Lightning, the White Stallion (1986)

Admirable film.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I cannot believe that anyone could have payed money to see this movie. The repulsive acting from everyone (including Mme. Rene) was unbelievably horrible. First of all, the movie was rated PG but really should have been rated NC-17 because of the wardrobe malfunctions in the scene where Isabelle Lorca is sitting with her mother and stepfather in the dining room table and storms off. Maybe these producers didn't even have enough money to buy their characters bras, but then couldn't she have gotten a non-see-through shirt? It was absolutely disgusting. The whole movie, the obvious horse changes, the obvious terrible stunt changes, and the strange song made the movie impossible to watch. After seeing this sucker, my friends and I decided to make fun of it, which is really the only purpose that this movie could have possibly been made for. Also the actors looked like they had been chosen off the street. Lucas Mitchell and Stephanie Ward were positively the most ugly people who could have been in this movie. Talk about a small budget. I feel so bad for Mikey Rooney because he was in this terrible (I don't know if you could even call it a movie) movie. DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE unless you have a garbage can near you to throw up in.

Delightfully cheesy horse pucky, though. I agree wholeheartedly with the other reviewer--the use of stock footage of several different horses doesn't fool anyone! Not to mention the glaring continuity error--children under the age of 18 are NOT allowed to show stallions at almost all rated or USA Equestrian sanctioned horse shows. This movie is not entirely without its redeeming points though. There's a superb line of dialogue where Girl Rider wishes Bad Guy Competition Rider "Good luck" as he rides into the arena. He sneers at her and says, "When you're as GOOD as i am, you don't NEED luck." heh. awesome. I would love to get all of my barn buddies together and watch this while drinking alcoholic beverages.

And I've seen some bad ones. Aside from the dialog being hokey, the plot being full of holes, the acting was stiff and unreal... I don't even know where to start. I was particularly amused at the fact that the main 'stallion' was portrayed by at least 4 different horses that were not even the same color (watchers can thrill to the feeling of the magical color changing horse!) Yes, the base color was always white, but did they really think we were dumb enough to mistake a 17+ hand warmblood dark dapple grey, a cremello pony (who I believe was a mare) a fleabitten grey horse, and a cream horse as all the same animal??? And the cut scenes were horrible. Were they supposed to show tension? action? I was confused as they showed several different horses and riders, all supposedly the same horse! The riders were wearing different color clothes! The main girl couldn't ride, her 'trainer' couldn't ride, and I'm almost ashamed of Mickey Rooney for being in this stinker! He must have needed the money badly. Avoid this one. If you want to see an uplifting horse movie, go rent Sylvester.

Lame is not a word someone wants to hear when talking about horses, but this horse film is very lame. Being a fan of both Mickey Rooney and horse pictures I thought this might have been a half way decent film capitalizing on the extremely well done Black Stallion films and TV series in which Mickey Rooney starred. Nope. Even by rip-off standards does this film come close to be much more than a waste of time. I've seen at least fifty a-girl-and-her-horse (and boy-and-his-horse) pictures ranging from old MGM B-pictures to numerous Disney outings and I've enjoyed them all. Canadian and Australian efforts usually are quiet good with this genre. The stallion and Mickey Rooney are great but the plot and dialogue is so terrible the film is better watched with the sound turn down. Murray Langston, the former "Unknown Comic" shows up as a school bus driver and actually gives one of the better performances. That should tell you something.