All the Right Moves (1983) User Reviews

Those Steel Mills Are Largely Gone Now

[romanorum1 · 6/10 · 9 May 2016]

Ampipe (Johnstown, PA), a depressed and gritty steel town located just outside of Pittsburgh is in obvious decline. It had been founded long before by Ampipe Pipe and Steel when steel was big. In the old days young men left high school, acquired a job at the mill, married, fathered children, and bought a house while they were still young. Most of the local men still work at Ampipe, but layoffs are increasing. Enter Stef Djordjevic (Tom Cruise), a cornerback for his Ampipe High School football team (The Bulldogs), who wants a college scholarship to an engineering college, his ticket out of town. He displays his Penn State pennant on his bedroom wall. Stef resides with his father (Charles Cioffi) and older brother, Rick (Gary Graham), both of whom work in the mill.

Stef doesn't always act in a nice way but is generally likable. His problem is his attitude, which drives his Coach, Nickerson (Craig T. Nelson), mad as a hatter. Stef does not always listen to his coach's teachings. Stef maintains a B average at Ampipe High, not good enough for a college scholarship. So he needs football as his meal ticket. Stef happens to be a very good defensive player, although he is not the star of his team. Meanwhile Coach Nickerson too is looking for a way out of Ampipe, as he has a chance to become defensive backfield coach at Cal Poly. The coach is tough and no-nonsense, and really works his players hard during the practices. He is less than perfect, and when players make mistakes, he considers them as quitters on the team.

Even though the movie revolves around high school football, it is more about inter-personal relationships than about the gridiron. In fact, the big game against the Knights of Walnut Heights, a richer school undefeated and ranked number three in Pennsylvania, occurs only half-way through the movie, not at the denouement. And yet an interesting well-filmed piece does involve the road game: the long bus journey to Walnut Heights with the players thinking their individual thoughts, the tensions in the locker room, the pre-game prep talk, the long spiral football spinning through the air, the hard hits and grunts in the rain, and the eventual heartbreaking loss.

Nevertheless, the important matter is the story of life, as when the two teen-aged protagonists (Stef and Lisa, Lea Thompson) finally get around to expressing their true feelings. Secondary characters have their stories to tell. There are the men, laid off from work, who drown their sorrows in the local gin mill. One young man in financial difficulty becomes desperate enough to commit a robbery. A life-changing event involves a cheerleader who becomes pregnant. Then there are the antics of a bar room bully. Stef himself becomes tense as his expected football scholarships fail to materialize.

In summary the plot is decent, and even though the movie is not a great one, is still worth watching.

So I'm at my parents house the other day.....

[jagardner66 · 7/10 · 25 May 2005]

Ah, the classic 80's film, the big hair, the bad lighting, the lame music, everything that embodies the great American films of 1983. And "All the Right Moves" is no exception. I'm 24, and just viewed this movie for the first time last week by stumbling upon it at my parent's house while I was visiting for the weekend. Why do you care? I live in Johnstown, where this movie was filmed (as was 1977's Paul Newman classic "Slap Shot") and I had never heard of this film! So, I find this dusty VHS copy and take it home with me to view. As i pull it out of its slip sleeve, a yellowed napkin falls out; with Tom's autograph on it! Turns out when I was about 1, my parents brought me down to Johnstown to ride on the Inclined Plane, and I was introduced to Tom Cruise. I never knew?! So knowing that, I had to give the movie a thorough watching, and I must say, I have a little pride that that film was shot here. It was an enjoyable movie, although the ending was a little dry. The sad part of the film is, all the activity and energy that takes place in the movie with the steel mills is no longer here. The mills have been shut down for about 20 years, and the city is pretty much in a depressed state. It's good to watch the movie just to get a glimpse of what this area use to be. So watch it, enjoy it, heck, you can even rent it from the rental place a block from my house. That place is called "All the Right Movies." Enjoy! P.S. For the Kid's sake, It is rated R for strong language and some intense nudity.

When getting out is all that matters

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 2 August 2005]

A younger, different looking Tom Cruise (old jaw/nose?) stars in this movie about a high school student aching to leave his dying steel mill town and study to be an engineer on a football scholarship. He watches his best friend, also on the team, marry his pregnant girlfriend; another member of the football team is arrested for armed robbery; his brother gets laid off from the mill; and his girlfriend (a young, fresh Lea Thompson) complains that no one gives music scholarships, just football ones, and she's going to be stuck in the town. After turning down initial scholarship offers to middle of the road schools, Cruise finds himself blackballed after an incident at his coach's house with which he was only peripherally involved. Off the team, and with the word out that he has an "attitude problem," he sees his dreams turning to dust.

