Light of Day (1987)

Better Late Then Never

Am I Missing Something?

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

It has been a while since I sat through this movie that I saw at the theatre because Michael J. Fox was in it and his movies can be pretty good. He should stick to comedy where he shines. The two things I remember about this movie is i) one of the few movies I have gone to with my mother and ii) there is one scene where there is supposed to be high drama and a very serious line is said. The theatre burst into laughter for a variety of reasons including the character spoke words that were obvious to anyone watching, the acting was so bad, and everyone was thinking "enough already." So my mom did not particularly like the film but she was confused because laughing usually implies a comedy and she could not see anything funny in this movie.

MJ Fox may have done his best serious acting here, but jett is better. A strange thing about the 70's runaways group. One chick, the one Dakota played in the biopic of the runaways recently, Cherrie Curie, did a great job acting in the 1980 movie Foxes.....and Joan nails it in 87...go figure....A simple, very depressing, but realistic movie....slice of life stuff. Which, as someone mentioned, is obviously why it flopped at the BO. Very good bar band stuff from Jett here.....Paul Schrader has never made a movie without merit. Keep in mind this is the guy who wrote the script for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, so even his least movies have something to offer. Schrader deals in some very heavy, deep human motivations and inclinations in his flicks, and never made a movie that was light fluff yet. This is the closest to that claim, and even this movie has merit and substance. Prob the worst movie he made, but even this is good....Let's face it, the guy has never made a bad movie...

If you're looking for an Academy Award caliber screenplay or performances - keep looking. If you're looking for an imaginative or tightly wrenched plot line - keep on looking. But if you're looking for a relatively simple, mildly thought provoking and even a bit touching family/coming-of-age melodrama - "Light of Day" may possibly be up to the task. During this primetime part of his career, pretty much anything that Michael J. Fox did was worth a look. Couple this with the facts that the legendary Gena Rowland turned in a credible performance, and rocker Joan Jett was surprisingly solid, "Light of Day" can be decently entertaining to those folks who are home during the day; those airlines looking for inexpensive in-flight movies or guys like me, who learned of the bar scene, by cutting their teeth in so many of Cleveland's eighties-era, head bangin' watering holes... 5.5 Stars

Joe (Michael J. Fox) and Patti (Joan Jetti) play in the band `The Barbusters'. They use to play in bars in the suburbs. Patti is the singer of the band and a single mother, has a beautiful son and is very rejected by her mother Jeanette (Gena Rowlands). They do not accept and understand each other. The father of Patti's son is unknown by her family. Patti wants to follow the career of musician, but her brother uses the band indeed as an alternative for the lack of job. Joe is the link between Patti and Jeanette, trying to resolve and absorb their problems. A terminal cancer in Jeanette changes the relationship among the family and cruel revelations are presented in the end, with a final redemption of the characters. The melodramatic screenplay of this movie looks like a Mexican soap opera, but the soundtrack is great. There is a minor participation of Jimmie Vaughn, as the singer of another band (`The Fabulous Thunderbirds'). This movie is not a masterpiece, but entertains, especially if the viewer watches it without any expectation, just for killing time. My vote is five.