DeuceWild_77
Lighthearted teen drama, directed by Randal Kleiser, fresh from "Grease" and "Blue Lagoon" box office hits, which like "Footloose" it was set in rural America, in this case a Midwestern small-town called Grandview, features a cast of the 80's 'usual suspects' in this particular genre such as Jamie Lee Curtis, C.Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, John & Joan Cusack, John Philbin and Jennifer Jason Leigh, among others.The movie surely looks good and perfectly fits in the 80's visuals and the general tone, with that appealing 'small town vibe'; a bit cheesy in parts with over-the-top characters and campy acting & dialogue delivering, pumped with an emblematic 80's rock /pop soundtrack, performed by Air Supply, Jack Mack and the Heart Attack, Eddie & the Tide or The Pointer Sisters and even with some staged musical numbers MTV style in Howell's dream sequences, choreographed by the star Patrick Swayze and his wife Lisa Niemi, on the other hand the weak part is the way the story was written and presented to the screen, which seriously lacks focus with a myriad of sub-plots among the characters which turned the main plot, whatever it was, into a sub-plot itself.18 years old's high school graduate, Tim Pearson (Howell) lives in Grandview and wants to leave the small town to go to Florida to be an oceanographer, against his father's will; 27 years old's and divorced tomboy, Michelle 'Mike' Cody (Jamie Lee Curtis), which owns a Speedrome after her father died of a heart attack, fights to retain it open against Tim's dad, Roger Pearson (Ramon Bieri), who wants to buy the land to built a golf course & a wealthy resort and Ernie 'Slam' Webster (Patrick Swayze), a speed racer in Cody's circuit, a frustrated husband of the shameless and unfaithful, Candy Webster (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who's having an affair with the way older & sleazy salesman, Donny Vinton (Troy Donahue). "Slam" and "Mike" always had a crush on each other, although they have never dated, but when "Slam" finally leaves Candy, after a physical confront with her wife's lover and tries to pursuit his happiness alongside "Mike", it may be too late, because his former crush is starting to feel the hots for the much younger Tim...If the plot's summary sounds like a 'teen soap opera", it's because is close to being it, but after all it's a Randal Kleiser flick and his own style of being cheerful, dreamy, mawkishly sentimental and corny, it's once again, very patent here.Jamie Lee Curtis, in all of her sexiness, leads "Grandview U.S.A." in her second adult role, following the success in the previous year of "Trading Places", trying to distance herself from being typecast in another horror / slasher film as the iconic "Scream Queen" in service; C. Thomas Howell, still a bit green in his acting and Patrick Swayze, in a thankless role, both still fresh from their work as the brothers Curtis in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Outsiders", reunite here in the same year that they also performed together in the John Milius' cult-movie, "Red Dawn".The supporting cast is full of familiar faces: from the 50's heartthrob, Troy Donahue, which performed his sleazy role so 'hammy' that almost looks like a parody, to the "Police Academy" Sgt. Jones', Michael Winslow and the Cusack brothers (even if you blink, you will miss Joan's tiny part on screen); John Philbin, who surprisingly delivers a good performance as the mentally retarded "Cowboy", and the character actors Ramon Bieri, M. Emmet Walsh & the always great, William Windom.The sex / nude scenes between Jamie Lee and C. Thomas Howell look a bit awkward and odd, not only because the age difference is noticeable (Howell looks like a callow kid next to a matured Jamie), but also that he was underage during principal photography, i don't know how it passed through the censors, maybe it was one the mysteries from that decade, whatever it happened during the 80's, it stayed in the 80's...In short, "Grandview U.S.A." is a movie aimed to the devoted fans of 80's teen movies, which love this genre and can truly appreciate it, even when they aren't that good like in this particular case, for the general viewers, it's better skip this one and go rent / buy something else.
adrianswingler
During field tests with a local corn seed supplier I had to work on site and the work was based out of Pontiac, IL. People didn't revel in their small town status. They hated it and left as soon as they could, if they could. It was horrible. Everything. Try getting a decent meal out when the locals are actually afraid of spices. Not, "I prefer blander food" or such, but true horror at the thought that they might accidentally get slipped something cooked with the appropriate spices. I don't mean hot, I mean anything other than salt and pepper. And pepper's considered pretty darn exotic.Jamie Lee used to show up at the bar I used to frequent after work, during the shoot. That didn't even make it interesting. In fact, she was a bloody nuisance. Real attention seeker. First time I saw her I'd been in there about 10 minutes and a roadie walked in and she flashed her breasts at him and said, "How do you like these sets?"I suppose the movie does capture the grinding nothingness of it all. I found the plot insipid and the acting pretty bad. Patrick Swayze was just irritating. Surely you have something better to do than to watch this movie. I guess those that rated it highly are engaging in a kind of rationalization. Trapped in someplace like Fairbury, IL they convince themselves that they love small town Americana. Maybe they're afraid to leave. I mean, if spices scare you, the world might seem pretty terrifying. I guarantee it won't intrude on you in central Illinois!
Pepper Anne
In first watching Grandview, USA, you might be puzzled by the scattered storytelling. Simply put, the movie concerns a few small town Illinois residents, but each with their own assorted, and somewhat separate, small town struggles. C Thomas Howell, at least in the trailers, is made to look like the main character of the story, the teenager just aching to break free of the provincial setting. But in fact, his story is neither anything important, nor anything dominant. Jamie Lee Curtis is Mike Cody, a speedway owner who is fighting to hold on to her property. Since her father, the man who built the speedway died, the city commissioner had been dying to get their hands on it. And, Patrick Swayze plays "Slam the Ram," a rather cumbersome character who plays a speedway driver on Cody's lot who is dealing with his sleazy wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) cheating on him. No story is really fully developed. No situation really seeks to grab the audiences' attention. Everything just seems to be a subplot. The entire story is, as said before, simply scattered and without focus.Jamie Lee Curis and Patrick Swayze, however, are no less entertaining despite this. If only they had developed their characters and story enough, you might have had quite an enjoyable little film. For me, it was still an entertaining film, so long as you don't mind obscure movies and you're in the mood for something different. C Thomas Howell's teenage angst can be kind of annoying at points, especially the music video daydream sequence with the 'Steele Man of Action' bit. But, 80s fans might be lured by the cast. Look for John Philbin (as one of the speedway employees), John Cusack and Joan Cusack (as C Thomas Howell's friends) in minor parts. It wasn't great, but still worth a viewing if you can find it.
