Johnny Be Good

This film has two main things going for it - nostalgia and the ability to fantasize about having Uma Thurmann as your girlfriend in 1988. There are many fantastic shots of her in all measure of garb, including a wonderful body-length pajamas. Lots of nice white tops and jeans. Phew and Rowrrrrr.....

Anthony Michael Hall is an actor I decided I liked after all in his later career when he played Bill Gates in Pirates of Silicon Valley. He's got a measured confidence mixed with some menace underneath that all-american blonde facade. Despite what some might some might say about Hall's depth, he is about the only thing saving this movie from absolute disaster.

I actually found Robert Downey Jr to be mostly insufferable in this film, and its very early for him, but he isn't given a lot to work with. He does have a few good lines, though.

Structurally, this movie has a lot of problems. The plot is insanely thin, and it sort of purports to a certain amount of morality, but then it does not a lot to support that assumption. It lays out Hall's character compromise of his character in such an extreme, laughable manner, it's pretty hard to take it seriously. It's a movie that is sort of making fun of itself, or maybe the director and actors are mocking the script. It's got that feel of not being taken super seriously, something that happened quite a bit in the 80s and made for some charming fare, but also made for some not cogent films. The production values and soundtrack are good, however. The music is period, and well curated, but featuring lesser known tracks, not all well-known hits. I also always like seeing the uncluttered life of the 1980s, no cel phones, still a certain amount of neon, nice 1970s and 1980s cars, and the general party atmosphere of the time.

As I said, however, the number one reason to watch this is for Uma Thurmann. The one realistic thing about this movie is that in real life, this guy probably would be stupid enough to lose Uma Thurmann. Of course in real life, he never would have been dating her in the first place.

Lame sports comedy with a miscast Anthony Michael Hall as the hottest high school football prospect who ever lived. It's really a vanity project for Hall, who had been playing nerd characters his whole career. Here he's trying to buff up and be taken seriously as something more than a geek. He fails. Robert Downey, Jr. plays the wacky best friend, as he often did back then. Downey's the most entertaining part of this, which isn't saying much. Decent support from Paul Gleason and Jennifer Tilly. Early role by Uma Thurman. She's beautiful and does fine in a worthless part in a worthless movie. I pretty much hated every minute of this. Almost every character is unlikable, especially the lead. The satire about college sports and other things is heavy-handed and never funny. Oh, and the music is dreadful. Avoid this unless you are a massive fan of Hall, Downey, or Thurman.

There is one good scene in this movie, and it's pretty good. Anthony Michael Hall has just been on a recruitment tour of private colleges who want to give him football scholarships and he has come back to his hometown to negotiate a deal with the athletic director of a public university. The interplay between the two, especially the unspoken lines, is done beautifully.

Other than that, this is a pretty standard (sub-standard) teen flick posing as a cautionary tale. I think this movie wanted to be a comedic version of "All the Right Moves", but didn't have the guts to tell a real story.

Johnny Walker (Anthony Michael Hall) is the star high school football quarterback and punter. Backup quarterback Leo Wiggins (Robert Downey Jr.) is his best friend that never gets into the game. Wayne Hisler (Paul Gleason) is the hated coach. They win the championship and Johnny is recruited by everybody. His girlfriend Georgia Elkans (Uma Thurman) wants him to follow her to State college for a solid education.

There are nobody to like in this movie. This is trying to be a comedy but it's not funny. This subject could allow for a dark gritty realistic tale of bad recruitment practices but it's so fake. The writing is nowhere near sharp enough. It's always fascinating to see a young star and this one has Uma Thurman. Hall isn't convincing or likable. Downey is mugging for the camera too much without getting any laughs. This is Bud S. Smith's one and only directing credit. There's a reason for that.

Honestly, this is probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It's certainly one of the least-competently made studio releases ever. There are entire scenes in this movie in which the sound is so poorly handled that you can barely hear what characters are saying. This isn't helped by Anthony Michael Hall's decision to mumble all of his lines. He seemed very unenthusiastic about this role--like he could barely work up the energy even to say the words.

There is a scene in the film in which Hall's character and some friends have an impromptu football game on his girlfriend's front lawn, against her father (who hates Hall for some reason that is never explained) and some other boobs, that is so badly edited that you simply cannot tell what is happening. Characters come in and out of that scene without rhyme or reason--continuity errors abound. There are also many scenes in which weird dialog was looped in during post-production to bridge awkward narrative gaps. This is a sure sign that the director didn't really know what he was doing, and just failed to capture footage that made sense on its own.

Also, Robert Downey, Jr. is unbelievably obnoxious in this movie. I mean really disgusting.