Highly Overrated But Still Good

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Ampipe (Johnstown, PA), a depressed and gritty steel town located just outside of Pittsburgh is in obvious decline. It had been founded long before by Ampipe Pipe and Steel when steel was big. In the old days young men left high school, acquired a job at the mill, married, fathered children, and bought a house while they were still young. Most of the local men still work at Ampipe, but layoffs are increasing. Enter Stef Djordjevic (Tom Cruise), a cornerback for his Ampipe High School football team (The Bulldogs), who wants a college scholarship to an engineering college, his ticket out of town. He displays his Penn State pennant on his bedroom wall. Stef resides with his father (Charles Cioffi) and older brother, Rick (Gary Graham), both of whom work in the mill. Stef doesn't always act in a nice way but is generally likable. His problem is his attitude, which drives his Coach, Nickerson (Craig T. Nelson), mad as a hatter. Stef does not always listen to his coach's teachings. Stef maintains a B average at Ampipe High, not good enough for a college scholarship. So he needs football as his meal ticket. Stef happens to be a very good defensive player, although he is not the star of his team. Meanwhile Coach Nickerson too is looking for a way out of Ampipe, as he has a chance to become defensive backfield coach at Cal Poly. The coach is tough and no-nonsense, and really works his players hard during the practices. He is less than perfect, and when players make mistakes, he considers them as quitters on the team. Even though the movie revolves around high school football, it is more about inter-personal relationships than about the gridiron. In fact, the big game against the Knights of Walnut Heights, a richer school undefeated and ranked number three in Pennsylvania, occurs only half-way through the movie, not at the denouement. And yet an interesting well-filmed piece does involve the road game: the long bus journey to Walnut Heights with the players thinking their individual thoughts, the tensions in the locker room, the pre-game prep talk, the long spiral football spinning through the air, the hard hits and grunts in the rain, and the eventual heartbreaking loss. Nevertheless, the important matter is the story of life, as when the two teen-aged protagonists (Stef and Lisa, Lea Thompson) finally get around to expressing their true feelings. Secondary characters have their stories to tell. There are the men, laid off from work, who drown their sorrows in the local gin mill. One young man in financial difficulty becomes desperate enough to commit a robbery. A life-changing event involves a cheerleader who becomes pregnant. Then there are the antics of a bar room bully. Stef himself becomes tense as his expected football scholarships fail to materialize. In summary the plot is decent, and even though the movie is not a great one, is still worth watching.

Stef Djordjevic (Tom Cruise) lives in poor Pennsylvanian town Ampipe, a company town for American Pipe & Steel. He is the high school football star defensive back. He has his girlfriend Lisa Lietzke (Lea Thompson) and dreams of a college engineering scholarship. After a lost, Stef fights with Coach Nickerson (Craig T. Nelson) and is kicked off the team. Nickerson's home is vandalized and the coach blames Stef. Stef finds himself blacklisted from colleges. His friend Brian (Chris Penn) is forced to marry his pregnant girlfriend. The mill lays off his brother and he's desperate to escape the town.It's a very traditional small town kid struggles. Tom Cruise makes it better than its simple premise. He's full of himself and full of angst. It's also interesting that Craig T. Nelson isn't a simple character. Lea Thompson probably plays the most endearing and compelling character. Her talk with Mrs. Nickerson is fascinating. The teenage desperation is palpable although some of it is bad cliché. It reminds me a little of 'Friday Night Lights' but nowhere near as good.

All The Right Moves is a film about a headstrong high school football star of Ampipe High,Stefen Djordjevic,who dreams of getting out of his small Western Pennsylvania steel town with a college football scholarship. It also results with a head-on collision with his ambitious coach,Coach Nikerson,who also aspires for a college position, resulting in a conflict between them.Definitely,it was one of the better blue collar films made in the 1980's. Djordjevic,played by Tom Cruise in his first dramatic starring film,is a high school defensive back seeking a college football scholarship to free himself from the economic hardship that small Pennsylvania town of Ampipe,a town struggling through the downturn of the recession of the 1980's.While Ampipe High appears headed to win the game,a fumbled play in the closing seconds leads to a Walnut Heights victory.After the game, Coach Nickerson,played by Craig T. Nelson, lambastes the fumbler in the locker room, telling him to quit the team. When Stefen retorts that the coach himself quit, the coach kicks him off the team.After the game,some angry Ampipe fans vandalize Coach Nickerson's residence. Stefen is present and is a reluctant participant, but is nonetheless seen by Nickerson as the vandals flee. From there,Stefen deals with personal battles,including dealing with the coach who bans him among colleges because of his attitude and his relationship with his girlfriend,Lisa,played excellently by Lea Thompson.Stefen,frustrated by his current situation,confronts his former coach and his girlfriend whom he has set aside as his aspirations of getting out of Ampipe has become a big part of his life.At the end of the movie, Nickerson,with the help of Lisa,realizes he was wrong and offers Stefen a college scholarship for playing football at CalPoly where he works on a college position,which he accepts.The movie was simple and ordinary.The story was predictable.What stands out is the acting of Cruise,Thompson and Nelson.The direction of Michael Chapman was also commendable. Also,the movie has great original songs namely: "All The Right Moves";"The Last Stand";"This Could Our Last Chance"; and "Blue Skies Forever".Overall,the film was good but not great.Highly recommended for people who loves Tom Cruise and The Never ending Story star,Lea Thompson as well as people who wants to reminisce their great memories of High School.

All the Right Moves (1983) *** (out of 4) Nice slice-of-life drama about a high school football player (Tom Cruise) living in a small PA town where there's not much hope for a future except for getting a scholarship. He eventually gets thrown off the team by his coach (Craig T. Nelson) and soon realizes that his entire life might have just got thrown away. Even though the story is quite predictable, this is still a pretty entertaining little movie that actually has a lot more grit than you might expect. Cruise was still wet behind the ears and he certainly doesn't give a great performance but I thought he handled the role of this poor kid trying to get out of a failed life pretty well. Cruise certainly faired a lot better during some of the more dramatic scenes and his relationship with Lea Thompson, who plays his girlfriend here, was quite good as well. Thompson comes off very natural here and it really does feel like they were playing a real couple going through real problems. Chris Penn is also pretty good in his small supporting role. The film belongs to Nelson though and it's a real shame that he didn't have more screen time as he and Cruise work extremely well together and for my money the heart of the story was in their relationship yet for some reason it's not explored as deep as it should have been. The ending is quite predictable and you'll see it coming from a mile away but it was still touching in its own right. Director Chapman really doesn't shy away from many of the subjects and I thought it fairly looked at life in a small town via kids not wanting to turn out like their parents and how the majority of them are given up for dead even before they're out of school. The film contains a nice bit of drama from start to finish and it's certainly worth viewing even if it's not one of the greatest sports movies out there.