Craig T. Nelson plays the coach and does his usual fine job, and Lea Thompson is a vibrant, passionate Lisa. Cruise here gives a truer performance than usual - I usually find him a very external and not terribly believable actor. In "All The Right Moves," he's sympathetic and heartfelt. I much prefer this to the perfectly handsome, glossy figure he is today. Time to get back to basics, Tom, and get some of those right moves back.

THis is western Pa!

[Mheywood · 6 June 2002]

Great movie! one of my favorites. All may not like it but for a regional boy this is exactly what western pa is. Small steel towns that have nothing left except their sporting pride. Kids wanting to escape and western Pa's beloved football is the only way out for many. These are the Western Pa. Archeotypes : Some kids love it but feel they can't make it any other way. Salvuchi

Some kids have the talent but need that extra exposure. But it all depends on how individuals in power like you. Stef

Kids with enough talent to get out of the town without added exposure. the receiver who went to West Virginia

The coach who thinks he is God of town if he has some success. Nelson

the disgruntled band student,"why do they get athletes deserve scholarship attitudes" Lea.

The movie nailed the sights and sounds. It showed how whole towns close on friday nights. The football scenes were great! Even besides the football it showed the tough steelman, the guys in towm that slave all day and go to the watering hole right after work before going home for the evening. It showed how serious we Western Pa's take our local sports, We really would trash a coaches yard and fight seventeen year olds if we think they cost the game. Gritty reality to small town life. An under appreciated film that captures a regions attitude and feel in our great Nation! Ampipe is Aliquippa,Duquesne, Johnstown, beaver falls clairton, McKeesport,monesson and the rest of the Mon and beaver Valleys that were created by the US Steel, J&L and Bethleham steel

Watchable, But Nothing More

[slightlymad22 · 6/10 · 14 September 2017]

Continuing my plan to watch every Tom Cruise movie in order, I come to to his third and final movie of 1983, All The Right Moves.

Plot In A Paragraph: A high school football player (Cruise) desperate for a scholarship and his headstrong coach clash in a dying Pennsylvania steel town.

Like with Risky Business, this is another movie that I don't get people's love for. I find it watchable, and nothing more. Cruise is OK, everyone's favourite TV coach, Craig T Nelson is his usual reliable self, and Leah Thompson (who shares the most unsexy and uncomfortable life scene I have ever witnessed) looks cute, but doesn't really bring much.

One plus is, it has a decent rock soundtrack, which is usually listed first in the end credits with each song stating what scene it was played it.

This was the first movie Tom Cruise's name appeared above the movie title on a poster.

All The Right Moves grossed $17 million at the domestic box office, to end the year the 42nd highest grossing movie of 1983.

Like they said in "Scream": if you pause it just right...

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 2 May 2006]

OK, so there have been many movies about someone struggling against seemingly insurmountable odds to make something of him/herself. In this case, Tom Cruise plays a Pennsylvania teenager hoping to get a football scholarship. He does a respectable job with the role, considering that it's really nothing that we haven't seen before. What makes this movie really good is that it shows how the company that employs the men in town is laying everyone off, so people are having to look for opportunities elsewhere.

All in all, this is a pretty good movie. I've always thought that Tom Cruise was better in his earlier roles than in his later ones. Also starring Craig T. Nelson, Lea Thompson and Chris Penn.

I have to admit that I learned about "All the Right Moves" from "Scream". You may recall the line about pausing the movie just right, and what you can see as a result.

Passable teenage football drama

[ereinion · 7/10 · 6 October 2006]

Tom Cruise's first leading role. He does very well considering the fact he's only 21. Chris Penn also delivers well. Others are so-so. Craig T. "The Coach" Nelson really couldn't avoid getting type-casted as the coach type after this. He plays the role so convincingly with his stern and authoritative appearance.

Apart from the setting in the grey steel worker town in the middle of nowhere, this movie has no strong story or issue. Its a standard 80's fare. Stefen is worried about his future in a sport that is dominated by big and often black men, while he himself is short and white. His brother loses his job and his teammate and best friend (Penn) makes a girl pregnant and has to give up his promising career. Meanwhile, young Stef goes face to face with the coach after an upsetting loss and is thrown out of the team. Upset and hurt, he does something stupid to retaliate and things get even worse between him and the coach. Not only that, but he worsens the relationship with his all so supportive girlfriend.

