Sports action given prominence

Press, 12 May 1987, Page 18

Sports action given prominence

By

DAVID WILSON

Sports action is given prominence in the titles from Warner Home Video this month.

“Youngblood,’* (M). Dean Youngblood is a talented young skater who has left his home behind for a career in the fiercely competitive and often violent arena of ice hockey. Inexperienced in the skills of friendship and love, he Is forced to learn to fight for what he wants in life as well as on the ice.

Rob Lowe (“St Elmo’s Fire” and “About Last Night”) stars in the title role. Cynthia Gibb is Jessie, the strong-minded yet gentle young woman he loves. Patrick Swayze is Derek, Youngblood’s team-mate and best friend, a battle-scarred veteran of the amateur leagues on the verge of a career in the pros — until he is brutally assaulted in the final moments of a critical game. Rackl (George Finn) is the most dangerous player on the ice and now he has disposed of Derek, he is gunning for Youngblood.

“American Flyers,” (M). Being a “stage racer” means your race is never finished. Every day there is a new level for victory — a personal best to set and another stage to run. In cycle racing parlance, David Sommers is a "wheelsucker,” drifting through life, lacking the sprint to bridge the gap between the pack and the break. But he is about to learn the credo of the stage racer. • David Grant is David Sommers and Kevin Costner plays his brother, Marcus. Separated after the loss of their father, they undertake a crosscountry journey together to rekindle their relationship. Reunited, they share the challenge of a gruelling three-day bicycle race. “The focus of the film is the brothers’ relationship set against the toughest bicycle race in America," says director John Badham.

“The Main Event” Successful perfume manufacturer Hillary Kramer (Barbra Streisand) is exercising in a plush penthouse spa when her exhusband and lawyer, David (Paul Sand) arrives with the bad news — her business manager has embezzled all her money and left the country. All Hillary is left is the tax shelter contract of a retired prize-fighter named Eddie “Kid Natural” Scanlon (Ryan O’Neal), whom she meets at the local gym. Hillary wants him to start fighting again, but the Kid doesn’t share her dream — he’s happy running his Knockout Driving Academy. Hillary is not about to be

KO’d and as she has the threat of . a breach of contract in her corner, the Kid grudgingly returns to fighting.

“Raging Bull” (M). Raised in the slums of New York’s Bronx, the son of an Italian immigrant, Jake Lsa Motta’s first lessons in life were how to steal and how to

fight A loner by nature, he slugged his way through life, beating his wife, his friends, and anyone who stirred his vicious temper, including the mobsters who for years kept the championship title just out of his reach. The same forces that made Jake a hoodlum — a combination ‘ of fear, rage, self-hatred and guilt — made him a winner in the ring. In over a decade as a prize-fighter he earned millions of dollars, which he squandered on houses, cars, women he did not love and friends he could never really trust. When Jake lost the title and fell apart as a boxer, the compulsion to fight remained with him and led him to public humilia-

tion and imprisonment. In an ignominious hole in a Florida prison, the Bronz Bull confronted himself and his rage for the first time. But Jake was not defeated and after pursuing a career as a nightclub peformer and sometime actor, he emerged in 1970, his wit and wisdom intact, with his autobiography, “Raging Bull.” The movie stars Robert de Niro, Cathy Moriarty and Joe Pesci. “A.K.A. Cassius Clay” (G). Muhammad All (also known as Cassius Clay) is the most famous and arguably the greatest heavyweight boxet of all time. This film is an in-depth portrait of the man they called the “Louisville Lip”

from his childhood in Kentucky to his conquest of the world heavyweight championship. It shows his fights, in and out of the ring, his draft into the United States Army and his subsequent loss of the title. Best of all there are the thrilling duals with Sonny Liston, Henry Cooper and Floyd Patterson. “One on One” (M). Young Henry Steele is a highschool basketball whiz from smalltown America. Recruited by one of the big-time college teams, he is handed a four-year, no-cut scholarship, the car of his choice, an allowance, a tutor, even a job — watching automatic sprinklers turn on and off. Robby Benson plays

"Henry Steele, whose Innocence leaves him unprepared for the bitter, sometimes brutal experiences he will face. Something is wrong, both on the court and off. He knows there’s more to life than winning every' game and when he’s threatened with the loss of his scholarship, he finds out what it is.

“Greased Lightning.” To the white youngsters he beats at cycle racing, young Wendall Scott is “crazy.” Asked if he ever had any crazy ideas, the adult Scott tells his family: “I want to be a champion race-car driver.” Silence, then laughter. It was a crazy notion for a black Southerner just after World War II; a black driver was more a target than a competitor in the lilywhite stock car racing world. But Wendall’s driving prowess became his passport from ,cab driving to moonshine running to stock-car racing. By 1970 he had won both N.A.S.C.A.R. and Grand National crowns — the first black man to do so. "Greased Lightning” is his true story. Richard Pryor stars as Scott. “Viva Knievel.” He has powered his Harley Davidson over rows of cars, trucks, buses, snarling lions, seething infernos, and plummeted headlong into a canyon — but if the Mob has its way, his next incredible leap will land him six feet under. Evel Knievel stars as a free-wheeling superbiker who quickly becomes a man-in-a-jam when mobsters use his Mexican tour as a murderous front for their drug-smuggling scheme.