Over the Top (2005, DVD)

I like Sylvester Stallone. Really I do! He has as much chance of winning an Oscar as say Governor Schwarzenegger but he has made, for me at least, some enjoyable movies. I absolutely loved the loner underdog John Rambo in "First Blood" and he wasn't bad in the sequel and the first couple Rocky Movies. I even loved "Nighthawks", co-staring the evil assassin Rutger Hauer.

On the other hand Sly has made some real stinkers from the dreadful "Judge Dredd" and the equally dreadful "Driven" to the abysmal "Get Carter", I could write a one star review on any of these and more but I chose "Over the Top" as the most fatuous of these inane Stallone movies.

Over The Top

Can you believe it? A movie about arm wrestling. What's next, a movie about Ping Pong? Chess? How about Bridge?
Can't you just picture Sly (Rocky) Stallone and his Bridge partner the semi beautiful Brigette Nielson (his former wife and paramour of sack king Mark Gastineau) squaring off against two intellectual types in the fictitious (I think) National Bridge Asssociation, World championships.

At least Sly's better equipped for arm wrestling and as a whole the rah rah, acting isn't that bad but the movie keeps being dragged down by the overall silliness of the story wrapped around an insipid plot.

The Plot

Trucker, Lincoln Hawk (Stallone) is on his way to pick up his twelve year old son, Michael (David Mendenhall) from a private military school. He is estranged from his family but he is doing this because his wife Christine (Susan Blakely) has developed a heart condition and needs his help.

Michael hasn't seen his father in years and initially resents him for for abandoning them years earlier and is dubious when he finds out truck driving is a sideline and Lincoln really makes a living arm wrestling. Eventually Michael starts to warm up to his dad but Michael's grandfather, Jason Cutler (Robert Loggia) who has a very low opinion of Lincoln, gets wind that Lincoln has re-entered Michael's life and sends some associates to retrieve his grandson by any necessary means.

Now this is high drama folks so pay attention. When Michael and his father arrive at the hospital to see his mother they find out she has died, which sends Michael over the top (I wonder if that's where the title came from). Anyway Michael runs back to his grandfather, who, of course won't let Michael see his father. What's Lincoln to do? I know he thinks, I'll ram my tractor into the house, which he does and ends up in jail.

I suppose by now, you've figured out that our boy, Lincoln Hawk is a FEW cards short of a full deck so since the Bridge tournament is out of the question, he heads for the big arm wrestling tournament in, you guessed it, Lost Wages, Nevada. Now when Lincoln gets there he doesn't have enough money for the entry fee so so he sells his ten wheeler, which miraculously didn't get damaged, let alone totaled, after crashing into grandpa's house, pays the entry fee and pulls a Pete Rose and bets the rest of his money on himself at twenty to one odds.

Now I wouldn't be surprised if you could figure out what happens next but in case any of you might want to see this movie after my glowing review, I'm stopping here. What you can't figure it out? Maybe you should take up arm wrestling.

Summary

You know the movie is bad when it only grosses sixteen million and get this Stallone got twelve million of it. On second thought maybe the Swedish amazon bombshell, Brigette Nielson, got the twelve million.

Maybe they thought since it was filmed in Vegas it would do better but it laid a cow pie anyhow. Oh well it's only money. Wish I had some.

I'm entering this review in daumco's One Star's Too High Write Off. You can enter too. Check out this review: http://www.epinions.com/content_168181206660