Review of Over the Top (1987) by Adam E — 15 Apr 2011

I can see what they were trying to do here but theres elements that just dont quite work. For example the bonding of the son (which is a vital part of the movie) could have done with been intercut more with different scenes whether that be action or other characters.

As it stands its almost an hour of a mardy kid becoming less mardy. Thats fine but when this film looks like its trying to attract the action crowd it does not work. I bet anyone thinking this was gunna be like rambo was miffed! The chemsitry is built up well if slighlty generic (nothing wrong with that mind).

The other problem is the arm wrestling scenes. They almost border on parody as these massive men grunt and yell while close ups of sweaty arms and scowling faces fill our screens. Im not sure if arm wrestling is like the wwe wrestling federation but it makes bloody entertaining! Terry funk pops up long enough to get punched through a door and im sure some of the arm wrestlers must be wrestlers or pro arm wrestlers as they are proper beef cakes! Overall quite good but not for stallones action fans, the action scenes dont quite gell well enough with the massive amounts of parent bonding!