Skateboard

I was in 6th grade when this movie came out. Me and a friend HAD TO GO GO SEE THIS!!! IT WAS RAD AND COOL! We saw it in the movie theater when it came out. WOW! IT WAS one of the greatest movies we had seen up until Star Wars and TRON came out! We were super into skateboarding at the time! I ACTUALLY GOT TO MEET the BEST skateboarder in the world, at the time! TONY ALVA!!! WOW!! There were the SIMMS also, I didn't get to meet them. I got a part-time job building skateboards too. What a dream! Then a few years later the movie TRON came out. We had never seen anything before like these movies! It was a crazy cool time.

For a mainstream 1970's flick, SKATEBOARD sticks firmly to the exploitation style of spontaneous direction, freestyle dialog, and capricious plot line. And although billed as a Leif Garret vehicle, the bulk belongs to character-actor Allen Garfield as a tubby, struggling talent agent who owes big bucks to a dangerous bookie so, after discovering a group of wayward teenage skateboarders, Manny starts a hopeful team that travels in a decapitated bus doing borderline minstrel shows disguised as freestyle competitions. While Garrett meanders in the background as one of the younger skaters, too shy to really take chances, the true hotshots are real life rollers Richard Van der Wyk, Tony Alva and Ellen O'Neal. And while the trio skate better than act, there's something genuine in the deadpan deliveries: after all, it's their territory more than Garfield who, with a constantly frantic bicker, seems more part of a low-rent gangster flick than skateboarding propaganda: which this needed more action shots of. But Manny's a likable antihero, especially after Kathleen Lloyd joins the ranks as the chaperon/nurse. Although scenes where Manny attempts talking ingénue Pam Kenneally from sleeping with Van der Wyk seem a bit creepy, he eventually becomes the endearing sloppy uncle as the team climbs to the final competition where – after the star skater drops out – it's up to underdog Garrett to win a do-or-die downhill race, providing more suspense in the buildup than the real thing. For More Reviews: www.cultfilmfreaks.com