Vision Quest (1985)

Wow! Such a good movie.

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I was sort of old when this movie came out 30 years ago. I'm a lot older now and more than any time in my life I'm trying to make weight. For most of my time on this planet I struggled heroically to put on a few pounds of muscle. These days I step on my scale at least three times a day as if I will somehow magically transform into the perfect physical specimen I picture myself to be. I ride my bike into the ground. I do pull-ups in the park with young punks who could be my grand kids if I had kids. Perhaps this is why I found this umpteenth viewing of Vision Quest to be so rewarding.I could have done without the whole poontang sideline. It would have been better if the film focused more on how his vision quest affected him at school. I think this is a better message than the sexual discovery angle…and a lot less clichéd and boring.The last thing that I'd do would be to talk about what this move means. I don't look for life lessons in movies. Vision Quest is just plain fun. I also don't really look to movies for inspiration but if I did Vision Quest would be a good place to start. There is nothing new or original in this story but I would rate it as one of the top sports movies of all time. Rocky sucked in comparison (Rocky sucks compared to anything). It has aged very well.-I wasn't a high school wrestler but I busted my butt training in jiu-jitsu for several years and I have to say that it was the most competitive thing I've ever experienced so I get wrestling more now that when I first saw the movie.-Loudon doing the peg board is about as good as sports movies get—a great scene.-Even the mid 80's soundtrack doesn't seem corny or dated all these years later. Journey was the worst band in the freaking world. Foreigner was a close second. I hated all the music in the film but in this context it's cool.-The scene with the cook telling him about Pele was corny and underwritten but it was a great idea. -Most of the kids in the movie actually look like high school kids. In so many films and TV they have 30 year olds in these roles.-The character of Shute was more of a monster than the thing in Alien. Well done! -I've always thought that it was cute how they make wrestling out to be some sort of popular and glamorous high school sport. Everyone knows everything about the team and the gym is packed for matches. I doubt this is the case anywhere… but it should be.

From middle school to high, i watched this movie at least 4 times each wrestling and freestyle season. This movie depicts the weight cutting, inner team competitiveness, and young athlete determination of high school. But at the same time, it shows a young man juggling a job and "womanly needs". Shute is probably the coolest "villain" of all sport movies, and his scene with the pole and bleacher walk makes every schoolboy thank god they never wrestled him. Louden is your unlikely hero, but its realistic when you grow with him and watch him work for it. The acting in this movie is nothing to marvel at, but it does not hold or distract you from a great story. Even though i rated this movie a 7, it is one of my favorites, and is a true hidden gem.

This is a movie about wresslin, to be more accurate High School wresslin, the toughest of its kind, and no one on earth has a clearer understanding of this fact then young Matthew Modine. The movie starts off pretty basic, Modine lives with his uncaring pop Ronny Cox and Linda Fiorentino plays a young artist caught in the middle of their world. The movie gets going right away and the training sequences are excellent, although i cant tell if MM actually wrestled at any point in his life, he does an alright job portraying the weight cutting, nose bleeding, underwear inspecting-jock in this weird movie about strange bedfellows. Linda Fiorentino looks good in this movie for five seconds then she just starts looking downright grisly. The more the movie went on the more she started to look like a guy. And with all the hype of the star wrestler appropriately named "shoot", his bark is much bigger then his bite as the climactic match has as much pop as a flat soda in the middle of a pizza party. The movie is pretty good albeit racked with totally uninspired performances from everyone except Steve Perry who's belting out some eighties single he threw together after Journey broke up. This is nothing amazing, its just o.k. in my book, i would have liked to see more training and more fighting, the nemesis wrestler Modine must face who everyone in the movie is absolutely terrified of gets little screen time, and the side story with Linda Fiorentino is unnecessary in my opinion and was added to make this a date movie. So throw on your singlet and fire up some plain popcorn for this barn-buster. 5 thumbs. meh.

This is a classic 80's movie that's actually quite enjoyable. The acting is a little uneven, but not enough to ruin the film. The monotone performance of Linda Fiorentino contrasts with Matthew Modine's child-like wonderment persona, yet they still somehow have chemistry. The character, Louden Swain, is a die-hard optimist who has big dreams for the future. Matthew Modine does an inspiring job in becoming this character. Bottom-line, this movie is all Modine. He carried this film and it would never have worked without him. Whenever I call in at work, this is my "go to" movie that I pop in to pass the time. It's a fun movie that you can watch over and over again. Yes, parts of it are quite cheesy but that's what makes it even more amusing. Great 80's soundtrack too! Enjoy!-RM