Rad (1986)

Overrated and overhyped

Expected more

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I can't say I've ever been apart of the BMX crowd, but that certainly doesn't stop "Rad" from delivering the goods. What's really amusing about this movie is that it doesn't take long for its weaknesses to somehow become strengths, and that's all part of the charm. It's familiar (The Karate Kid, E.T.), it's bizarre (was that a school dance or a disco scene?) and I get a smile from seeing Canada as small-town America. But this is the kind of underdog story you can't help but like, and that's not even covering the movie's greatest weapon: the music. Farnham's "Thunder In Your Heart" is every bit the '80s time capsule that is "Rad". It's a fun movie.7/10

This movie has been my hands down favourite for as long as I can remember. I originally had it home recorded on VHS and I cannot count the number of times it was watched until the tape finally snapped. I had received a DVD copy for Christmas one year along with a Rad Racing shirt. Not sure where it came from but I can definitely look into it if anybody requests.The movie itself is a great story of overcoming obstacles and working hard at what you really love to do. I enjoy the fact that it has the bad guy that isn't out to destroy the world and he becomes good in the end. You just don't see movies like this anymore these days.The movie is amazing and it also has a great soundtrack for its time. Still ready to "Break the Ice" whenever I need to pump up for something. The John Farnham songs are the best.

There's an old saying that "you can't go home again", but thanks to the movie Rad, I can go home anytime I want to. It was filmed mostly in my hometown when I was a kid (all but Helltrack itself, which was set up in Bowness Park in Calgary), and re-watching it now brings me back to how excited everyone was at the time. In the movie the town was called Cochrane, and was in some unknown state. In real life, the town is.....you guessed it, Cochrane, which is just outside Calgary, Alberta. And the local kids really were into BMX biking; I remember my godfather's son making a half-pipe as a shop project, and then not being able to get it through the shop door.The high school in the movie really was pre-renovation Cochrane High. The Cobra logo on the gym wall is the real Cochrane High logo (I graduated as a Cochrane Cobra, as did my dad before me). I remember the school freaking out over whether the movie crew would be able to pull off the BMX Boogie scene without permanently damaging the gym floors. The school ended up converting the gym to a library and music room and building a new gym on the opposite side of the school, if I recall correctly thanks in part to the location fees paid.The ice cream shop where Cru catches up to Christian is called McKay's and was Cochrane's one and only tourist attraction at the time. Cru's workplace, the Main Street Snack Bar, was real. It's been also been a café, and a Chinese food restaurant over the years, but it's there. Lucky Penny Pizza was really Cochrane's best (and for a long time, only) pizza place. The building in the background when Cru jumps the car during the parade even housed my mom's office.Best of all in terms of hometown connection, the house that Cru's family lived in in the movie wasn't a set. It was a real house, and it was actually the first house my parents lived in after they got married.Cochrane had a population explosion shortly after this movie was made, and has grown to the point that most people who've seen Rad would never recognize the town now. For example, there's no longer an empty field opposite the sawmill, and the field Cru and Christian ride into on the hill above the town is now home to a huge subdivision of condos. It's not a small town anymore, and the small town feel is long gone, but when I watch Rad I see my hometown the way it was when I was a kid, and it makes me smile.

when this movie came out i was fully into freestyle biking and i was so excited to see that a movie about it was coming out. i grew up in ithaca, ny and the state theater in the downtown area had a poster in a lightbox that read "coming soon". that poster seriously sat there out front for at least 2 years if not longer. in the meantime it came out on video and my dad rented it for me to watch on Christmas 1986. i watched it 10 times, i kid you not. i was so stoked for the scene during the credits where they show two freestyle bike dudes tearing it up. if you didn't know who they were, its r.l. osborn for team redline and eddie fiola for team gt(at the time he was pretty much the tony hawk of freestyle biking.)its not the best movie ever. it was definitely "kid tested and mom approved". i was a freestyle dude and i hung out with other freestyle bikers and we all listened to punk and metal which is noticeably absent in the soundtrack. its pretty much a guilty pleasure movie and a trip down memory lane but its worth watching just for the action sequences. the only thing thats pretty terrible is the bike dancing scene at the school dance while the song "send me an angel" plays. as a freestyle bike fan, this scene was mildly offensive to me as no self respecting boy would mock the sport of freestyle biking by dancing with his bike as a mating ritual to woo a girl. pretty corny.