Thrashin’ The Movie

Recently appearing on DVD for the first time is the 1986 movie Thrashin’! it’s available at some chain stores for as low as $9.99, and at that price it is surely worth collecting a few bucks from friends and watching it through a haze of beer. Guess what? The movie still sucks, but Sherilyn Fenn is still hot as bad boy Hook’s girlfriend in Madonna inspired slut-wear. Josh Brolin stars as Corey Webster in his first post-Goonies role, but way before his dad married Barbara Striesand. What is this, People magazine? Highlights: Eddie Reategui’s eyebrows steal the show, The Red Hot Chillie Peppers with Hillel in a club performance when they were still cool, the famous jousting scene, watching pro skaters as stunt doubles with bad wigs and such memorable lines as “Cabriolet is Hungarian for fast car” and “no, YOU be there!” The Ben Hur style downhill race at the climax of the movie is pretty fun to watch if only for the glaring continuity errors and the wide variety of styles and skaters represented. Witness what ispossibly the world’s most awkward G-rated love scene. What about the extra features? Well, there’s an embarrassing reunion of the director and the actors that play Hook and Radley (Corey’s sidekick, also was in River’s Edge) where they all try (and fail) to prove how cool they used to be. The director in particular is a total tool that still doesn’t realize that the movie’s popularity exists mainly as a goof. He’s still convinced that it was grounbreaking cinema that paved the way for everything from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video games to the X-games. You sense the resentment that he wasn’t able to cash in. The commentary track is provided by the director, the actors who played Hook and Radley (Robert Rusler and Josh Richman)along with Steve Olson which is ironic because has no speaking role in the movie. He does do a good job of standing around and looking menacing in some shots. I suggest watching the movie with the commentary on, otherwise you’ll miss everyone making fun of Per Welinder and Olsons’ wry cracks, which are the best part. Also featured is a lame skate video shot and edited by non-skaters. It’s mostly some guys from the Gravity team embarrassing themselves by talking about how cool the movie was. Perhaps they were just really, really young when the film came out. Fortunately the do demonstrate some good skills on longboards at Skate Lab. I blame the filmmaker for the lousy video, not the skaters. This movie is definitely worth the price of admission in terms of pure entertainment value.