pspielman73 Reviews

Rad (1986)

memories of rad

[8/10 · 25 April 2009]

when this movie came out i was fully into freestyle biking and i was so excited to see that a movie about it was coming out. i grew up in ithaca, ny and the state theater in the downtown area had a poster in a lightbox that read "coming soon". that poster seriously sat there out front for at least 2 years if not longer. in the meantime it came out on video and my dad rented it for me to watch on Christmas 1986. i watched it 10 times, i kid you not. i was so stoked for the scene during the credits where they show two freestyle bike dudes tearing it up. if you didn't know who they were, its r.l. osborn for team redline and eddie fiola for team gt(at the time he was pretty much the tony hawk of freestyle biking.)

its not the best movie ever. it was definitely "kid tested and mom approved". i was a freestyle dude and i hung out with other freestyle bikers and we all listened to punk and metal which is noticeably absent in the soundtrack. its pretty much a guilty pleasure movie and a trip down memory lane but its worth watching just for the action sequences.

the only thing thats pretty terrible is the bike dancing scene at the school dance while the song "send me an angel" plays. as a freestyle bike fan, this scene was mildly offensive to me as no self respecting boy would mock the sport of freestyle biking by dancing with his bike as a mating ritual to woo a girl. pretty corny.

The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo (1979–1981)

memories of lobo

[7/10 · 24 April 2009]

i was probably around 6 when this show came out but my family watched it every week and i have very fond memories of it. i knew even back then that it was a spin off of bj and the bear. the weird thing is that in bj and the bear, sheriff lobo was a badguy in the boss hog vein. when he got his own show, suddenly hes a good guy.

my main memories of the show are it being similar to dukes of hazard. small, out of the way hick town constantly being bombarded by various city slicker bad guys. sheriff lobo would clean up the town with his bumbling deputy perkins(who i thought was way funnier than rosco p. coltraine). i remember there being two hot chick sidekicks with cool cars. i think one may have been a corvette.

for whatever reason, pieces of the theme song are still clear in my head, even though i haven't seen this show since about 1981. being a huge simpsons fan, i delight in all of their pop culture references and this show was referenced close to a half dozen times. its worth checking out for that reason alone, i think.