one but yourself? An interesting thought to me anyways. Each time I watch it I go back in time to a time when my family was still together and I took my teen-age freedom for granted. Although we never learn what C Thomas Howell's actual name is, we don't need to. Plenty of great fight sequences and around-the-corner suspense make this movie a must-own for anyone who didn't know the best years of their life would be the 80's until they were 30.

Perhaps a bit cheesy at times, but I do believe it's the best revenge movie I've seen. I've only had the chance to see it once and would like to see it again, to possibly reaffirm my high opinion of the flick, but it's a hard one to come by.