Wolff rating: FAIR
Plot summary: Bad guys from the Soviet Bloc invade North America, and a team of high school students are all that stand in their way.
Biased, pithy comments: It's part teen movie, part war movie, three parts NRA propaganda, and 100% Commie-baiting. The opening 25 minutes or so are classic---even as your brain is thinking ``Why is that guy shooting the school bus?'' your heart is saying ``Go for it! Get free! Yeah America!'' About the time Swayze can't find his jacket pocket during one of the monologues, you know you have trouble, though, and soon the movie descends into disjointed, endless explosions and iffy foreign language bits. Still, Lea Thompson is a hottie firing her heavy weaponry, and it's fun singing ``Have...the time of our liiiiiife.....'' every time Jennifer Grey is on screen. So, half an EXCELLENT film, and half a cruddy anticommunist movie with little or no plot. Your mileage may vary. This movie is deeply flawed.
Other Notes: So, those fake armored personnel carriers look mighty plywood-y at times. WOLVERINES! Entire theses could be written about the stunted father/son relationships. Me, I cry. Director is, in fact, a member of the NRA board of directors, and is responsible for writing a whole host of movies I like, including ``Conan the Barbarian'' and ``Clear and Present Danger.'' However, I'm not much of an NRA fan.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen, Darren Dalton, Jennifer Grey.
Directed by: John Milius