Save for the corny title song, the stupid locker room scene at the beginning and Cruise's grinning, this is a quite enjoyable film for those who like such teenage situation dramas. "Action dramas" as I'd call them. And things work out well in the end, as they always do. This is perhaps the first movie where Cruise showed potential as actor. His other movie of the same year was a total bomb, made only for money. This looks like something, but sometimes is hard to take seriously because of its teenage bubblegum nature. Still it could have been a lot worse.

To the Point

[CoolHand-4 · 7/10 · 9 March 1999]

All the Right Moves is a very good movie that tells the story of an ambitious high school football player, wanting to get out of his small, iron-smelting town via a football scholarship. It paints a very good picture of life in a small town where the residents live of its high school football team and its players. There is a subplot that involves Seth (Tom Cruise) and his girlfriend (Lea Thompson) but it only helps to reinforce the main story. I highly recommend this movie to anyone interested in it, but don't be fooled; this is not a masterpiece.

Doesn't Really Know What it Wants to Be

[ThomasDrufke · 5/10 · 6 September 2016]

Sports movies are often stuck in the same old clichéd formula, but more often than not, they work. To All the Right Moves credit, it doesn't follow that winning formula, but it also doesn't necessarily create its own well-strung story.

In one of his first acting roles, Tom Cruise stars alongside Craig T. Nelson and Lea Thompson as his coach and girlfriend respectively. If for nothing else, this film is worth a watch just for those performances alone. Cruise and Thompson prove to be fearless in their risqué high school roles, and Nelson plays a great antagonist and obstacle for Cruise's 'Stefen' character. I can't speak too highly on the film itself, but those performances are certainly worth 90 minutes of your time.

The biggest issue with All the Right Moves is that it actually tries to make too many 'moves' with its story, pun intended. It doesn't really know what it wants to be. On one hand, it's a nice coming of age story with Thompson and Cruise. The next it's an intense football drama between two schools. Or even a film that tackles the heavy themes of class struggle and sexuality, just to name a few. There's just no real focus here. The minute you start to get invested with what Nelson's team is doing, led by Cruise among others, it changes its course to another plot point entirely. I appreciate the film's intentions, it just didn't hit home the ideas that it set out to, and it suffers because of that.

What I can say is that this film was probably more of a product of its time. The soundtrack is blatantly filled with slow and smooth 80's tracks that can be distracting. The sound editing as a whole is pretty poor. The football sequences are borderline amateur. And some of the plot points have been done much better in more recent years. Sure, that's not the film's fault, but it does hinder its re-watchability to an extent. It's fun to watch a young Cruise and Thompson share great chemistry, but there's not a lot beneath that.

+Cruise shows promise

+Attempts to explore deep themes

-But fails at most of them

-Misguided direction

56/100

Cruise proves to be more than a flash in the pan...

[Isaac5855 · 7/10 · 5 April 2007]

Tom Cruise followed up his smashing success in the classic RISKY BUSINESS with ALL THE RIGHT MOVES, a quiet and moving drama in which Cruise plays Stefan Djordjevic, a somewhat sexist and dim-witted high school senior whose convinced that his prowess on the football field will allow him to go to college anywhere he wants, providing a one-way ticket out of the tiny, sleepy mining town where he lives where the entire town attends every game. Stefan's college plans get derailed when, after a confrontation with his coach (Craig T. Nelson), Stefan gets thrown off the team and the coach has him blackballed to the point where no college will talk to him. Cruise's interpretation of Jorjevich is quietly impressive because this character is nothing like Joel Goodson, his character in RISKY BUSINESS. Stefan is cocky, sexist, self-absorbed, and not terribly likable, but Cruise still manages to infuse the character with sympathy. Nelson is solid as the coach (nothing like his TV coach)and strong support is also provided by Lea Thompson as Stefan's girlfriend, the late Christopher Penn as Stefan's buddy who has to give up his football aspirations when he gets his girlfriend pregnant, Charles Cioffi as Stefan's dad and especially Paul Carafotes as Stefan's explosive buddy, "The Vooch". Nothing earth-shattering here, but it did prove that Cruise had the range to play different kinds of character.

