All the Right Moves (1983)

Stefan Djordjevic (Tom Cruise), the star player of his high school football team, is desperately hoping that his football talents will earn him a scholarship -- his only chance to get out of his dying hometown of Ampipe, Pennsylvania. When a heated argument with his coach (Craig T. Nelson) gets him kicked off the team and blacklisted from college recruiters, Stefan must fight for a chance to live out his dream and escape the dead-end future he faces.

Initial release: 21 October 1983 (USA)

Director: Michael Chapman

Music composed by: David Richard Campbell

Screenplay: Michael Kane based on the article written by Pat Jordan

Producers: Gary Morton of Lucille Ball Productions(Executive Producer, Ms. Ball's husband until her death), Stephen Simon Deutsch(Producer)
Cast:
Tom Cruise as Stefan Djordjevic
Craig T. Nelson as Coach Burt Nickerson
Lea Thompson as Lisa Lietzke, Stef's girlfriend
Charles Cioffi as Pop, Greg and Stef's father
Gary Graham as Greg, Stef's older brother
Paul Carafotes as Vinnie Salvucci
Chris Penn as Brian, Stef's best friend, the coach's wife
Sandy Faison as Suzie Nickerson
James A. Baffico as Bosko, the number bozo in town
Mel Winkler as Jess Covington
Leon as Shadow, an athlete who got accepted to West Virginia
Terry O'Quinn as Freeman Smith

I was in High School in 1983, and TOM CRUISE was already one of the most bankable actors after appearing in Endless Love(1981), Taps(1981), The Outsiders(1983), Losin' It(1983) and Risky Business(1983).  He was handsome(and he still is), athletic and mighty talented.  Although he never became a crush, harmless or not(LOL), he is one that I truly admire for his talents.  Here, he plays Stefen "Stef" Djordjevic, a Serbian American Football Star, who, besides being handsome, has the brains and all the right moves, literally and figuratively.  

Tom was around twenty during the time of filming, but he played a high school senior.  Coming to think of it, since he was living in a run-of-the-mill town called Ampipe, and they were obviously poverty stricken, he could have been playing his age or he was supposed to be eighteen years old, which was fine, because as actors, you don't need to play your age, as long as your looks could fool anyone naturally or with the right prosthetics or digital ways.

LEA THOMPSON, who is more than a year older than Tom, plays Lisa Lietzke, Stef's reason for being...the love of his life.  Lisa is seventeen years old.

CRAIG T. NELSON plays the High School Football Coach Burt Nickerson who makes it hard for Stef to get his scholarship because of an incident involving football and an incident where Stef was trying to stop the real culprits, but he did not believe him.


All the Right Moves is a box office hit, and it is surely worth watching.

Thanks for your time.

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