Gleaming the Cube (1989)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Graeme Clifford

Writer (WGA):

Michael Tolkin (written by)

Release Date:

13 January 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

Skate or Die

Plot:

Brian's adopted brother is killed when he discovers that the shop he works in sends weapons to Vietnam instead of medications...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Police | Vietnamese American | Hanged Boy | Teenager

Cast

Christian Slater	...	Brian Kelly
Steven Bauer	...	Al Lucero
Richard Herd	...	Ed Lawndale
Le Tuan	...	Colonel Trac
Min Luong	...	Tina Trac
Art Chudabala	...	Vinh Kelly
Ed Lauter	...	Mr. Kelly
Micole Mercurio	...	Mrs. Kelly
Peter Kwong	...	Bobby Nguyen
Charles Cyphers	...	Harvey McGill
Max Perlich	...	Yabbo
Tony Hawk	...	Buddy
Tommy Guerrero	...	Sam
Christian Jacobs	...	Gremic
Joe Gosha	...	Nick Oliver

Also Known As:

A Brother's Justice
Skate or Die

Runtime:

100 min | USA:105 min (FMC Library Print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-12 | UK:12 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Anaheim, California, USA

Company:

David Foster Productions

Trivia:

Former pro-skater Tommy Guerrero made $500 per day teaching Christian Slater how to skateboard.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Obvious stunt double for Slater during the intense skating scenes in the house under construction.

Quotes:

Yabbo: [telling Brian about a house that burned down to skate the pool] Besides, it burned down last week.
Buddy: [points at Yabbo] Yeah, he burned it!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Robot Chicken: Suck It (#2.1)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE

Perfect Late '80s Skater film

Ok I know this film is old, but who cares? Let's get that out of the way, it's old it's old it's old. I don't care if it's old. I was 13 1/2 when this movie came out, and I know a lot of people even my age (27) would consider this a dated "old school" movie, but like I said, I don't care, it's still fun.

I was a middle school skater in the very late '80s, and this film brings back great memories. Ok the fashions got old by like 1991, but again who cares? Forget the fashions and just concentrate on the skateboard stunts, they'll blow you away. Legendary skater Tony Hawk is in this film, and everyone who was or is a skater knows how valuable Hawk was to skateboarding. These days I see a lot of teenagers skateboarding in parking lots and malls, it seems the trend has come back since being dormant since 1990. Even though the skating fad died down then, I was still skating as a teenager into around 1995. It was uncool to be a 19 or 20 year old skating back in the heyday of grunge, but once a skater, always a skater. Many times when I see these kids skating today, I want to haul my old 27 year old butt out there and show them how us 13 and 14 year olds did it back in 1989.