Very few of the right moves

[hall895 · 4/10 · 27 June 2005]

Nothing here you haven't already seen many times before. All the Right Moves is one big cliché from beginning to end. The small mill town where nobody ever amounts to anything. The high school football team that the townspeople take much too seriously. The kid who sees football as his only way out. The girlfriend who is not appreciated because, well, she doesn't play football and nobody in this town cares about anything besides football. The big game that the team just has to win. The setbacks before that big game that will make it much harder for them to do so. The conflict between players and their coach. Secondary characters (but not our hero heaven forbid) making terrible decisions which will destroy their future. The problem our hero faces and the inevitable way that problem will be dealt with. If you can't see very early on how all this is going to turn out, well you obviously haven't seen too many movies. This is about as predictable as movies get.

About the only thing which makes this film even remotely noteworthy are the actors playing the key roles. Tom Cruise is the young football star, Craig T. Nelson his coach and Lea Thompson his girlfriend. Cruise, Nelson and Thompson were obviously destined for bigger and better things. Here, their performances are all fine, with the more seasoned Nelson unsurprisingly being the most convincing. Cruise and Thompson have a rather awkward romance (capped by a rather awkward love scene) but as they're playing young, naive high school kids the awkwardness actually seems to fit. Unfortunately though in the grand scheme of things the actors really don't have much to work with. The characters are unoriginal and clichéd. The story is one we've seen in various incarnations many times before. There's really nothing of note to keep your attention. And the whole thing comes with a sense of inevitability to it that lessens the sense of drama one might otherwise feel. This one will not live long in the memory.

The Future Is Not in Rustbelt Pennsylvania

[bkoganbing · 10/10 · 28 June 2007]

As Stefan Djeordjevic, Tom Cruise wants to move out of Ampipe, Pennsylvania as badly as George Bailey does from Bedford Falls. He plays football, but harbors no illusions about a career in that direction. The pros won't take anyone his size so he just wants to get to college to study engineering. His working class father and brother can't get him there and as a B student no academic scholarships are in the offing. Football really is his life.

The difference between Bedford Falls and Ampipe is the difference between a rising and falling economy. If you remember in It's A Wonderful Life, George Bailey gets Sam Wainwright to re-open the old glass works for a plastics factory instead of locating in Rochester. There's a future in Bedford Falls, like there is none in the Eighties Ampipe where industry is relocating to the south and even out of the country. The future is definitely not in rust-belt Pennsylvania.

Everybody wants out of that place except those with no future. Cruise's girlfriend Lea Thompson is jealous because as a band-member there ain't no scholarships for him. The coach Craig T. Nelson wants a winning season so he can get a prize college coaching job. All his other players have ambitions like Cruise.

All the Right Moves was Tom Cruise's sixth film and first dramatic lead, it's the film that made him a star. He was first billed in Losin' It and Risky Business, but this one showed what a good actor he was. If it wasn't for All the Right Moves, Tom Cruise's career would have faded with the eighties.

Lea Thompson gives good support to Tom and Craig T. Nelson is far from the coach that we see in Coach. He's a bitter driven man and not happy when some in the town toilet paper his house after a loss and he sees Cruise on the scene.

Paul Carafotes and Christopher Penn are a couple of other football players whose lives take an abrupt change in direction by other reasons than football. Best supporting player in the film though is James Battico who's stayed all his life in Ampipe. He turns out to be a malevolent creep, very similar to Robert DeNiro in This Boy's Life.

Ampipe stands for American Pipe&Steel. The town, the high school is named it. But the very name I'm sure gives rise to other less flattering nicknames that I'm sure anyone reading this will come up with.

All the Right Moves is one of the best coming of age films ever made and should never be missed when broadcast.

"Scholarship here, no scholarship here, who the hell gave you that power?"

[PredragReviews · 7/10 · 16 October 2016]

This is a very coming-of-age movie and focuses a lot on teenagers and issues that they have to deal with as well as on people, who are "stuck" living in small towns or poor areas with limited future prospects. Stef, played by Tom Cruise, has to perform well in football games, impress scouts from universities, and deal with his loving girlfriend Lisa. Other minor characters in the movie are teammate Brian, who unintentionally impregnates his girlfriend which destroys his plan to attend USC on a football scholarship, and Vinny Salvucci, who gets involved in crime and winds up behind bars. The plot peaks in the movie when Stef gets into a conflict with his coach, who, as a result, uses his influence to discourage other colleges from offering Stef any scholarships. Can Stef still make it out of the dying mill town via a scholarship or will he be stuck in a factory for the rest of his life? "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.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Knows highs nor lows

