I was looking through some old photos of me and my family from when I was younger and there were so many holidays where all the women were wearing shoulder pads. What they hell were they thinking?!?
I had to cut my part on Ray Walston but since I’m planning on doing Galaxy of Terror I figured I would just talk about him then. 🙂
This review was…RAD! I thoroughly enjoyed it. The references to the montages sound like what I was mumbling to myself the whole time I was watching this film. I love how you referenced one science fiction franchise to describe the clothes at the dance (V), because Nostalgia Critic called it Battlestar Gallactica gear. The “Send Me an Angel” bike dance was epic – I first actually heard that song when I saw the movie “The Wizard” back in the late 1980s, so when it surfaced in this film, I was pleasantly surprised. I do enjoy the song.
And speaking of songs…”Break the Ice” was incredible – I love that song.
Thanks for also mentioning the bitchiness that is Talia Shire – I think she just gets typecast as the athletic cockblocker for every aspiring athlete of every age across every sport imaginable. First boxing, now BMX racing. The first time I saw this, when Cru tells her that “the only thing he’s good at is riding his bike,” I almost spit out my water, that line was just awesome.
The movie is definitely not cinematic gold, but its well worth the look, and you certainly covered all of your bases with this one. All technical problems aside that you had on this on, it was worth waiting for.
Also, thanks for referencing Cool as Ice…always hits a good spot!!! 🙂
I’ve heard the outfits were borrowed from the wardrobe dept for V but couldn’t confirm it so I just left it open ended. I have the soundtrack to the movie and it is awesome.
Shire was just a miserable mother in the movie. She had no faith in her son even though the whole freaking town did. At the end you could see her disgust because she knew her son was going to go on to be successful. Like she genuinely wanted him to fail.
I didn’t know NC did the movie. I just checked his wiki and yep. Well, I stopped watching him a while ago. Nothing personal, I just don’t have the time.
Hey, not offended that you stopped watching Critic – he was the gateway for why I began looking for other bad movie critics. I found you through Agony Booth, and you are the only one on there whose material I look at consistently, besides Terror Obscura.
Really? The costuming was borrowed from “V”??? That’s hilarious, talk about crossing genres!!!!!
Yeah, I do not like Talia Shire’s character in the film, she was truly pissed that Cru won the race. Did she REALLY want her kid to fail that badly????
My first was AVGN. A friend of mine introduced me to NC because he knew I loved bad movies.
I do try my best to watch The Cinema Snob as often as I can. Although he does some movies that even I couldn’t watch lol.
I really would love a director’s commentary. I want to know if Cru’s mom was supposed to be pissed that he won. I mean, the rest of the crowd is going crazy and she just looks like she is getting ready to yell at him. I wonder if anyone brought it up at the 25th reunion Q&A. Maybe it will be on the documentary.
A movie so 80’s I want to feather my hair. Growing up I apparently missed a lot of these movies. Where do you find them? You mentioned no American DVD release, did Canada get one?
I picked this up a while ago. I imported it from Canada but I think it may have been an HD broadcast that someone stamped onto a DVD because every other copy I’ve seen is a VHS rip.
I found the movie on stagevu.com, and it was obviously taped from a TV broadcast on an HD station. I actually downloaded it from there and saved it on a USB drive so I could watch it on my Blu-Ray player, because it was necessary to see Rad on my TV and not on my computer.
Gotta love these super-niche 80’s movies. I mean, I know BMX was becoming huge, but did they really think it was big enough for a major release? Then again, they also made Gotcha! so who knows.
Oh, and those shredded shirts the girls were wearing? Those were so awesome. I always wanted one of those. And a hypercolor shirt. Sigh. Also, I’m not sure what the hell Christian is wearing there at the Helltrack race, but I want one. It’s like an 80’s version of a booth babe racing suit. Odd choice for a spectator.
