Simply Perfect

Lack of good storyline.

best movie i've ever seen.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

"Flying" (aka "Teenage Dream") looks to be another one of those '80s feel-good movies using the same tired premise of a main character overcoming adversity and achieving their dreams- and essentially, it is exactly that. While the story is predictable, there are lots of other things thrown in that were very unexpected of such a movie. Main character Robin is a girl in high school who has a love of gymnastics. Her loving father, also her gymnastics coach, dies in a car crash (this is off-screen and presumably takes place a few years before the film begins) and Robin severely injures her knee in the crash, greatly dampening her gymnastic abilities and forcing her to start training from the ground up. As if this alone wasn't enough to make you root for the underdog, her mother marries a mean brute, presumably to make ends meet, and she must switch schools and move in with him and his daughter (also all takes place before film begins) Not only that, both Robin and her mother work in sweatshop-like conditions in his dry-cleaning business every day, and her mother is also exhausted and sick. At night, Robin goes into some abandoned warehouse (?) with a policeman (?) and practices gymnastics. To top off her depressing life, she helps out with the gymnastics team, who are all snobby and mean to her, except for one, a charming girl who is a good friend but has her own problems as well (starving herself to lose weight)Things do start to look up for Robin, however. After seeing her abilities, the coach adds her to the team, and picks her and two others to compete in an important competition. Keanu Reeves, in the very early days of his career, shines as her dorky friend Tommy and later her boyfriend, whom Robin initially ignored in favor of a preppy boy who, of course, doesn't like her back.Good times do not last long, for as soon as things are going good, Robin's mother dies. Showing almost no emotion about that, Robin almost immediately goes off and has sex with her boyfriend (though they are only shown undressing each other) This was unexpected as well, as only a short while before, Tommy had given up on her and was ignoring her. She has comfort in her friend and in Tommy, and (of course) wins the competition- THE END.Was this an amazing film? Of course not. But if you like a good cheesy '80s flick every once in a while, you'll get all the nostalgic trademarks: big hair, dancing scenes with pop music and boomboxes, training montages, girls in legwarmers, etc.The acting is not great, it's campy, and there are some weird undertones. Olivia d'Abo, who plays Robin, was only 15 at the time of filming, yet there are enough close-up shots of her butt and breasts in tight tank tops to make you feel uncomfortable. Keanu Reeves, pre-stardom, is very likable and believable in his role. There is also the minor token black character, in the form of the trustworthy groovy dancing cop. Olivia d'Abo's use of a stunt double for all of the gymnastics scenes is outrageously obvious, and she is somewhat unbelievable in her role as the (quirky?) Robin. It also should be noted that Reeves was 20 and d'Abo was 15, playing a couple. However, he is so kind and cute and their short scene in bed was about the most sweet and loving thing i've ever seen in a movie, to be honest. They even wash the sheets together afterwards- I mean come on. On the other hand, there was a very strange scene in which Robin intently watches Tommy, biting her lip, as he dumps a bunch of onions and toppings on their street vendor hot dogs. Three seconds later, they are shown French kissing. (???Ew???) Yeah, it's a bad movie, but it's a campy, guilty pleasure, if only for Reeves's very youthful charisma, and it's one you will probably get made fun of for if somebody catches you watching it.

I watched this and I thought it was okay, but it wasn't anything special.The script could have done with a lot more work, but the story had some nice touches such as: The main character Robin Crew was injured in a car accident that also killed her dad, leaving her with injuries that diminished her abilities which she must work to overcome.I did like the story though but it suffer from: 1. Robin's relationships not being explored properly.2. I felt there were some unneeded additions like the stepfather. The team mates who did not accept Robin were enough.3. It did turn cheesy in places.Nevertheless it was reasonably entertaining, but really not something I would watch over and over again.It would have been better if it was more better thought and the script had more work. Much of the work on it seemed lame though there were decent performances by Olivia D'Abo, Keanu Reeves and Rita Tunsingham.All in all a so-so movie which I think the most stellar thing about was the soundtrack. I did like how it was about succeeding despite the odds but like I said it suffered from let downs and a very flawed script.

It's not really about gymnastics; swap out the occasional training montages and it could just as easily be about archery, or microbiology, or a booger-flicking tournament. Instead, like every other Rocky/Flashdance derivative that flooded the 80s market, it's about conquering adversity with stick-to-it-iveness, rendering all social/personal realities irrelevant by your lonesome - with love interest standing by of course. Ronald Reagan top to bottom, in short; so as a piece of cinema it's down to the details. Some of the actors are quirky enough to liven things up - especially the love interest, brought to you by none other than Mr. Keanu Reeves, warming up for Ted; heroine Olivia D'Abo's hateful alkie dad and big-hair stepsister are more interesting than the sickly mom or her utterly inert bitch-nemeses/teammates, one of whom appears to be made of porcelain. It's my instinct to be appalled by the comic-relief black guys, but on the other hand at least they're in the movie. But D'Abo doesn't quite convince with her awkward-girl shtick, and in the absence of any other narrative focus the lack of interest in the gymnastics themselves really does matter; it's all just bodies hurtling around, and not only is the outcome of the big tournament a foregone conclusion, it's all performed by an obvious double.

What an insult to Olivia D'Abo who plays the film's heroine, Robin, to have Keanu Reeves appear so large on the box art of the film (and at least on recent reissues, to have only Reeves appear on the box), considering that she was the star. I realize that it is his name that will ultimately sell this long-forgotten After School Special, but at least give the woman some credit. Despite that, this has to be one of the worst teen sports-themed films that I have ever seen, and it strives very hard to add not only every teen and sports movie cliché from the class warfare between the feuding gymnasts to the teen romance. And, in striving to somehow deliver itself as an amateur alternative of Flashdance (with the music in one of the warehouse dance scenes is even quite close to Michael Sembello's notable 'Maniac' which was made famous by Flashdance, or was it the other way around?). It includes similar dance sequences and worse yet, even the 80s dance and sports traditions of corny dance-offs between the heroine and her antagonist(s), the one who doubts her successes and abilities on the team. We saw this in Trashin' (a vert ramp joust) and Rad (BMX dancing at the prom, although it wasn't much for competition, but rather for fun) for example. In fact, this movie is chock full of unrealistic corniness, such as the somewhat homo-erotic rolling in the clothes at the Salvation Army with Robin and her friend from the team.Nonetheless, the film is about a young girl who comes from a rather poor background. To top it off in a massive need to squeeze from audiences as much sympathy as possible, she lives with her ailing mother, her obnoxious sister, and her careless (and slightly abusive) stepfather. Needless to say, homelife is not so appealing. Add to the mix, a talent for gymnastics, but several obstacles to joining the team (including the nuisance of her arrogant, snobby teammates, and a coach who also eventually doubts her abilities to compete well). And, of course, we can't forget that she's got eyes for one of the pretty boy preppies who is dating one of the obnoxious teammates, nor that she doesn't have a steady boyfriend (although Keanu as Tommy later enters the picture). Could this kid be any more pathetic? And it seems that one mess after another comes along to embarrass herself in her painfully long, redundant, and clichéd quest to prove her worth to everyone.But, even the major moments of cheesiness which comprise most of the film, are hardly worth mentioning considering that the biggest distraction to this film is the horrible acting and dialog. (I like how the gym coach suddenly appears at the diner in the middle of the dance-off to scold the teammates). It makes episodes of 'Amazing Stories' look like Shakespeare.I imagine anyone able to locate this film and watch it these days is probably drawn to it mostly because of the nostalgic factor. For that you might be satisfied, but it is also an incredibly forced drama. So, Caveat Emptour.