All the Right Moves

All the Right Moves follows a high school football player, played by Tom Cruise, in an industrial town in Pennsylvania, where his only escape from his circumstances is a football scholarship to study engineering. The story centers on the intense relationship between the young protagonist and his coach, portrayed by Craig T. Nelson, who is also vying for a promotion. The film reaches its peak during the big game night, where it seems like both characters have shattered each other's dreams.

What sets All the Right Moves apart from typical high school movies is its departure from clichés. Rather than focusing on shallow storylines of popularity or superficial conflicts, the film delves into the authenticity of adolescent emotions, complex relationships, and the dynamics within the student body.

A key highlight is the chemistry between Cruise's character and his girlfriend, played by Lea Thompson. Their relationship is portrayed realistically, with all its ups and downs, insecurities, and misunderstandings. It doesn't feel like a typical high school romance, but instead, a genuine exploration of how teenage relationships can be intricate and vulnerable.

The plot is grounded in realism, revolving around the misunderstandings and mistakes that are part of adolescence. The film captures the universal feeling of being wrongly blamed for situations, something every teenager can relate to.

What's most impressive is that the film concludes in a way that feels true to life. It doesn't offer easy answers or predictable happy endings. The characters are real, vulnerable, and morally complex, providing a refreshing and authentic portrayal of high school life.

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.

A younger, different looking Tom Cruise (old jaw/nose?) stars in this movie about a high school student aching to leave his dying steel mill town and study to be an engineer on a football scholarship. He watches his best friend, also on the team, marry his pregnant girlfriend; another member of the football team is arrested for armed robbery; his brother gets laid off from the mill; and his girlfriend (a young, fresh Lea Thompson) complains that no one gives music scholarships, just football ones, and she's going to be stuck in the town. After turning down initial scholarship offers to middle of the road schools, Cruise finds himself blackballed after an incident at his coach's house with which he was only peripherally involved. Off the team, and with the word out that he has an "attitude problem," he sees his dreams turning to dust.

Craig T. Nelson plays the coach and does his usual fine job, and Lea Thompson is a vibrant, passionate Lisa. Cruise here gives a truer performance than usual - I usually find him a very external and not terribly believable actor. In "All The Right Moves," he's sympathetic and heartfelt. I much prefer this to the perfectly handsome, glossy figure he is today. Time to get back to basics, Tom, and get some of those right moves back.

Ah, the classic 80's film, the big hair, the bad lighting, the lame music, everything that embodies the great American films of 1983. And "All the Right Moves" is no exception. I'm 24, and just viewed this movie for the first time last week by stumbling upon it at my parent's house while I was visiting for the weekend. Why do you care? I live in Johnstown, where this movie was filmed (as was 1977's Paul Newman classic "Slap Shot") and I had never heard of this film! So, I find this dusty VHS copy and take it home with me to view. As i pull it out of its slip sleeve, a yellowed napkin falls out; with Tom's autograph on it! Turns out when I was about 1, my parents brought me down to Johnstown to ride on the Inclined Plane, and I was introduced to Tom Cruise. I never knew?! So knowing that, I had to give the movie a thorough watching, and I must say, I have a little pride that that film was shot here. It was an enjoyable movie, although the ending was a little dry. The sad part of the film is, all the activity and energy that takes place in the movie with the steel mills is no longer here. The mills have been shut down for about 20 years, and the city is pretty much in a depressed state. It's good to watch the movie just to get a glimpse of what this area use to be. So watch it, enjoy it, heck, you can even rent it from the rental place a block from my house. That place is called "All the Right Movies." Enjoy! P.S. For the Kid's sake, It is rated R for strong language and some intense nudity.

Sports movies are often stuck in the same old clichéd formula, but more often than not, they work. To All the Right Moves credit, it doesn't follow that winning formula, but it also doesn't necessarily create its own well-strung story.

In one of his first acting roles, Tom Cruise stars alongside Craig T. Nelson and Lea Thompson as his coach and girlfriend respectively. If for nothing else, this film is worth a watch just for those performances alone. Cruise and Thompson prove to be fearless in their risqué high school roles, and Nelson plays a great antagonist and obstacle for Cruise's 'Stefen' character. I can't speak too highly on the film itself, but those performances are certainly worth 90 minutes of your time.

The biggest issue with All the Right Moves is that it actually tries to make too many 'moves' with its story, pun intended. It doesn't really know what it wants to be. On one hand, it's a nice coming of age story with Thompson and Cruise. The next it's an intense football drama between two schools. Or even a film that tackles the heavy themes of class struggle and sexuality, just to name a few. There's just no real focus here. The minute you start to get invested with what Nelson's team is doing, led by Cruise among others, it changes its course to another plot point entirely. I appreciate the film's intentions, it just didn't hit home the ideas that it set out to, and it suffers because of that.

What I can say is that this film was probably more of a product of its time. The soundtrack is blatantly filled with slow and smooth 80's tracks that can be distracting. The sound editing as a whole is pretty poor. The football sequences are borderline amateur. And some of the plot points have been done much better in more recent years. Sure, that's not the film's fault, but it does hinder its re-watchability to an extent. It's fun to watch a young Cruise and Thompson share great chemistry, but there's not a lot beneath that.

+Cruise shows promise

+Attempts to explore deep themes

-But fails at most of them

-Misguided direction

56/100