[Sandcooler · 5/10 · 28 June 2009]

The most noteworthy thing about this movie, and probably the only reason why it's still around, is that it has Tom Cruise in one of his earliest starring roles. Aside from that, there isn't really much to it. It's not bad I guess, but it's just all so plain and mediocre except for some of the acting. This script is one of the most predictable things ever written and just hums by with no surprises of any sort. You can't bring a lot of variation within the formula of a small town drama, but for the love of God, try a little. Often it just really needs to get to the point, because things get pretty boring if you already know the ending an hour beforehand. The raw, realistic filming style of the movie is in fact pretty good and really expresses desperation, but it just doesn't make the story any more interesting. As far as very young Tom Cruise goes, it's "Risky Business" all the way.

Everything "Varsity Blues" tried to be

[Deceptikon225 · 9 December 2002]

I would have to say that this is one of the better movies realisticly portraying small town high school football to ever have been made. Tom Cruise gives a wonderful performance indicative of his future superstardom and even though Craig T. Nelson seems to be typecast as a coach, he plays the role to perfection. The scene of the big game against neighboring rival Walnuts Heights was shot so masterfully, you felt like you were on the 50 yard line. You could just feel the tension in the locker room before kickoff. Even though this film came out when I was 11 years old, I remember in high school our whole football team would gather at the coach's house the night before a game and watch this movie. I don't think that there has ever been a movie since that has come along that portrays high school football, its significance to Small Town USA and the young men who portray the roles of "Friday Night Gods" with such gritty realism as this film.

Decent 80's Movies

[paulwattriley · 6/10 · 12 July 2020]

I quite enjoyed this moves with a young Tom Cruise, It has 'Coach' Actor Craig T Nelson as the Coach and not sure how I missed this as 80s kid Lea Thomson's boobs.

teenage desperation

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 20 August 2015]

Stef Djordjevic (Tom Cruise) lives in poor Pennsylvanian town Ampipe, a company town for American Pipe & Steel. He is the high school football star defensive back. He has his girlfriend Lisa Lietzke (Lea Thompson) and dreams of a college engineering scholarship. After a lost, Stef fights with Coach Nickerson (Craig T. Nelson) and is kicked off the team. Nickerson's home is vandalized and the coach blames Stef. Stef finds himself blacklisted from colleges. His friend Brian (Chris Penn) is forced to marry his pregnant girlfriend. The mill lays off his brother and he's desperate to escape the town.

It's a very traditional small town kid struggles. Tom Cruise makes it better than its simple premise. He's full of himself and full of angst. It's also interesting that Craig T. Nelson isn't a simple character. Lea Thompson probably plays the most endearing and compelling character. Her talk with Mrs. Nickerson is fascinating. The teenage desperation is palpable although some of it is bad cliché. It reminds me a little of 'Friday Night Lights' but nowhere near as good.

All the right moves is alright. <- That's your pun, the review is below.

[TheSteelHelmetReturns · 7/10 · 6 November 2010]

All the Right Moves begins with the triumphant synth rock melody of David Campbell's score accompanied by shots of grimy working class settings of train terminals and factories indicating that viewer is in store for a blue collar John Hughes films that has one foot in eighties cinema and the other still dipped in the obsessions with 70s New Hollywood. Tom Cruise is quite convincing as a working class jock while Lea Thompson as she only helps to bring up connotations of herself in Back to the Future and would seem more appropriate in a world of upper middle class WASPs like Growing Pains or Family Ties rather than the lurid Welcome Back Kotter universe of All the Right Moves. Perhaps Cruise needed a girlfriend who seemed a little sluttier but still had Thompson's vulnerability? Ally McSheedy? Chris Penn plays Cruise's less attractive jock pal and Craig T. Nelson establishes his typecast as a humourless coach and all three characters express similar desires very early in the film about 'moving on' and escaping their working class background. Knowing the direction that the manufacturing industry would take in the 80s this is probably an understandable goal. However, each character have obstacles preventing them from establishing that dream - some of which are intertwined. Lea Thompson contributes to this story by making Tom Cruise sexually frustrated during awkward love scenes. High school football is used as a metaphor for cooperating to exceed ones limits as detailed by Craig T. Nelson in a pre-game speech that would lead to him being fired if it were uttered today let alone ten years ago. It's at this point of the review, I wish to remind the viewer I have no idea how American Football works - all I know is people jump on each other and touchdown is a good thing. Anyway some play happens in the game that causes Cruise to be thrown off the team for disciplinary reasons and this all leads to a descent that includes being falsely framed for terrorising the neighbourhood and the last half hour of the film covers a number of other plot twists that occur from that one prior conflict along with a short resolution. With just under ninety minutes of run time All the Right Moves is a satisfyingly short rise and fall and rise story with an interesting mix of New Hollywood drama and the emerging 80s teen film genre.

