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Movie Review: RAD (1996)
One night only: March 20
Not just a celebration — a state of mind!
RAD (1986) Hal Needham. Script: Sam Bernard & Geoffrey Edwards / Cinematography: Richard Leiterman (1.85:1) / Editor: Carl Kress / Art Director: Shirley Inget / Soundtrack: Various Artists / Cast: Bill Allen, Lori Loughlin, Bart Conner, Alfie Wise, Ray Walston, Talia Shire, Jack Weston, Marta Kober, H.B. Haggerty and Gordon Singer / Distributor: TriStar Pictures / Rated PG / 91 mins.
Anyone up for celebrating a non-existent but real-sounding holiday? How about Rad Day? To celebrate a film originally released on March 21, 1986, Fathom & Co. have designated March 20, 2025 as a sort of erev Rad Day, on which America honors the 38-year, 364-day anniversary of the film that sent BMX racing into the national discourse. The good-natured cult film was a box office flop, but thanks to the twin powers of television and home video, it has gotten a second chance to stick the landing.
Rad is anything but trad, Dad, it’s based on a fad. It's the Roller Boogie of Urban Cowboy of Lambada, just a Tokyo Drift away from Skatetown, U.S.A., and if they’re lucky, investors can cash in on a momentary cultural craze sweeping the country off its feet and into theatres (if not necessarily onto BMX bikes). It’s a case of the same film, different subject: seven years prior to Rad’s release, a determined Linda Blair implored her mother, “I do not want to play the flute. I do not want to go to Juilliard… I want to win a Roller Boogie contest down at the beach!” Now it’s Clu’s (Bill Allen) turn to grapple with a single mom (Talia Shire) who would rather see her son spend Saturday morning acing his SATs than wasting time trying to pedal his way to fame and fortune by competing in a BMX race called Helltrack. The perks fail to faze mom, but they're pretty appealing for a young fellow: $100,000, a brand new Vette, and, if not a lifetime of fame, at least a half-dozen or so good years. (Providing an accident doesn’t leave him wracked in pain, compounded by subsequent years of opioid addiction.)
Video:
Trailer: RAD
Directed by Hal Needham (Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, The Cannonball Run) from a script by Sam Bernard and Geoffrey “Blake’s Kid” Edwards, Rad would prove to be Needham’s swan song to the silver screen. Filmed under a radioactive sky, an extended opening sight-gag, its heart in the right place, follows a trio of USA Today paperboys (and girl) making their morning rounds. Needham is most famous for his string of shit-kicker comedies starring Burt Reynolds: his in-joke here finds Sgt. Smith (pro-wrestler H.B. Haggerty), playing a sympathetic Smokey motorcyclist opposite Needham’s fresh-faced band of BMX bandits. Putting the Sarge through the paces on a chase through a lumber yard adds to the infectious good cheer.
It's a curious melange of Hollywood’s old guard meeting fresh-scrubbed newcomers — for many of the latter, this would prove to be their sole claim to fame. The ringer in the piece is Bart Taylor (Bart Conner). The film was Olympic medalist Connor’s one shot at a lead role; after Rad, he joined wife Nadia Comaneci in the wee small hours of the morning reading pledges on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon. As Cru’s love interest, Lori Loughlin, star of Varsity Blues (the scandal, not the movie), is cuter than a bug’s ear. Jack Weston is the crooked businessman trying to put the fix in on Helltrack, while Ray Walston, fresh off his role as Prof. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, co-stars as a local industrialist looking for his piece of the action. Look for Needham regular (and the real estate investor who put Jupiter, Florida on the map) Alfie Wise as the corrupt official Eliot Dole.
It's not a satirically contemptuous hoot like Roller Boogie, nor is it the “shoot-now-figure-it-out-later” mess that is Skatetown, U.S.A. but if you’re nostalgic for what once passed as a state-of-the-art no-brainer, join the crowd at 7 pm this Thursday at a theatre near you. 1996. **
Also on the bill: a brand new hour-long behind-the-scenes remembrance, A Rad Documentary. Join director Hal Needham, stars Bart Conner, Bill Allen, and Jamie Clarke, producer Robert Levy, co-writer Sam Bernard, stunt person Martin Aparijo and more as they spend an hour reminiscing about the making of a film that worked hard to earn its cult status. (Ms. Loughlin’s phone must have been off the hook when they called to invite her.)
