Nothing here you haven't already seen many times before. All the Right Moves is one big cliché from beginning to end. The small mill town where nobody ever amounts to anything. The high school football team that the townspeople take much too seriously. The kid who sees football as his only way out. The girlfriend who is not appreciated because, well, she doesn't play football and nobody in this town cares about anything besides football. The big game that the team just has to win. The setbacks before that big game that will make it much harder for them to do so. The conflict between players and their coach. Secondary characters (but not our hero heaven forbid) making terrible decisions which will destroy their future. The problem our hero faces and the inevitable way that problem will be dealt with. If you can't see very early on how all this is going to turn out, well you obviously haven't seen too many movies. This is about as predictable as movies get.
About the only thing which makes this film even remotely noteworthy are the actors playing the key roles. Tom Cruise is the young football star, Craig T. Nelson his coach and Lea Thompson his girlfriend. Cruise, Nelson and Thompson were obviously destined for bigger and better things. Here, their performances are all fine, with the more seasoned Nelson unsurprisingly being the most convincing. Cruise and Thompson have a rather awkward romance (capped by a rather awkward love scene) but as they're playing young, naive high school kids the awkwardness actually seems to fit. Unfortunately though in the grand scheme of things the actors really don't have much to work with. The characters are unoriginal and clichéd. The story is one we've seen in various incarnations many times before. There's really nothing of note to keep your attention. And the whole thing comes with a sense of inevitability to it that lessens the sense of drama one might otherwise feel. This one will not live long in the memory.
About the only thing which makes this film even remotely noteworthy are the actors playing the key roles. Tom Cruise is the young football star, Craig T. Nelson his coach and Lea Thompson his girlfriend. Cruise, Nelson and Thompson were obviously destined for bigger and better things. Here, their performances are all fine, with the more seasoned Nelson unsurprisingly being the most convincing. Cruise and Thompson have a rather awkward romance (capped by a rather awkward love scene) but as they're playing young, naive high school kids the awkwardness actually seems to fit. Unfortunately though in the grand scheme of things the actors really don't have much to work with. The characters are unoriginal and clichéd. The story is one we've seen in various incarnations many times before. There's really nothing of note to keep your attention. And the whole thing comes with a sense of inevitability to it that lessens the sense of drama one might otherwise feel. This one will not live long in the memory.