Seeing some of those tricks bring back a lot of memories, actually. There was a guy on my block who was into the trick riding, he even had a GT trick bike, so you know he was serious. His family moved away not long after mine came to the area, but I remember watching him do all sorts of insane stuff. It was pretty damn cool, and I still love watching bike tricks. Even if they’re set to Send Me an Angel.
And because you didn’t, I’m going to give a shout-out to Ray “I Was Fucking Awesome” Walston.
The 80s was a time of experimentation. They were trying new things instead of just recycling old ideas like we do now. Sure now the concept of a BMX movie seems like a stretch but then I’m sure a Karate Kid movie would have looked the same if it wasn’t for the massive success the original had. lol Gotcha! wasn’t even the only “paintball” game. There was also TAG: The assassination game. If either of those was a hit I’m sure there would have been a Laser Tag The Movie. heh
Those shredded shirts were all the rage of the mall chicks back then. Soooo cheesy but hot too because you had to be a waif to wear that sort of thing. I left if off the review but Christian was there to represent her bike company (which I don’t think they ever named) but not to race. So, thats why she was all decked out in that racing cleavage suit.
Everyone in my neighborhood had a BMX bike back then but none of us were any good beyond just riding it around and occasionally jumping a ramp and thinking we were badass. It wasn’t until we got into skateboarding that we actually did some tricks…and then rushed to the ER.
I dropped a Ray Walston bit for time and because I knew I would be talking about him again when I do my Galaxy of Terror episode. 🙂
I suppose that explains the volume of goofy ass movies, even if some of them were surprisingly good. And even when they dialed things back, they still made some awesome flicks (like Krull. Hells yes, Krull). Also, thank you for remembering TAG: The Assassination Game. I was trying desperately to remember it, but I kept thinking it was called Zap. Turns out I was thinking of Zapped!, which, aside from the exclamation point, has nothing in common with Gotcha!.
The shredded shirts were also great because they went with all sorts of outfits. You could wear them over things, go slutty and wear less under them… I swear, the 80’s had some awesome fashions. Once you got past the enormous hair and shoulder pads, of course.
One day I will have a Glaive from Krull. I have the board game and the DVD. (and the VHS somewhere) So sad to hear how much Lysette Anthony hated making the movie but it happens sometimes. Love Krull, killer movie.
I’ve been holding off on doing TAG until I get a better copy. The copy I have is garbage. I would have thought with Linda Hamilton being pretty big in the 90s they would have put this on DVD. LOL Zapped. I just watched that not too long ago after not seeing it for years. It wasn’t nearly as dirty as I remember.
I think the shoulder pads are about the only 80s style choice I would do without. I didn’t mind the shredded clothes, acid washed jeans, esleep things, etc…but shoulder pads? Who thought that was a good idea? No one, and I mean no one wants a girl with broad shoulders.
Oh, I would love to have a Glaive. Even a resin mock-up would be awesome. It’s a ridiculous weapon, but I love it. Did you ever play the video game? I don’t remember it as being very good, sadly.
Shoulder pads were bad, but the hair… all that hairspray. And when coupled with me being the type who prefers to be lazy and just pull my hair back in a pony tail, it was a pretty miserable experience. I don’t miss sculpting a satellite dish out of my bangs.
Cecil on said:
I made a Glaive out of cardboard when I was a kid. It was AWESOME. I used to be friends with a guy who worked for Master Replicas. He was trying to get them to get the license to make Krull items but they said it wasn’t worth it. Bummer, I would have totally bought a glaive. (with his discount, of course)
The Atari game? Yeah, I played that for a while but if memory serves it was just the same 3 screens over and over. Typical licensed movie games. 90% of the time they are an epic failure. The Board Game on the other hand is glorious.
Back in the early 90s there was a girl I knew who had the biggest mall hair I had ever seen. (to this day even) I wish I had pictures, it was ridiculous. I’m not even kidding when I say it was at least 6-8 inches off her forehead. It looked awful but she insisted she was the coolest girl because she had the biggest hair.
