The title says it all!

 

Rad (1986)

Directed by Hal Needham

To continue my week of awesome extreme sport week. I bring you Rad. All I have to say is that their are very few films where the title tells you how good it is. In the 80's if you didn't own a BMX you might as well have killed yourself. I owned one and that is why I am alive today. My BMX was the bees knees. It was supped up and ready to ride. To bad it got stolen from my school one day. Should have got that pad lock. Man I miss that bike, you might say that it was rad.

This movie was crafted with love and care by Hal Needham. Who is Hal Needham you ask? Well for starters I don't have a clue, your guess is as good as mine. He as directed a lot of car and stunt movies the likes of which could never be made today. Let's go down the list: Smokey and the Bandit = Classic, Hooper = Classic, Smokey and the Bandit II = Class...wait he makes the same movie over and over again. I'm on to you Mr. Needham. I guess we just have to hold our breathes for Bandit 4.

Rad stars Bill Allen as Cru the troubled BMX racer. Allen went on to star in such classics as an episode of China Beach and a low budget movie called The Quiet Ones. Funny story about the low budget movie, it stars one of my friends, Adam Ciesielski or as he is called today Adam C. Edwards. Look it up he is a real person. 

Cru wants nothing more in this world than to win the big race called Helltrack. That is one race I would enter just off the name alone. But one problem stands in his way, the evil Sat's. They are the same day and Cru has to take them or miss out on collage but if he misses the race he'll miss out on a career in racing. Oh my God what should he do? His mom is no help, they usually are no help in these movies till the end when the kid gets rich then they are very helpful. Mrs. Rocky plays the mom; Talia Shire, in a career changing role.

You can't have a bad ass BMX movie without a bad guy. This one has Jack Weston as Duke Best the president of The Federation of American Bicyclists and owner of Mongoose bicycles. He plans to keep Mr. Cru out of the race so his biker can win and bam they can get rich. What the hell is The Federation of American Bicyclists? Is this a real thing?

Don't forget these movies need a dash of hot chick, that's where Lori Loughlin comes into play. She played aunt Becky in the wonderful Full House show. You know the show about the skinny strange dad that lives with the guy in that shitty band and they also have the weird gay guy in the basement. You know the show. Well she plays the future girlfriend of Mr. Cru.

One of the best scenes in the movie is at the prom where Cru and Christine dance but instead of dancing they recreate bike tricks on the floor. What is with 80's movies with dance scenes. Have you been to high school dance they are strange and very sweat drenched with teens.

This is a true American classic and now it is a forgotten classic. Get your head bands and come ride a BMX around the block. Pop a wheelie and try to pull off a rail slide. But do yourself a favor and watch Rad!

5/10

Video Junkie Extra:

Am I crazy or weren't the Sat's on more than one day. We had the option to take them as many times as possible. Why not just take them at a later date. I guess with a name like Cru and riding a BMX you just have to fight authority at all times. Fine you're too cool to take a test, got it sorry to bother you.

 

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!