Save your money for something good and enjoyable

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

A tomboy coincidentally named Tommy Boyd is a mechanic who discovers love when she meets a race car driver.Crown International Pictures strike again is all I can say. These guys seemed to have made a succession of comedies in the 80's that were of a similar quality to this one. Tomboy is one of several such undistinguished efforts, all of which also qualified as that other 80's cinematic idea – the high concept movie. Those were an invention of Hollywood executives, in that they were films whose plot could be described in one sentence. So, yes, Tomboy is simplistic stuff. It's one of many teen sex comedies made in that decade and it's pretty much as funny as most of them; in other words, not very funny at all. It's predictable, slightly racy and full of 80's cheese; if that's enough for you then this might appeal.

Tomasina 'Tommy' Boyd (Betsy Russell) is an independent girl. She's a mechanic and had always been a Tomboy. Her best friend Seville Ritz is boy crazy and wants to be a famous dancer. Tommy only has eyes for race car driver Randy Starr. Seville needs an investor for a TV pilot and she talks Tommy into taking her to a party with Randy Starr and his rich friend Ernie Leeds Jr. Randy wins over Tommy but he won't consider her as his equal in the car. She challenges him to a race.Betsy Russell is not the best of actresses but the rest of this cast makes her award winning by comparison. Kristi Somers does have a fun shower scene early on. There are a few scenes that shows the film knows that this is a cheese fest. Betsy is as sexy as ever even when she's Tomboyed up. This has its fun cheesy moments but it never exceeds its B-movie characteristics.

Lovely, perky, curly-haired and highly appealing brunette 80's flash-in-the-pan B-movie starlet Betsy ("Out of Control," "Cheerleader Camp") Russell gives a winningly spunky performance as Tomasina "Tommy" Boyd, a scrappy, willful, fiercely self-reliant spitfire hoyden automobile mechanic with a humongous crush on cocky race car driving dreamboat hunk Randy Starr (handsome, dashing Gerald Christopher). Egged on by her flighty, opportunistic aspiring actress gal pal Seville Ritz (leggy, luscious blonde looker Kristi Somers), Tommy meets Randy at a jerky rich kid's (Kirk Douglas' obnoxious youngest son Eric in an unbearably grating thespic turn) posh night party and, of course, the two fall a** over teakettle for each other. The only problem is that male chauvinist Randy won't take Tommy seriously because she's a chick, so naturally the take no guff Tommy dares Randy to a high stakes souped-up auto race to win over his respect.Passably directed by seasoned trash exploitation feature hack Herb Freed (who also graced us with the grim, unsettling, arrestingly off-kilter psychological horror sleeper "Haunts" and the atrocious teen body count slasher tripe "Graduation Day") and scripted in strictly off-the-peg adolescent comedy-drama formula fashion by Ben Zelig, this typically tacky and immaterial Crown International Pictures drive-in fluff covers all the necessary junky bases to qualify as a pleasingly silly serving of pure nonsense: a sizable number of nice-looking busty babes take their shirts off at regular 15 minute intervals (besides Russell and Somers, we also have "Cavegirl" 's eminently adorable Cynthia Ann Thompson as a frequently bare-breasted bimbo and cheesy horror scream queen Michelle Bauer in a ridiculous uncredited bit part as a topless tootsie in a flashy white Corvette), a heavy-handed "you go girl!" stand-up-for-yourself feminist subtext, a generous smattering of witless lowbrow humor (Ritz's audition for a TV commercial is a racy hoot!), the best cornball motorcycle courtship scene since "Viva Kneivel!," cheap gay jokes, stupidly vulgar dialogue ("Good night, little *beep*!"), a horrible soundtrack full of generic, mechanically bouncy Top 40 hit tune soundalike songs (the incredibly awful theme number boasts the following immortal couplet: "She's a road runner/She's a tail gunner!"), an unforgettably hideous folks in tight, clingy leotards thrusting their pelvises to and fro to crappy disco music get down and boogie aerobic workout sequence ala "Flashdance," and an utterly predictable grand finale all-or-nothing climactic car race. What's not to like about this charmingly shoddy 80's schlock artifact?

Betsy Russell, the 80's B-film queen who provided two of the only three reasons that Private School is worth seeing (Michael Zorek is the other) is miscast as Tomasina "Tommy" Boyd, a young woman who works as a mechanic and dreams of being a stock car driver and meeting her idol Randy Starr. She is also the tomboy of the film, who acts like a jock with her love of athletics than the usual girl things, unlike her friends.Once again, this is an 80's film, so get ready for the requisites of the best decade of the 20th century. You'll see an aerobic style dancing display, shower scenes, a party, feathered hair, horrible fashions, music in the background almost half the time, etc. At least it's easier to take than the cheeziness you'll see in teen-pop videos, but it's cheddar all the way.Betsy Russell, even with the Joel Polnochek hairstyle, just can't play a realistic tomboy. She's a gorgeous looking woman. Granted, I may be stereotyping here, but she's not the type who conveys it properly. I'd say that Drew, Lucy, and Cameron of "Charlie's Angels" fame are more "tomboyish". While nothing more than poor, there are a few good scenes, such as the silly donut commercial that Tommy's friend Seville does, a scene where Tommy eyes her Randy Starr poster and the camera pans it down to a certain area. Also, if the makers of Gran Turismo are reading this, please put the cars featured in this movie in your next game, they rock. I'd love to drive one of those instead of a $2,000,000 F1. Otherwise, pass!