I used to put a lot of mousse in my hair to give it more volume. Thankfully most pictures of me back then weren’t too awful. I have a few mullet pictures from high school that are cringe worthy but I take solace in the fact that pretty much every guy in my class also had a mullet.
sunrise089 on said:
Cecil, what’s going on in that cabin scene, best I can tell, is that they only had cans of beans as containers, so they emptied then out, wasting the beans, to collect river water (!) to make hot chocolate, but Christian thinks it was pointless without milk. I’ve made hot chocolate with both milk and water, but while I’ve never wanted to top off the latter with the former apparently Christian did.
Ohhhh, I see it now…ok that makes sense. Wow, they couldn’t have made that much more confusing! I think they just needed some filler chatter in there to develop the relationship.
Oh and I’ve put milk in hot chocolate made with water. Kind of like putting milk in coffee.
Best review in awhile (not to trash the last few episodes). I simply like it better when its more obscure. Obscurity has a subjectivity to it but the less known, the better I think for this format.
Did not know ANY of that about Rad and was happy to learn!
follow:
When were big shoulder pads ever considered fashionable?
WHOA! Did Uncle Martin just give the finger?! Wow. I didn’t think anything could top his glowing head from “Galaxy of Terror”.
I was looking through some old photos of me and my family from when I was younger and there were so many holidays where all the women were wearing shoulder pads. What they hell were they thinking?!?
I had to cut my part on Ray Walston but since I’m planning on doing Galaxy of Terror I figured I would just talk about him then. 🙂
CECIL!
This review was…RAD! I thoroughly enjoyed it. The references to the montages sound like what I was mumbling to myself the whole time I was watching this film. I love how you referenced one science fiction franchise to describe the clothes at the dance (V), because Nostalgia Critic called it Battlestar Gallactica gear. The “Send Me an Angel” bike dance was epic – I first actually heard that song when I saw the movie “The Wizard” back in the late 1980s, so when it surfaced in this film, I was pleasantly surprised. I do enjoy the song.
And speaking of songs…”Break the Ice” was incredible – I love that song.
Thanks for also mentioning the bitchiness that is Talia Shire – I think she just gets typecast as the athletic cockblocker for every aspiring athlete of every age across every sport imaginable. First boxing, now BMX racing. The first time I saw this, when Cru tells her that “the only thing he’s good at is riding his bike,” I almost spit out my water, that line was just awesome.
The movie is definitely not cinematic gold, but its well worth the look, and you certainly covered all of your bases with this one. All technical problems aside that you had on this on, it was worth waiting for.
Also, thanks for referencing Cool as Ice…always hits a good spot!!! 🙂
Good show, old bean! 🙂
Thanks!
I’ve heard the outfits were borrowed from the wardrobe dept for V but couldn’t confirm it so I just left it open ended. I have the soundtrack to the movie and it is awesome.
Shire was just a miserable mother in the movie. She had no faith in her son even though the whole freaking town did. At the end you could see her disgust because she knew her son was going to go on to be successful. Like she genuinely wanted him to fail.
I didn’t know NC did the movie. I just checked his wiki and yep. Well, I stopped watching him a while ago. Nothing personal, I just don’t have the time.
I had to throw Cool as Ice in there. 🙂
Hey, not offended that you stopped watching Critic – he was the gateway for why I began looking for other bad movie critics. I found you through Agony Booth, and you are the only one on there whose material I look at consistently, besides Terror Obscura.
Really? The costuming was borrowed from “V”??? That’s hilarious, talk about crossing genres!!!!!
Yeah, I do not like Talia Shire’s character in the film, she was truly pissed that Cru won the race. Did she REALLY want her kid to fail that badly????
Cool as Ice was a nice touch. 🙂
My first was AVGN. A friend of mine introduced me to NC because he knew I loved bad movies.
I do try my best to watch The Cinema Snob as often as I can. Although he does some movies that even I couldn’t watch lol.
