Surprisingly incoherent and boring

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I had the pleasure of being Demi Moore's stand-in and photo double for this film, after auditioning against 325 other young actresses for the "role." Normally, you don't have to audition for that crew job, but since this film was Emilio's directorial debut, he wanted to be able to look through the camera lens to "see" what he and Demi would (more or less) look like. The job of the photo double and stand-in is to do all of the takes where you can't really see the stars' faces (drivebys, long distance shots, etc. - yes, I was the one he had slung over his shoulder running in the school parking lot after Karen was shot), as well as to sit in for lighting and sound checks. It was, to put it the most succinctly, like running away and joining the circus! Notwithstanding some of the legitimate criticisms of the film in other reviews, from a personal standpoint I have to say that Emilio was a total gentleman, and was especially respectful to all of the crew. He thanked the actors after every take and at the end of the day, and he never went into his trailer for meals - he always sat with the crew. The very first day on set, he asked if I had my SAG card, and when I told him I only had my AFTRA card, he wrote in a line for me so that I was eligible to join SAG (they ended up using the shot in the trailer). Emilio didn't have to do that, but it was the kind of thoughtful gesture that he showed others on a regular basis.Emilio was also well aware of the trust placed in him, being such a young man with a considerable film budget, and he was surrounded by many Hollywood veterans who were equally patient and understanding (Robert Wise, Bernie Williams, to name a few).While this may not be a true "review" of the film, I thought those of you who had written here might enjoy knowing some of the "behind the scenes" thoughts from someone who was there for the whole shoot. Personally, I enjoyed every moment of the experience, I learned a lot, and I will always be grateful to Emilio for his generosity of spirit and kindness. He was a class act, every step of the way.