Worthwhile Elements

[dansview · 7/10 · 12 September 2012]

Please remember that a film doesn't have to be perfect, or even close, to be worthwhile. If it contains some interesting and memorable elements, than it has lasting value. Having said that, let me address this one, and refute some of the accusations of "cliché." Let's start with the setting. The opening sequence around town, and the football practice scenes, portray a combination of gritty urban reality and unrefined sylvan ambiance, with remarkable effectiveness. Interestingly, I don't necessarily think that living in a small, woodsy town, having close family and friends, and working with your hands, is such a terrible fate. If your mill closes down, there are other towns within commutable distance, to work in. What if this movie was set in the Spring? Maybe that part of the country is lovely in Spring. So we are shown the region with a slanted spin, as it is set in the Fall. I lived in a depressed logging town at about the time of this movie, but the difference is that it was totally isolated. Conversely, Ampipe, the town in this movie, is not far from Pittsburgh and its' suburbs. Nevertheless, I get the basic depressed vibe, and I'm sure it existed. Tom Cruise brought heart to this role. There's a scene where he is no longer the cocky jock, but rather simply a boy, in need of a mother, and seeking refuge in the reassuring arms of his father. What a uniquely gentle moment for a film about a high school football player. There was nothing cliché about it, and Cruise pulled it off with savvy. For the record, no one is "stuck" in any town in America. What about Junior College, what about just moving to a bigger town? So of course I don't buy the clichéd "stuck in this town without a way out" theme entirely. The gentility of the young couple's sex scene, where they lose their virginity is not clichéd. It is tasteful, sensitive, and totally believable. Tom Cruise's character looks a bit scared, in awe, and very conscious of the significance of the moment. Again, beautifully played. Lea Thompson is lovely in this film, and does a masterful job of portraying a teen in love. She sees that her boyfriend is self-centered, but she has the sixth sense of a small town girlfriend, that helps her see his the finer aspects of his character. We used to rely on real "girls" to provide balance in society, and bring out the best in a man. The music is simply great. "All The Right Moves," and "Blue Skies Forever," are 80s gems, and convey the optimism of a unique cultural time period. There are two apology scenes by men, that are done nicely, and with simple conviction. It's fresh to see men say they are sorry, and to really mean it. Cruise's best scene involves confronting his stubborn football coach in an alley and intermittently sprinting away, while throwing his hands up in confounded ire. Beautifully executed. He has talent, and perhaps should have pursued more gritty underdog roles than he has. What I loved best, was the portrayal of the mixture of hope, potential, vitality, sexuality, and angst that color one's last two years of high school. To be an upperclassman, athletic, in love, invincible, and free.

eh... so what.

[fishboy266 · 2/10 · 19 February 2011]

Actors are trying, but the director and writer appear to be going through the motions. Clichéd dialogue / story lines, and amped up dramatic background music (turn volume to 11!) do not a good movie make.

People in this movie look overly self-conscious that they ARE in a movie, even background people (eyes shift nervously everywhere, BUT toward the camera, which made this viewer conscious that they were trying oh so hard to not look at the camera! very distracting!).

Cliché, cliché, cliché... like being forced to watch Iron Eagle.. yuck.

way too much like An Officer and a Gentleman in Pennsylvania!

probably why this guy never directed another major movie after this and Clan of the Cave Bear (1986)...

He and/or his bosses must have realized he was out of his element.

Slightly too moralistic

[Dr_Coulardeau · 7/10 · 27 April 2014]

Curiosity may kill the cat but it does not kill nostalgia. To discover today this thirty year old film with a Tom Cruise who must have been hardly out of his teens at the time is funny but interesting to know what an important actor today was at the beginning of his career. You may recognize some of his facial and attitudinal ticks but he sure was young.

The film itself is nothing to brag about. A High School football film again. Stef is a promising football player who could easily get a football scholarship in any college or nearly, if he could finish his senior year on the football team and even take the team to a victory.

