Gleam This!

 

Gleaming the Cube (1989)

  

Directed by Graeme Clifford

I use to watch this movie a lot when I was younger and one of the first I could stand to watch a movie starring Christian Slater that isn't Heathers. Okay I like The Wizard too...damn it and I loved Kuffs.(both of which will make it to this site one day) 

Gleaming the Cube is a skating term coined by skater Garry Davis; made in a Thasher magazine interview with Neil Blender. The phrase itself is meaningless. 

The movie was directed by Graeme Clifford who went on to make many TV movies in his time, like The Last Don and it's follow up. The film stars Christian Slater as Brain Kelly the skateboarder and local bad ass. Steven Bauer plays Al Lucero the local cop and kind of a sleazy guy if you ask me. The bad guy is played by the guy that always plays a bad guy or dick, Richard Herd. 

The flick is about a skateboarding teenager who is really not loved by his family. The parents hate this kid so much that they go and adopt some Asian kid. To add to the total hatred of their birth child they give the new kid part of his room. This house looks pretty big in the movie I'm sure they have more than two rooms. Got to love parents in cheesy late 80's movies.

So goody two shoes adopted brother ends up dead because his job is really a make shift store for gun runners! Way to go smarter adopted brother. The bad guys make it look like a suicide; naturally Brain doesn't believe that it is. No one takes him serious due to the fact that he looks like a made up 1987 movie skateboarder. Slater takes the murder into his own hands and starts to investigate. He befriends his fake brothers girlfriend and starts to dress as a preppy to the dismay of his friends. Like a great fake brother he falls for the girlfriend; just like in real life.

The one thing this movie really has going for it is the skate scenes. They are done real well with pro skaters. The last action chase scene is really well done. Check out the trailer on my Forgotten Classic pages you will not be disappointed. 

When we were kids we always wanted to make the super fast skateboard used at the end of the film. That is one sweet board! Gotta love the extra fast wheels that his buddy that lived in a bomb shelter made for him.

This is a really fantastic movie that should be watched by all. It is one part Footloose and one part Legend of Billy Jean. With a dash of Pump Up the Volume. Run out and see this Forgotten Classic now!!

Till next time...

8/10

Video Junkie Extra:

The Skaters used for the stunts in this movie were members of the Bones Brigade that included Tony Hawk and Steve Caballero and many more legends of skating. If you really don't know who the Bones Brigade are you should really look them up. Check out their movie The Search for Animal Chin one of the few skateboarding movies to have a plot.

Video Junkie Extra Extra:

I love pointless trivia and here is one for lovers of The Aqubats. This movie has none other than Christian Jacobs playing the part of Gremic. Christian Jacobs is the real name of the Bat Commander and the creator of my daughters favorite show Yo Gabba Gabba!