Rad (1986)

How sad is this?

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

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.

This site has all kinds of information and photos. Probably the best location to everything about the movie. www.themovierad.com I was excited to see some of the original badges to allow helltrack stunt riders entrance to the set. I guess one of the guys in the movie put all of his stuff for everyone to view. There appears to be a decent following of people trying to replicate the bike that Cru Jones rode in the movie. This is the only the main one as he had three, which I learned reading through the site. The cool thing about the site is that they show products from after the movie. Shirts, posters, stuff like that. This whole thing is less about the stars and more about the people influenced by the movie and the stunt riders who were stars in the BMX world. www.themovierad.com

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.

Well before X Games was even thought of or heard of "Rad" was in theaters. I was young when the movie came out and my memory of the entire movie is a bit hazy, but what I do remember was good. As young as I was when I watched it I would not have known good acting from bad, but I remember the cool stunts he was trying and his determination to do the back flip on the bike (which is a standard stunt now). Also, how could anyone forget the scene from the school dance where he did variable stunts to the song "Give me an Angel".Rad is most likely a cult classic if it is anything at all, very few have watched it and probably even fewer will remember it. It is another iconic symbol of the great 80's.