He does not because he makes a mistake he had been warned about several times on the last game he plays (the last but one of the season). In fact his team loses the game because he attacks a player who had the ball after he had passed the ball away. He was attacking the man instead of following the ball. Penalty and the game is lost.

The coach is furious of course after the game but Stef is aggressive and in fact attacks the coach and makes him responsible. From this point to the catastrophe there was only one step and Stef crossed it. He is dropped from the team. Then he has to walk home, quite a good distance. So he thumbs a lift and is picked by a band of loafers from his city who decide to go spoil and soil the home of the coach and his cars. They manage to get Stef along and he is considered as responsible for it.

He is dropped from all prospective colleges. Since he is from a steel industry city in Pennsylvania, he has no future except working at the mill.

The film is supposed to teach us a lesson, just the way it does to Stef: apologize and forgive, but that's hard when you were wrong in the first place, though it is also hard when you get even with someone who is wrong by being wrong yourself, i.e. not forgiving and/or not apologizing. At the same time apologizing and forgiving may become a sort of encouragement to other people to go on being obnoxious.

Life at times cannot go without some strife and tension and people have to learn to step over it and just put it behind. But fear comes back into the picture. When you are afraid of life you tend to look back behind yourself and then you cannot put the past behind. If you try too hard it might backfire, at least in your dreams.

The myth in the film is that such strife and tension is typically masculine and it takes women to soften the situation: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and the medicine goes down. Really? I am sure I will trip my foot in the carpet if I tried that magic potion.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Cruise Control

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 1 November 2009]

"The only way football star Stefen Djordjevic (Tom Cruise) will avoid a life in the blast furnaces of his bleak Pennsylvania hometown is by winning a college scholarship. Even his coach (Craig T. Nelson) dreams of parlaying a winning team into a college job far away from this graveyard of the American Dream. But it's not long before the two virtually ruin each other's chances for escape and their door to the future starts to close. Lea Thompson and Christopher Penn co-star," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Mr. Cruise is back in high school, after his successful "Risky Business" - still playing at a theater near you! in 1983. Cruise looks the part of a bulked-up football player. He and Ms. Thompson (as Lisa Litski) have a sexy nude scene. The supporting cast, including skinny Chris Penn (as Brian), perform noticeably well. And, it's nice to see Gary ("Alien Nation") Graham in an early role. The story is mildly engrossing. How Paul Carafotes (as Vinnie Salvucci) made his desk rise, in those tight jeans, is debatable.

***** All the Right Moves (10/21/83) Michael Chapman ~ Tom Cruise, Craig T. Nelson, Lea Thompson, Chris Penn

The best high school sports movie ever!

[leczorn · 9/10 · 3 July 2011]

It took me 28 years to finally get around to seeing this high school football drama, but it was well worth the wait and probably for the best, since I appreciate it far more now at 40 than I could've at 12.

I remember when it came out in late 1983, a few months after Tom Cruise became a star through "Risky Business." Despite a solid publicity campaign, "All the Wrong Moves" failed to reap a huge benefit from Cruise's presence. The movie grossed a modest $17,233,166 at the American box office and quickly faded into obscurity.

Then I saw it in the $3 bin at Big Lots and decided to give it a chance. I'm glad I did, because it's a diamond in the rough; definitely the best high school sports movie I've ever seen. Rather than the usual sports movie clichés, such as the focus on "the big game," this is a heavyweight drama that's about football on the surface but life at the core.

Stefen "Stef" Djordjevic (played by Cruise) resides in the blue collar town of Ampipe, Pennsylvania, where he plays cornerback for the local high school football team. He resides with his older brother, Rick (Gary Graham), and their father (Charles Cioffi), both of whom work in the local steel mill, as does seemingly every man in town. Stef's and Rick's mother is dead and the three Djordjevic men seem to all have a pretty good relationship with each other. And at a couple of points in the latter half of the movie, the father shows great support in the midst of his son's hardships.

Now a senior, Stef is a moderate college prospect and has realistic expectations. Being a mere 5'10" (178 cm) and white, he has no illusions of making the NFL, and being a B student, he has no illusions of getting an academic scholarship. But he hopes to attain a college football scholarship and earn a degree in engineering. Still, he's uncomfortable with the possibility of being far away from his beautiful cheerleader girlfriend, Lisa (Lea Thompson), a junior who adores him, even though she's not a football fan.

