All the Right Moves Photos

View All Photos (2)

Cast

Tom Cruise
as Stefen Djordjevic

Craig T. Nelson
as Nickerson

Lea Thompson
as Lisa

Charles Cioffi
as Pop

Paul Carafotes
as Salvucci

Christopher Penn
as Brian

Sandy Faison
as Suzie

Paige Lyn Price
as Tracy

James A. Baffico
as Bosko

Donald A. Yanessa
as Coach

Walter Briggs
as Rifleman

Leon
as Shadow

Mel Winkler
as Jess Covington

Kyle-Scott Jackson
as Sherman Williams

Terry O'Quinn
as Freeman Smith

Victor Arnold
as Henry the Bartender

Dick Miller
as Teacher in Auditorium

Gary Graham
as Greg

Chris Penn
as Brian

View All

Critic Reviews for All the Right Moves

Audience Reviews for All the Right Moves

• Sep 06, 2016

  Sports movies are often stuck in the same old clichéd formula, but more often than not, they work. To All the Right Moves credit, it doesn't follow that winning formula, but it also doesn't necessarily create its own well-strung story. In one of his first acting roles, Tom Cruise stars alongside Craig T. Nelson and Lea Thompson as his coach and girlfriend respectively. If for nothing else, this film is worth a watch just for those performances alone. Cruise and Thompson prove to be fearless in their risqué high school roles, and Nelson plays a great antagonist and obstacle for Cruise's 'Stefen' character. I can't speak too highly on the film itself, but those performances are certainly worth 90 minutes of your time. The biggest issue with All the Right Moves is that it actually tries to make too many 'moves' with its story, pun intended. It doesn't really know what it wants to be. On one hand, it's a nice coming of age story with Thompson and Cruise. The next it's an intense football drama between two schools. Or even a film that tackles the heavy themes of class struggle and sexuality, just to name a few. There's just no real focus here. The minute you start to get invested with what Nelson's team is doing, led by Cruise among others, it changes its course to another plot point entirely. I appreciate the film's intensions, it just didn't hit home the ideas that it set out to, and it suffers because of that. What I can say is that this film was probably more of a product of its time. The soundtrack is blatantly filled with slow and smooth 80's tracks that can be distracting. The sound editing as a whole is pretty poor. The football sequences are borderline amateur. And some of the plot points have been done much better in more recent years. Sure, that's not the film's fault, but it does hinder its re-watchability to an extent. It's fun to watch a young Cruise and Thompson share great chemistry, but there's not a lot beneath that. +Cruise shows promise +Attempts to explore deep themes -But fails at most of them -Misguided direction 56/100
  

  Thomas D Super Reviewer
• Nov 11, 2012

  Not quite powerful, but solid for a film made in the (generally) vapid 1980s.
  Christian C Super Reviewer
• Oct 27, 2011

  Bit of a classic Cruise machine this, backed up by a sterling cast including Craig T. Nelson, Lea Thompson and Chris Penn. Its a solid gruff story about a blue collar town that is kept alive by the local steel mill and how all the local kids wanna escape the town and reach for the stars, grimy and emotional? check! I've always found the US school system quite amusing actually and this film really bugs me to tell the truth haha. I'm not sure if its really like this or if it was but football seems to be SO important in US schools, it runs peoples lives and they take it so so seriously that it can make or break their future. This is the plot within this film, football is Cruises live and because he insults the team coach he gets chucked off the team and practically loses his life plans in the process. What is also so odd about it (if its like this I don't know) is the fact the school coach seems to decide wether you can go to a better school or not no matter what grades you have, even though you are going for a football scholarship surely your grades count? bizarre!. So whilst watching I can only feel total confusion and frustration at the US school system hehe I just wanna say to Cruises character, forget football and just do what you wanna do, you have the grades. Besides this its a good film and well acted, Cruise goes over the top as per usual but he clearly shows talent when compared to other guys of his own age. Thompson is beautiful and such a dream as always whilst Nelson is quite unnerving as the hardass coach, he fits those kind of roles so well.
  Phil H Super Reviewer
• Dec 26, 2010

  this film was totally unrated . It was so touching and really good acting.
  erika b Super Reviewer

All the Right Moves Quotes

News & Features