I really would love a director’s commentary. I want to know if Cru’s mom was supposed to be pissed that he won. I mean, the rest of the crowd is going crazy and she just looks like she is getting ready to yell at him. I wonder if anyone brought it up at the 25th reunion Q&A. Maybe it will be on the documentary.
One of your best reviews ever – a work of art. Tell me that epic song could not be switched for “You’re the best around” in the Karate Kid!
PS The Team America sample had me doing a spit-take.
Thanks! I am also quite happy with how it turned out.
Oh, the Karate Kid song could totally have fit here in somewhere, even more than in Fatal Games!
hehehe, glad someone got that 🙂
Is RAD considered as legendary an 80’s film as The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Buellers Day Off and The Labyrinth?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTYb3bKTQGw
I consider it up there with those classics but most folks probably have never even heard of it.
Another flawless review Cecil. Thanks for all your hard work on all these reviews, for all of us to throughly enjoy. And, oh yeah, “Go Balls Out”!!!!
Thank you! I appreciate the support! 🙂
I was trying to work a joke around the “balls out” but it was so funny on its own I just left it as a stinger for the end.
A movie so 80’s I want to feather my hair. Growing up I apparently missed a lot of these movies. Where do you find them? You mentioned no American DVD release, did Canada get one?
I picked this up a while ago. I imported it from Canada but I think it may have been an HD broadcast that someone stamped onto a DVD because every other copy I’ve seen is a VHS rip.
I found the movie on stagevu.com, and it was obviously taped from a TV broadcast on an HD station. I actually downloaded it from there and saved it on a USB drive so I could watch it on my Blu-Ray player, because it was necessary to see Rad on my TV and not on my computer.
It most certainly is! Seeing it on the bigger screen makes it all the more awesome. 🙂
Gotta love these super-niche 80’s movies. I mean, I know BMX was becoming huge, but did they really think it was big enough for a major release? Then again, they also made Gotcha! so who knows.
Oh, and those shredded shirts the girls were wearing? Those were so awesome. I always wanted one of those. And a hypercolor shirt. Sigh. Also, I’m not sure what the hell Christian is wearing there at the Helltrack race, but I want one. It’s like an 80’s version of a booth babe racing suit. Odd choice for a spectator.
Seeing some of those tricks bring back a lot of memories, actually. There was a guy on my block who was into the trick riding, he even had a GT trick bike, so you know he was serious. His family moved away not long after mine came to the area, but I remember watching him do all sorts of insane stuff. It was pretty damn cool, and I still love watching bike tricks. Even if they’re set to Send Me an Angel.
And because you didn’t, I’m going to give a shout-out to Ray “I Was Fucking Awesome” Walston.
The 80s was a time of experimentation. They were trying new things instead of just recycling old ideas like we do now. Sure now the concept of a BMX movie seems like a stretch but then I’m sure a Karate Kid movie would have looked the same if it wasn’t for the massive success the original had. lol Gotcha! wasn’t even the only “paintball” game. There was also TAG: The assassination game. If either of those was a hit I’m sure there would have been a Laser Tag The Movie. heh
Those shredded shirts were all the rage of the mall chicks back then. Soooo cheesy but hot too because you had to be a waif to wear that sort of thing. I left if off the review but Christian was there to represent her bike company (which I don’t think they ever named) but not to race. So, thats why she was all decked out in that racing cleavage suit.
Everyone in my neighborhood had a BMX bike back then but none of us were any good beyond just riding it around and occasionally jumping a ramp and thinking we were badass. It wasn’t until we got into skateboarding that we actually did some tricks…and then rushed to the ER.
I dropped a Ray Walston bit for time and because I knew I would be talking about him again when I do my Galaxy of Terror episode. 🙂
I suppose that explains the volume of goofy ass movies, even if some of them were surprisingly good. And even when they dialed things back, they still made some awesome flicks (like Krull. Hells yes, Krull). Also, thank you for remembering TAG: The Assassination Game. I was trying desperately to remember it, but I kept thinking it was called Zap. Turns out I was thinking of Zapped!, which, aside from the exclamation point, has nothing in common with Gotcha!.
