Customer Reviews

All the Right Moves (Widescreen)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently bought 'All The Right Moves' on DVD after not seeing this film for a good number of years. And I must say I recommend this film, it's worth a viewing and I think one will even return and want to view it again. Tom Cruise is classic, he does what he does best-his likability. Lea Thompson is adorable and a talented actress as always. Worth the buy!
by Justine ryan!

Best exchange of dialogue in motion picture history!

Because "Risky Business" gets all the attention for being Tom Cruise's breakout film, Michael Chapman's "All the Right Moves" has often been unfairly overlooked or just outright forgotten. That is a shame because Cruise's "other" coming-of-age film is a highly entertaining effort that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as his more high profile projects.

Cruise plays Stefan Djordjevic, a high school football player who dreams of being awarded a college scholarship in order to escape a future in the steel mills. However, Stefan's short temper often gets the best of him and his relationship with his high school coach (Craig T. Nelson) becomes strained after he participates in an incident that leaves the coach's house vandalized. With the help of his high school sweetheart, Lisa (Lea Thompson), Stefan starts to get his act together and ultimately gets his life back on track.

"All the Right Moves" proves that Tom Cruise had tremendous screen presence from the very beginning. His scenes with Nelson and Thompson provide dazzling hints of greater things still to come. Nelson, who may be better known for his comedic side, turns in an especially strong supporting performance as the coach who is both Stefan's tormentor and supporter at the same time. The story of the small-town kid dreaming to escape his surroundings for better things has been told so many times on television and film in so many different ways that it would be easy to dismiss "All the Right Moves" as just another tired re-telling. However, a familiar story is still engaging if told well and this film is proof of that.

Being a native of Johnstown I hve more than one reason to like this film (I don't cosider it partality since I dont like ths Slapshot movie which was also filmed here) its a great coming of age film and a tale of a blue collar character struggling to make his big break something anybody living in Johnstown can understand. Lea Thompson naked also doesn't hurt the film either and Tom Cruise shows a bit of the talent that got him where he is today. One thing though if you Stef had it tough back then trust me it's worse now, but enough of ditching the town. i recomend this movie to any football, coming of age, tom cruise, or just plain good movie fan. it made all the right moves.

All The Right Moves was not one of Tom Cruise's more popular movies, suprising, being that he had just filmed Risky Business. There are really only a couple of ways you could love this movie: 1) You're a BIG Tom Cruise fan, 2) You're from Johnstown (where it was filmed... that's where I'm from originally), 3) You LOVE cheesy 80's movies... or, 4) You'd like to see a younger Lea Thompson naked. If you fall into any or all of these categories, this is the movie for you, my friend. A young Tom Cruise as Stephen "Steph" Georgevick struggles to make something of himself and get out of the steel town of AMPIPE (American Pipe & Steel). His dream; to be an engineer because it's "about time someone in the family has a say in what to do after the steel is made." His ticket out, a football scholarship, is jeopardized by the evillll Craig T. Nelson, his coach...The plot is your standard 80's model teen-angst-struggle-to-overcome-obstacle movie with the soundtrack to match. Also, if you're a big fan of Chris Penn, then this is your best bet...

This movie has a good young cast. From this point on the word "good" will no longer appear in this review. This movie is more like a "nice try" picture. As these types of pictures go, it is cliche ridden and dial down the center. From the opening shot of the film one thing is clear: there is a factory, and it does not look like a slap happy good time to work there.

Young Tom Cruise plays Stef, a factory worker's son in a factory workers' town. The only way out of this town, hence not working at the factory the rest of your life, is to get a football scholarship to college. Stef happens to be good at football, so he won't have to work at the factory right? Well, it is clear that he and the coach (Craig T. Nelson) are not always on the same page. So, of course, the pressure is building. The best schools aren't calling, his girlfriend (Lea Thompson) won't sleep with him, and his best friend (Chris Penn, also a football player) is having a baby (which means he will work in the factory). Something has to give? It does, in the big game. Where else?

