I love this movie so much

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I love the movie and find it motivational still. This movie came out when I was just transitioning in to High School in fairly small town Oklahoma, where wrestling was near to as important as football. Most of my friends and my brother wrestled, so I knew how much work went into it. Naturally, I grabbed a 6-pack and joined the golf team. Still, from what I see it is a pretty good example of the wrestling aspect ( except for some of the throws they execute ) ( the weight cutting was spot-on for that time ). The rest of the movie to me is a kind of robotic spin on a pipe dream. Yes, there are several good actors in the movie, but this must have been in the early days for most of them because every line in it is like they have the script behind their back. Still, good story and something we all dreamed of at that age. 5 out of my 9 is for the wrestling aspect. Also, still have the soundtrack. It's just on my ipod now instead of a cassette tape.

This is a classic 80's movie that's actually quite enjoyable. The acting is a little uneven, but not enough to ruin the film. The monotone performance of Linda Fiorentino contrasts with Matthew Modine's child-like wonderment persona, yet they still somehow have chemistry. The character, Louden Swain, is a die-hard optimist who has big dreams for the future. Matthew Modine does an inspiring job in becoming this character. Bottom-line, this movie is all Modine. He carried this film and it would never have worked without him. Whenever I call in at work, this is my "go to" movie that I pop in to pass the time. It's a fun movie that you can watch over and over again. Yes, parts of it are quite cheesy but that's what makes it even more amusing. Great 80's soundtrack too! Enjoy!-RM

Forgettable coming-of-age tripe, one of the few teen films of the time to go for an R-rating. Perhaps if I had hit the mat back in high school I would've been moved.Lanky, goofy Modine jogs at all hours, gets more non-contact nosebleeds than an upper-deck ticket buyer, and starves himself to victory in this wrestling allegory. A rough and tumble chick shows up in his neighborhood, socks a used car dealer in the face, and is in turn taken into Modine's home by his father. Despite her "the world can go eff itself" exterior, she (of course) is a dedicated artist who listens to classical music. She wears no make-up, no form-fitting clothes, and shows nary an interest in Modine. Naturally, he "falls" in love with her.The rest of the film is dedicated to various training sequences, backed up by a good soundtrack, intermixed with expected machismo you'd find in a high school sports movie. Embarrassingly though, the flick has become horribly dated in terms of its, ahem...male-ness. Yes, the full contact aspects of the sport are customary, but also off-hand remarks involving guy-on-guy admiration, and Modine's adversary telling him "I'll give you something to suck!" Not to mention Modine fully stripping for a weigh-in...only to be hugged and patted by his teammates seconds later! (Let him put his damn tidy-whities back on!!)One of the flaws is having Modine's worst enemy actually part of his team, and the rival school's bad-ass hardly even featured. There's not even a standard 80s show of solidarity by the two later in the film. They also throw in a few howlers dealing with Modine's virginity being the measure of a man, and a completely needless and laughable analysis on the female "clitter-iss". Zuniga's jubilation at Modine's school article(!!) is worth a hearty knee-slap. It all leads to your standard battle royale heart-stopper where you-know-who emerges victorious, complete with a freeze-frame voice-over on the meaning of life. Not exactly the end of "The Karate Kid".I dunno, the entire film just had no impact anywhere. Insignifigantly told and laid out, with Modine's hero too non-descript and naive. A wholly unrecognizable Fiorentino drags things down as well with her totally charmless troubled-girl-with-heart act. Ronny Cox is always reliable as the understanding dad, with James Gammon only glimsped long enough to slap his kid ("Sixteen Candles" Matt Dillon look-a-like Schoeffling) in the face a few times in a druken stupor and tell him he's not a man. Well, at least there's the above mentioned soundtrack, although Madonna's "Crazy for You" is beaten to death (song is featured no fewer than four times). And Modine and Zuniga would appear together again in a far better campus film called "Gross Anatomy" four years later. Seek that out instead.

Although it spawned a popular soundtrack (featuring two Madonna songs, which she performs on-screen as a bar singer), "Vision Quest" didn't quite become the male-version of "Flashdance", if only because the narrative--a male teen striving for success on the high school wrestling team--was not as embracing as a female welder dreaming of becoming a ballerina. The two films certainly look similar, with this one getting a smoky-and-slick blue-collar scenario which looked pretty good when chopped up into music video form. The movie itself isn't as energized, what with Matthew Modine looking too old to play a senior and Linda Fiorentino (in a Jennifer Beals poof 'do) seductively lurking around as the older woman-boarder in Modine's house. There's a rebuffed homosexual come-on at the very beginning which telegraphs us in no uncertain terms that Modine may be a virgin, but by golly he's straight as an arrow! Scripts like this belong to a different time-period altogether, pre-"Flashdance" actually...closer to something from Mickey Rooney's era. * from ****