The shredded shirts were also great because they went with all sorts of outfits. You could wear them over things, go slutty and wear less under them… I swear, the 80’s had some awesome fashions. Once you got past the enormous hair and shoulder pads, of course.
Ooo… Galaxy of Terror. Can’t wait!
One day I will have a Glaive from Krull. I have the board game and the DVD. (and the VHS somewhere) So sad to hear how much Lysette Anthony hated making the movie but it happens sometimes. Love Krull, killer movie.
I’ve been holding off on doing TAG until I get a better copy. The copy I have is garbage. I would have thought with Linda Hamilton being pretty big in the 90s they would have put this on DVD. LOL Zapped. I just watched that not too long ago after not seeing it for years. It wasn’t nearly as dirty as I remember.
I think the shoulder pads are about the only 80s style choice I would do without. I didn’t mind the shredded clothes, acid washed jeans, esleep things, etc…but shoulder pads? Who thought that was a good idea? No one, and I mean no one wants a girl with broad shoulders.
Galaxy of Terror coming…soon-ish!
Oh, I would love to have a Glaive. Even a resin mock-up would be awesome. It’s a ridiculous weapon, but I love it. Did you ever play the video game? I don’t remember it as being very good, sadly.
Shoulder pads were bad, but the hair… all that hairspray. And when coupled with me being the type who prefers to be lazy and just pull my hair back in a pony tail, it was a pretty miserable experience. I don’t miss sculpting a satellite dish out of my bangs.
I made a Glaive out of cardboard when I was a kid. It was AWESOME. I used to be friends with a guy who worked for Master Replicas. He was trying to get them to get the license to make Krull items but they said it wasn’t worth it. Bummer, I would have totally bought a glaive. (with his discount, of course)
The Atari game? Yeah, I played that for a while but if memory serves it was just the same 3 screens over and over. Typical licensed movie games. 90% of the time they are an epic failure. The Board Game on the other hand is glorious.
Back in the early 90s there was a girl I knew who had the biggest mall hair I had ever seen. (to this day even) I wish I had pictures, it was ridiculous. I’m not even kidding when I say it was at least 6-8 inches off her forehead. It looked awful but she insisted she was the coolest girl because she had the biggest hair.
I used to put a lot of mousse in my hair to give it more volume. Thankfully most pictures of me back then weren’t too awful. I have a few mullet pictures from high school that are cringe worthy but I take solace in the fact that pretty much every guy in my class also had a mullet.
Cecil, what’s going on in that cabin scene, best I can tell, is that they only had cans of beans as containers, so they emptied then out, wasting the beans, to collect river water (!) to make hot chocolate, but Christian thinks it was pointless without milk. I’ve made hot chocolate with both milk and water, but while I’ve never wanted to top off the latter with the former apparently Christian did.
Ohhhh, I see it now…ok that makes sense. Wow, they couldn’t have made that much more confusing! I think they just needed some filler chatter in there to develop the relationship.
Oh and I’ve put milk in hot chocolate made with water. Kind of like putting milk in coffee.
Best review in awhile (not to trash the last few episodes). I simply like it better when its more obscure. Obscurity has a subjectivity to it but the less known, the better I think for this format.
Did not know ANY of that about Rad and was happy to learn!
Thanks! I will always go to the more obscure movies but I do like to break out the better known ones from time to time. 🙂
Yeah, I used to watch this movie all the time. Usually along with The Dirt Bike Kid.
Just some extra trivia.
There was just an article in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2013/jul/12/movies-audience-loved-critics-hated
that shows this movie as having the biggest disparity between audiences loving it and critics hating it.
I wonder what the Tisdale-Carano index is for all your films actually…
this is like a live action paperboy
Indeed!
This is my favorite movie of all time. I got this movie along with a purple 1985 GT Pro performer for Christmas of 1986, I still have both.
I will always have a soft spot for this one. Such a great flick that never gets old.