For more information including tickets and locations, visit Fathom's website.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Movie Review: RAD (1996)
One night only: March 20
Movie Review: RAD (1996)
One night only: March 20
Not just a celebration — a state of mind!
RAD (1986) Hal Needham. Script: Sam Bernard & Geoffrey Edwards / Cinematography: Richard Leiterman (1.85:1) / Editor: Carl Kress / Art Director: Shirley Inget / Soundtrack: Various Artists / Cast: Bill Allen, Lori Loughlin, Bart Conner, Alfie Wise, Ray Walston, Talia Shire, Jack Weston, Marta Kober, H.B. Haggerty and Gordon Singer / Distributor: TriStar Pictures / Rated PG / 91 mins.
Anyone up for celebrating a non-existent but real-sounding holiday? How about Rad Day? To celebrate a film originally released on March 21, 1986, Fathom & Co. have designated March 20, 2025 as a sort of erev Rad Day, on which America honors the 38-year, 364-day anniversary of the film that sent BMX racing into the national discourse. The good-natured cult film was a box office flop, but thanks to the twin powers of television and home video, it has gotten a second chance to stick the landing.
Rad is anything but trad, Dad, it’s based on a fad. It's the Roller Boogie of Urban Cowboy of Lambada, just a Tokyo Drift away from Skatetown, U.S.A., and if they’re lucky, investors can cash in on a momentary cultural craze sweeping the country off its feet and into theatres (if not necessarily onto BMX bikes). It’s a case of the same film, different subject: seven years prior to Rad’s release, a determined Linda Blair implored her mother, “I do not want to play the flute. I do not want to go to Juilliard… I want to win a Roller Boogie contest down at the beach!” Now it’s Clu’s (Bill Allen) turn to grapple with a single mom (Talia Shire) who would rather see her son spend Saturday morning acing his SATs than wasting time trying to pedal his way to fame and fortune by competing in a BMX race called Helltrack. The perks fail to faze mom, but they're pretty appealing for a young fellow: $100,000, a brand new Vette, and, if not a lifetime of fame, at least a half-dozen or so good years. (Providing an accident doesn’t leave him wracked in pain, compounded by subsequent years of opioid addiction.)
Video:
Trailer: RAD
Directed by Hal Needham (Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, The Cannonball Run) from a script by Sam Bernard and Geoffrey “Blake’s Kid” Edwards, Rad would prove to be Needham’s swan song to the silver screen. Filmed under a radioactive sky, an extended opening sight-gag, its heart in the right place, follows a trio of USA Today paperboys (and girl) making their morning rounds. Needham is most famous for his string of shit-kicker comedies starring Burt Reynolds: his in-joke here finds Sgt. Smith (pro-wrestler H.B. Haggerty), playing a sympathetic Smokey motorcyclist opposite Needham’s fresh-faced band of BMX bandits. Putting the Sarge through the paces on a chase through a lumber yard adds to the infectious good cheer.
It's a curious melange of Hollywood’s old guard meeting fresh-scrubbed newcomers — for many of the latter, this would prove to be their sole claim to fame. The ringer in the piece is Bart Taylor (Bart Conner). The film was Olympic medalist Connor’s one shot at a lead role; after Rad, he joined wife Nadia Comaneci in the wee small hours of the morning reading pledges on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon. As Cru’s love interest, Lori Loughlin, star of Varsity Blues (the scandal, not the movie), is cuter than a bug’s ear. Jack Weston is the crooked businessman trying to put the fix in on Helltrack, while Ray Walston, fresh off his role as Prof. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, co-stars as a local industrialist looking for his piece of the action. Look for Needham regular (and the real estate investor who put Jupiter, Florida on the map) Alfie Wise as the corrupt official Eliot Dole.
It's not a satirically contemptuous hoot like Roller Boogie, nor is it the “shoot-now-figure-it-out-later” mess that is Skatetown, U.S.A. but if you’re nostalgic for what once passed as a state-of-the-art no-brainer, join the crowd at 7 pm this Thursday at a theatre near you. 1996. **
Also on the bill: a brand new hour-long behind-the-scenes remembrance, A Rad Documentary. Join director Hal Needham, stars Bart Conner, Bill Allen, and Jamie Clarke, producer Robert Levy, co-writer Sam Bernard, stunt person Martin Aparijo and more as they spend an hour reminiscing about the making of a film that worked hard to earn its cult status. (Ms. Loughlin’s phone must have been off the hook when they called to invite her.)
For more information including tickets and locations, visit Fathom's website.