Emelio Estevez makes his writing and directorial debut in Wisdom, the story of a guy named John Wisdom who finds himself in sort of an early life crisis, I guess. Barely entering the real world, he is coming to realize that life is harder than he has been brought up to believe, and he becomes convinced that all this stuff he's been hearing all his life about how he can be anything he wants is not really true, and so he sets out to do what any rational person would do in such a situation. He embarks on a dizzyingly adventurous life of crime and the freedom of the open road. All can only end happily for everyone involved.But rather than become your typical bank robber, Wisdom, after brainstorming at length about the type of criminal that he aspires to be, decides he's going to be a criminal FOR the people. No one can be hurt by his crimes except for big evil corporations and, more specifically, greedy banks. Wisdom believes that he has been dealt an unfair hand in the game of life, and sitting in a bus station in the early part of his wandering, he sees a commercial that convinces him that this he's not the only one. Millions of hard working Americans work themselves to the bone for their entire lives, only to have everything taken away in a flash by the banks when they should be ready to retire in comfort and happiness. And as Brig. Gen. Francis X. Hummel said in The Rock, the situation is unacceptable.Hence we have an understandable concern about a truly troublesome situation of many people in America, but it's a weak premise for the rest of the movie, possibly because 24 year old Estevez, as Wisdom, looks like he's 16 years old in the entire movie. Granted, his character is not meant to be much older than that, but there is a definite element of juvenile grandiose fantasy that renders much of the movie into something of a high school kid's dream of fame and a life of righteous crime. Demi Moore, also 24 years old, plays the equally high school-ish love interest, oddly more ready to leave her boyfriend when he's in a persistent bad mood than she is when he runs out of a bank with a gun and jumps in her car and tells her to step on it with no warning or hesitation. The two ultimately become sort of a mesh of Bonnie and Clyde, Robin Hood, Mickey and Mallory, etc., as they cross the country holding up banks, but only for the purpose of burning lots of mortgage records, thereby erasing massive amounts of working class debt. Evidently mortgage companies and banks hold only a single solitary copy of debt records, and clearly there can't have been any computerized records, this is 1986 after all. Computers were like the size of Volkswagens back then, weren't they? So here are a few reasons that the movie is just about unwatchable. First, there is the acting. I'll just specify the scene where Wisdom finally is able to talk to his parents after being on the run for several days. Very emotional, and quite possibly the least bearable scene in the film. Just stop, Emilio. This, as Roger Ebert might say, is a scene meant to be cut up and made into ukulele picks for the poor. Second, there's the pursuit. The FBI is chasing them, and at one point the head FBI agent worriedly hopes that they can get to them before they get to a certain bank. Would it not be prudent to send some agents straight to that bank to meet them? Thirdly, there's the simplicity of it all. Americans in debt, Wisdom comes in armed with an Uzi to save the day. Please. The last line in the film, more than any other line in any other movie I've ever seen, completely cancels itself out. It literally would have made no difference if the final line had been 'Why did we even make this movie?'(spoilers) You can kind of track the progression of the writing, the ideas changing and evolving as the story develops. First there's the young kid trying to make some sense out of what he has to work with in his life, then the determined young man out to help his fellow man, then the Robin Hood, sequence, then Bonnie and Clyde after they tarnish their consciences, then the high speed pursuit as the police close in on them despite their own incompetence. The car chase is a great scene, it's a surprisingly well-made car chase for such a weak film, but the build up is heavily flawed. The scene where Demi kills the sheriff is a real forehead slapper. On the run and with their faces plastered all over the TV and newspapers, Karen (Moore) walks into a convenience store and is shocked to find the sheriff walking in. So what does she do? She walks toward the door, stops behind him, and stares at him like a frightened deer, motionless until he can gradually recognize her. At one point, he even asks her, 'Are you okay, miss?' Sure, she was terrified, but I get so tired of scenes where you're sitting there yelling at the screen because all she has to do is keep walking. Had she just walked out, chances are the sheriff wouldn't have thought twice about it, and just kept right on living. But no, she had to pull out her gun and shoot him, and then jump into the car with her boyfriend so they can zoom down the highway to their deaths.Sadly, once that car chase is over, it's all downhill. You can't really root for Wisdom to run around killing people, because he's not supposed to be a bad guy and is definitely not supposed to be a killer. Like his choices in life, he was supposed to have been DRIVEN to it by society. He had no choice, right? So why not return fire when they shoot Karen near the end of the film after they try to steal the Mustang? That jerk shot your girlfriend out of a helicopter, man! Shoot it down! Here's my theory – Estevez HAD to have known that his audience was going to want him to return fire, the FBI agent had long since been established as an antagonist. I'm sure Emilio wanted to put that in the script as well, a great way for them both to go out in a glorious hail of bullets, he probably just didn't have the budget to blow up a helicopter. So we get this scene in the football stadium. Why the cops went there in the first place I have no idea.The movie knows what it wants to do and, thematically, it sets about to do it in a straight line. Unfortunately the characters change constantly, each one making ridiculous decisions out of the blue or to support the ridiculous decisions of the other ones, gradually changing into different people as a life of crime can do, but doing so through a series of wholly unbelievable scenes and events. And besides that, Demi had yet to make much of an impression, which surely must have worried her since she has a 10th grade education and doesn't have a lot to fall back on besides acting, and let's face it, Emilio had a rough introduction to writing and directing. Evidently he learned a lot of lessons from this movie before coming back in spectacular form in 1990.

I think alot of people knew from the get-go this movie wasnt going to be a award winning movie, but I don't think the movie was horrible. It certainly wasn't Emilio or Demi's finest work but for being the age Emilio was when he wrote and directed this movie, he didn't do that bad of a job. As far as the critics go with this movie: In my opinion they weren't going to be kind with this movie no matter how it good it was because of Demi and Emilio's "Brat pack" status.

Who doesn't fantasize about trying to make the world a better place. Emilio Estevez is a charismatic actor who has written a good story and he plays the part well. Demi Moore is a doll in the film and I don't believe the movie takes itself too seriously, just seriously enough. It's not a movie that can be taken at face value. He's not saying we should burn mortgages anymore than Cameron is saying we should shoot up police departments in TERMINATOR.The movie is a power fantasy and says so. Well done, good job Mr. Estevez. I was going to give this movie an 8/10 but since it already has a low score, I'll give it a 10. I'm proud to own this movie on videotape. >