Raderday

One Saturday, not so long ago, we watched a couple of 'classic' 80's movies. Rad and Thrasher.

Rad is about BMX biking whilst Thrasher is about skateboarding.

Rad is better at conveying what BMX biking is was all about at the time. The opening and closing credits have dudes pulling all kinds of tricks off on their bikes. The hoppy, near stationary, climbing all over the bike in ways a bike was not meant to be climbed all over kind of tricks. There's off road races, track races, ramp tricks. And there is bike dancing. Just about anything being done with a bike in the 80's is in this film somewhere.

Also in this film? Adrian, and Uncle Jesse's hot wife from Full House. And My Favourite Martian. Truly a cast well studded with stars. And there were probably some famous bikers in there too.


The bikers were good at their biking. This is a couple decades old and some of these tricks are still impressive.

So the movie is good, when people are on their bikes. Off the bikes, the movie ain't so great.

Luckily, people spend a lot of time on bikes. They even dance on their bikes. The bike dance is just awesome.

There is nothing awesome in Thrashin' (not Trasher, I've been referring to it by the wrong name forever. Oops)

It ain't bad, it is a good example of an 80's sports movie, but there is nothing all that remarkable about it. Now let me make some remarks about it.

Josh Brolin has always looked older. Always. And he may have been allergic to shirts back then. At the very least, he was allergic to buttons. The female lead in this came of poorly in direct competition with Rad's Full House lady. No real impressive skating in this film. Not a lot of board tricks. Barely any grinds. The only half pipe in this film gets burned down before it ever gets used. Mainly it's just Josh and his gang goofing off on their boards around L.A. Then the Chilli Peppers show up.

And there's some skateboard jousting and downhill racing. None of it shot with any real energy.

What is it about the 80's, man? The 70's gave birth to some of the greatest films ever. Timeless classics. FIlm making as an art form made a couple giant leaps. And then the 80's showed up and forgot all that. The nicest thing I can say about the style and craft of these two films is that they are charmingly inept.