This movie is just perfectly ordinary. The attempt to get into the characters mostly makes no sense. And when it does it is just typical diologue we have heard a thousand times before. It seemed like Cruise was almost forced to self-destruct and then someone decided that it couldn't end on a downer. The ending is laughable it is so forced and out of place. With a cast like this, given they were young, I expected more.

So why did Cruise do this movie? Good question. He made another film the same year that dealt with similar subject matter, a teenager trying to get into college and the powers that are working against him. It is called Risky Business and it successful in all the areas that All the Right Moves fails. See Risky Business, forget this movie. I'm sure Cruise would like to.

All the right moves was not bad or great. Football movie with Tom Cruise who acting is not bad. Not his best or worst. And yes, there is brief frontal nudity for the main leads CRUISE & THOMPSON. Nothing like Kevin Bacon in WILD THINGS. Rent All The Right Moves and if you love it, cheak out Any Given Sunday.

The best thing about this movie is the soundtrack, a grey-necked Pennsylvainia steel town's hopes and fears are a musical noir that only wants to see the town's high school trophy football go through the field goal. Nice cinema during the football scenes. A bit dull though. If only Tom hadn't spent so much time thinking about football, he might have gotten into a better college. Life is like that.

You get to see Tom Cruise before he exploded and Lea Thompson like you will never see her again. Add Craig T. Nelson as coach Nickerson (what a stetch) and you can't help but have a very good movie. The plot is pretty predictable with a couple sad twists. The only thing I was disappointed in was there were not as many football scenes as I would like. But anybody who grew up in a blue-collar small town where football was king will appreciate this show.

Tom Cruise was a busy man in 1983. With the success of Taps 2 years earlier, he took a year off, then came out with 4 movies in the next year. They was Risky Business, The Outsiders, Losin It and All the Right Moves. My fav of all those was All the Right moves.

Cruise plays Stefan, a kid who plays for the Ampipe HS football team as a cornerback, in backwoods Pennsylvania. It is a one industry (steel) town and if the kids can't get away from there, they usually end up in the steelworks. Cruise doesn't want to work there. He has higher goals of being an Engineer. And football is the only way out, and a few schools have offered him a full scholarship.

His girlfriend is played by Lea Thompson, and she is a smart, insecure girl who is also talented in music, but trapped because schools don't give scholarships to music students who aren't brillant. There is always a hint of jealousy in her mannerisms as she watches the "dumb jocks" ride to the schools that she will never get into..and it is smartly portrayed near the end of the movie.

The "dumb jocks" here are the anti-stereotypes that are seen in movies today. They aren't slick, omnipotent acting jerks. Stefan and Brian (played well by Christopher Penn) are sensitive, uncertain and shy people. The other players become sidetracked as well, such as Salvucci who becomes a criminal, rather than a star or Shadow (played by Leon) who is so worried that he won't get in anywhere (but gets into Virginia Tech).

The core of the movie is the relationship between Coach (Craig T. Nelson) and Stefan. It is rocky in the beginning. Coach (who is also the typing teacher), is nervously waiting to see if he will be a defensive coach at CalTech, and is on a blaming streak against anyone messes up his chances. One person he blames is Stefan for losing the game to another school (it wasn't really his fault). It gets worse when (after kicking Stefan off the team), he catches him with a posse of local idiots vandalizing Coach's home.

In a derivative movie, Stefan would have blackmailed him, burned him into getting back on the team. Or he would ruined Coach's chances to being accepted at CalState. Coach would have become another one-dimensional badguy. But here, at the end, they resolve their differences like real people and work things out.

The only problem with the movie is that the genre has been copied so many times, by the time I saw it for the first time (7/2000), it seemed very derivative. Another spoiler for me is the ending, while upbeat, seemed a little too Hollywood. Rating: B-

Notes: There is full frontal nudity between the two leads! Also, the director of Photography was Jan deBont, who went on to better (Twister, Speed) and worse things (Speed 2, The Haunting).