There is so much wrong with Johnny Be Good, I can't believe there was one viewer that actually had something good to say about it. And I'm an idiot for having bought this garbage.
In short, the story goes like this. Senior football player is the highlight of recruiters all over, and they all want Johnny to play for their school. He spends time, though, going to two schools who promise the most crap--money, girls, beer, whatever he wants. His coach, on the other hand, is going to blackball him if Johnny doesn't go to the school that his coach tells him because he's expecting a coaching job out of it. Meanwhile, there's an NCAA investigation going on into recruitment procedures. Blah...blah...blah...Johnny realizes what a jerk he's been (in reality, I don't think a guy like that would ever say no to incredulous amounts of material pampering) and says no way. Then, he gets some sense. The end.
First of all, we have the lame story of some stud high school football player enjoying the cut throat recruitment of some hot shot colleges who promises every kind of material incentive to get him to go to school. Perhaps the film is making a valid point about the disgusting lengths colleges go to to get players on their team (a cost allocated to the rest of the students, no less). However, the movie, which plays out like a baffling unrealistic boyish fantasy of wild romps and beer busts, absorbs any sort of validity the story might have.
And my copy of the video is sure to notify viewers that more sexually suggestive footage had been added than was in the original release, like any of it is worth watching anyways.
Not only is the story boring watching Johnny Walker go from school to school to be pampered, but the "hero" of the story is unbearably obnoxious. It figures. Somewhere after his great performances in John Hughes's movies, Anthony Michael Hall seemed to turn into an unlikeable teenager, and one that never really looked like he enjoyed acting in any of the movies he was in (see Out of Bounds). Johnny Walker is some jerk kid who expects everyone to just fall in love with him. One of those characters where, no matter what he does, everything will work out his way. (Just look at the sequence where he takes revenge on his coach--what the hell are we supposed to make of that? Especially when everyone's attitude is so apathetic).
Robert Downey, Jr. is an even bigger waste, and also a confusion, babbling the most idiotic lines throughout the movie. He's hardly interesting, much less funny. And, Uma Thurman, who plays Johnny's girlfriend, Georgia, doesn't seem to get anything but crap from her boyfriend.
Johnny Walker epitomizes the kind of kids I hated in high school. Jocks who always got a free ride, and walked around with a holier than thou attitude like the rest of the world should kiss their feet because they knew how to toss around a football. And he's supposed to be our hero?
I can learn to like 80s teen trash, but this movie is just god awful.