Ampipe's next game is at Walnut Heights, who is undefeated and ranked #3 in the state, as well as located in a much wealthier area. Stef and some of his teammates view the game as an opportunity to impress college scouts and break away from what they see as a dead end town. Ampipe is economically struggling and the steel mill is laying off many workers. And the team's tough, no-nonsense head coach, Nickerson (Craig T. Nelson), is also looking beyond the town, pursing college assistant coaching jobs.

Late in the game, with Ampipe trailing 10-7, Stef intercepts a pass and returns it for a touchdown. But shortly afterward, while disobeying Nickerson's order to go after the ball instead of the receiver, Stef commits a crucial pass interference penalty that contributes to his team losing. In the locker room right after the game, he and Nickerson have an argument that results in Stef's dismissal from the team. Nickerson won't even Stef ride home on the team bus and tells him to ride with the cheerleaders.

Instead, he hitches a ride home with some Ampipe fans, who stop at Nickerson's house and vandalize it. Not realizing what they were going to do, Stef unsuccessfully tries to stop it. Nickerson's daughter hears the vandalizing and tells her father, who goes outside and sees the vandals fleeing. It's initially uncertain whether he got a close enough look at Stef.

But the next week, Stef visits Nickerson at a football practice, apologizing for his role in the argument and asking for re-instatement to the team, which has only one game left. But Nickerson says that he saw Stef at Nickerson's house that night after the game. Stef insists that he did none of the vandalizing but Nickerson doesn't believe that.

The day of the game, Greg and 700 others get laid off from the steel mill. In his ensuing depression, he goes out and gets drunk. While he's gone, Lisa comes over and she and Stef have sex for the first time.

The next few weeks are chaotic for Stef and his teammates. Brian (Christopher Penn), having just accepted a scholarship offer from USC, learns that his girlfriend, Tracy (Paige Lyn Price), is pregnant. They keep the baby and get married. Vinnie Salvucci (Paul Carafotes) gets arrested for armed robbery. And Stef's previous scholarship offers are revoked, leading him to believe that he was blackballed by Nickerson. And though Lisa is bitter about athletes getting scholarships while other deserving students don't, she goes to Nickerson's wife and tries to intervene.

And without revealing the ending, I will say that it has great messages of forgiveness and the selflessness inherent in pure love.

"All the Right Moves" mostly lives up to its title. All of the performances are top notch and both 80s small town high school life and the atmosphere of big time high school football are portrayed flawlessly. I also like that the school has a good mix of blacks and whites and that people of the two races have much positive interaction throughout the movie, both on and off the football team.

In addition, the scenery brings Ampipe powerfully to life and the rock dominated soundtrack, while not one of the best of the genre, further cements the movie's early 80s feel. And don't be turned away if you're not a football fan. The movie actually contains only one game scene. While the surface theme, as I said, is football, many other surface themes could equally be used to teach the same lessons.

The movie is a fairly heavy R, mostly for language and a couple of semi-graphic sex scenes, but if you can tolerate that, it's hard to find a better teen dominated drama than this.

It's nice, but getting old

[AvidClimber · 6/10 · 1 July 2013]

All the Right Moves is about how a simple mistake, made because as a youth you didn't know better, can change your future radically, and how your arrogance can crush your life or someone else's.

The good. Excellent 80s small steel town period piece. Very nice acting. Well built scenario with an interesting story.

The bad. The music is also very much 80s and pushed on the viewer a little bit much.

The ugly. It's getting old.

The result. If you're a Tom Cruise fan, it's a chance for you to see him at the beginning of his career. If you like 80s movies, this is a nice one. The others might want to abstain.

All the Same Moves

[questl-18592 · 4/10 · 31 December 2020]

Holy Generic Sports Movie, Batman!

There's really not much to be said about this because everything in here has been done a million times before and honestly been done better. This just happens to exist. What makes me drop it to just below average is the ending. It nearly had something there, it nearly showed us the rarest of things, a sports movie that ends on a super depressing note about someone being churned up by the system and just tossed aside. I would have LOVED that! But nope! At the last minute we have to pull some nonsense to make sure everyone gets their perfect fairytale ending. Nope. Hard pass.

While this isn't awful, there is nothing here that's worth the time to watch it. If you're already watching something and this just happened to come on after it and you're too lazy to change the channel (not knocking it, I've seen a few movies that way) then sure I guess but that is the only reason anyone should waste time on something this generic.