ThiefHott Too much of everything

Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Jonathan C I became interested in this movie because I was curious about movies that had a large discrepancy between the Critics and Audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Rad actually is the record-holder--84% of the audience liked the movie, but a whopping 0% of the critics. I was fascinated by what kind of movie could provoke this reaction--a very loyal fanbase and unanimous critical disapproval. It turned out that there were only 5 critics' reviews, so that was part of the reason. But the main issue was that this is simply a likable bad movie.Rad is actually a sports movie--BMX bike racing. The BMX circuit comes to a small town, and a local boy is very talented and dreams of winning the race. He meets a girl from the touring company and there is a romance (surprise) and he does battle with the evil favorite Rocky style. Talia Shire, who was Rocky's wife, plays the kid's mom and does the same sort of nervous mugging for the camera. Bart Conner, the Olympic gymnast, plays the villain in his first movie role. Bill Allen and Lori Loughlin from Family Ties play the hero and his love interest.Now, already, you can see the makings of a train wreck (or bike wreck?), but the fact of the matter is that the movie does a decent job of doing exactly what you would expect. Also, the BMX stunts are terrific, and some of the gags are pretty funny. It is easy to see how this movie could become a cult film (which it has) with rabidly loyal followers. Nonetheless, it really is pretty silly, so if you're into this sort of thing, great. Personally I think three stars is about right.

slimer8489 This film is called Rad, and that's exactly what it is: A truly radical experience. I admit, I did hear about this movie from the Nostalgia Critic's review of it. Then, when I heard the epic song "Break the Ice" and when I heard about how much of an audience it attracted, I decided to check it out... Right at the perfect time, summer of freshman year. I was in for a kick-ass experience.The film's opening is awesome. It's nothing but dudes on BMX bikes showing off their tricks. Just amazing! After the opening, we get our main character, Cru Jones. He reminds me of Rocky, an underdog who is determined to get something done, despite the odds against him. It's funny to mention Rocky, because Talia Shire (Adrian from Rocky) is in this movie. We also have Aunt Becky from Full House in this movie. Man, what a babe! In the end, everything turns out great.This movie sure knows how to deliver. It's marketed as a BMX movie, and that's what it gives us. Awesome. It's also inspirational. Before I saw this film, I saw riding my bike as a dead phase of my life. Now, after I saw the movie, I can't get enough of my bike. I like going outside on my bike and trying to do tricks and stuff. It sucks how this movie was only released to VHS. We need this film on DVD. Official DVD, which means that the homebrews out on the Internet don't count. Well, the folks at InHD came to the rescue and released a version of this movie with DVD-like quality, and it was awesome. Notice: I said "was", which means that every copy of this version that was uploaded to YouTube have now been taken down thanks to a false copyright claim by Warner Bros., even though they don't own the movie. Luckily, I caught on early that these were being taken down, so I snagged a copy and saved it to my SD card. Just look at us fans, the extremes we have to go through to get this film out on DVD.Don't look at this film as a piece of '80s that was only a fad, look at it as Rocky on bikes. Yeah, the music is pretty dated, but that shouldn't matter today, since it seems like all modern movies rely on music from the past to use in their films, but who could blame them? Bottom line, this film was great then and it's great now.

Scarecrow-88 Watching RAD after about twenty years was like revisiting an old friend. Plain and simple, I like bike stunts and RAD provided plenty of that. Director Hal Needham substitutes bikes for cars in this little movie about a small town, Crochton, getting a big tournament which will bring in quite an income. Local biker Cru(Bill Allen, phenomenal on a bike)wants to make it big in racing and sees this tournament as his break if he can dodge several hurdles in order to get such a chance. The man responsible for bringing the tournament to Crochton is Duke Best(Jack Weston; WAIT UNTIL DARK), the mind behind a competitive race known as HELLTRACK. His racing team is Mongoose and the best rider of the group is Bart Taylor(Bart Conner), essentially a blond teenbeat heartthrob who has the local girls swooning. Along with the Mongoose team is a young woman named Christian(the adorable Lori Loughlin of FULL HOUSE fame)who takes an instant liking to Cru. Cru is like her equal and both have a spark which ignites anytime their eyes meet. Through her motivation and care, Cru finds the competitor inside to do whatever it takes to succeed in not only qualifying for the giant final top 20 race, but win it all. When Cru emphatically defies Duke's wishes to throw the final race when he is able to make it because of his integrity and competitive spirit, Best will stop at nothing(including changing the rules in order to compete in the race, such as having a sponsor and needing a fee of $40,000)to upend the 17 year old kid. This bike movie has some impressive supporting star power in Talia Shire(as Cru's mom, who insists he think about his future)and Ray Walston(as a local figure in the city who eventually becomes fed up with Best's nefarious methods to get his top racer an easy win).To be honest, I embraced RAD with all my heart. I remember wearing pants with zipper pockets like Cru and am a big fan of X-games and "alternative sports". I had fond memories of watching this on HBO in the 80s as a kid, so a grin remained on my face throughout. Yes, the hair styles and wardrobe(and some of the music although songs like "Break the Ice" and "Thunder in Your Heart" I thought kicked major ass) could be considered "cringe inducing", but that's always been part of the 80s charm. While the opening of the movie promises some mad work by pros with their bikes, the big finale is essentially a race over and over on a difficult obstacle course. Weston is the archetypal corporate villain, one who demands that his # 1 kid remains the best. The idea of losing to a local kid is too unpleasant a thought for Duke Best, so when he tries time and again to keep Cru from entering the final race, you just know how this movie will turn out. Actually, my favorite scene(one I had absolutely forgot about until this viewing)is the "bike dance" where Cru and Christian participate in a "dance of the bikes" set to the cool song "Send me an Angel", often in slow motion, it's like poetry if you are a fan of bicycle stunts. Jamie Clarke and Marta Kober are Cru's pals, Luke and Becky. RAD follows the mold of ROCKY & KARATE KID in that a nobody, who works newspaper routes and a restaurant serving cokes and burgers, takes advantage of an opportunity that presents itself and goes all the way despite numerous challenges which he comes across. There are some mushy romantic moments between Cru and Christian but this movie was geared towards a teen market so that is to be expected. The opening route featuring Cru delivering the morning newspapers is stunning in how Bill Allen totally pulls off stunt after stunt as if he had been a professional for years. RAD will probably work best for BMXers and those who used to perform on their bikes in backyards and sidewalks as a kid.

eclip5e One of the paradigms of 1980s movies, I saw it when I was around 7 or 8 years old. This movie influenced me to become the man I am today, a professional bmx biker, sponsored by Mongoose.Shortly after seeing this film, I traded my banana cruiser in for a sweet new bmx . From that point on, I was terrorizing my neighbors with my rude paper route delivery antics. I had my route so well planned and executed that I too could ride a garbage trucks front-end loader over a fence.It took a few years, but at the 1997 X Games, I was approached by the then-head of the Mongoose racing team about potential sponsorship. When asked "Who do you race for?" I used the words of Cru, I took of my sunglasses, looked him in the eyes and said "I race for me". He knew I meant business, and signed me for a 5 year contract right there, handing me 5 million dollars in cash, on the spot.