MamaGravity
good back-story, and good acting
Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
adrianswingler
During field tests with a local corn seed supplier I had to work on site and the work was based out of Pontiac, IL. People didn't revel in their small town status. They hated it and left as soon as they could, if they could. It was horrible. Everything. Try getting a decent meal out when the locals are actually afraid of spices. Not, "I prefer blander food" or such, but true horror at the thought that they might accidentally get slipped something cooked with the appropriate spices. I don't mean hot, I mean anything other than salt and pepper. And pepper's considered pretty darn exotic.Jamie Lee used to show up at the bar I used to frequent after work, during the shoot. That didn't even make it interesting. In fact, she was a bloody nuisance. Real attention seeker. First time I saw her I'd been in there about 10 minutes and a roadie walked in and she flashed her breasts at him and said, "How do you like these sets?"I suppose the movie does capture the grinding nothingness of it all. I found the plot insipid and the acting pretty bad. Patrick Swayze was just irritating. Surely you have something better to do than to watch this movie. I guess those that rated it highly are engaging in a kind of rationalization. Trapped in someplace like Fairbury, IL they convince themselves that they love small town Americana. Maybe they're afraid to leave. I mean, if spices scare you, the world might seem pretty terrifying. I guarantee it won't intrude on you in central Illinois!
frog4good
I lived near Pontiac IL for 12 years and after seeing the movie and recognizing places I went when I was growing up it was special.One question though if anyone knows Was the main house in the movie the funeral home in town? My brothers and I have wondered that for a long time. If anyone has an answer to that email me at frog4good@hotmail.com, also does anyone know if any scenes were done in Saunemin IL. thats where I lived and went to school thru 7th grade, my parents worked in Pontiac at the chair factory, then my mom worked at the hospital and my dad worked at the prison.We always thought that the track was near Fairbury but I guess not is there any place where this movie can be rented I have check Block Buster and they don't have it i think its one of those hard to find movies. thanks a bunch Dolores Ogden
Pepper Anne
In first watching Grandview, USA, you might be puzzled by the scattered storytelling. Simply put, the movie concerns a few small town Illinois residents, but each with their own assorted, and somewhat separate, small town struggles. C Thomas Howell, at least in the trailers, is made to look like the main character of the story, the teenager just aching to break free of the provincial setting. But in fact, his story is neither anything important, nor anything dominant. Jamie Lee Curtis is Mike Cody, a speedway owner who is fighting to hold on to her property. Since her father, the man who built the speedway died, the city commissioner had been dying to get their hands on it. And, Patrick Swayze plays "Slam the Ram," a rather cumbersome character who plays a speedway driver on Cody's lot who is dealing with his sleazy wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) cheating on him. No story is really fully developed. No situation really seeks to grab the audiences' attention. Everything just seems to be a subplot. The entire story is, as said before, simply scattered and without focus.Jamie Lee Curis and Patrick Swayze, however, are no less entertaining despite this. If only they had developed their characters and story enough, you might have had quite an enjoyable little film. For me, it was still an entertaining film, so long as you don't mind obscure movies and you're in the mood for something different. C Thomas Howell's teenage angst can be kind of annoying at points, especially the music video daydream sequence with the 'Steele Man of Action' bit. But, 80s fans might be lured by the cast. Look for John Philbin (as one of the speedway employees), John Cusack and Joan Cusack (as C Thomas Howell's friends) in minor parts. It wasn't great, but still worth a viewing if you can find it.
barteredlantern
... this might just be The Bad 80s Movie. The cast is all the Usual Suspects: Patrick Swayze, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, etc. The plot is the basic "Don't destroy my dream!" stuff (see Fame, Flashdance, Footloose, to name just a few of the Fs). The fashions -- well, I won't go there, except to say that looks that might occasionally have been found in trendy NY or LA clubs were generally absent, or at least muted, in the hinterlands of rural America. OK, so some movies don't age as well as others, but I mean, come on! MTV choreographed dream sequences?This was on cable one night and my wife and I just couldn't tear ourselves away. Upon JLC's appearance, my first thought was that this must have been a 'rent' movie, early in her career. On the contrary! She'd already had success with Halloween, Halloween II, and Trading Places!Viewing this film today, 20 years on, is more an exercise in humility than nostalgia.
