DVD nite part 2

After popping a frozen pizza in the oven, it was time for the second movie in my double feature for the evening.

Thrashin! This was a mid-eighties skateboard flick staring Josh Brolin (whoever he is). I remember watching this back when I was in high school and I was a skater. While the story was pretty weak, the skating was what got me and my friends all excited back then. Many pro skaters at the time were in this doing the skateboard tricks or even as part of the gangs.

The story revolves around the main character, Corey, who is going to spend the summer staying with some friends somewhere near Hollywood and has dreams of winning a skate contest down there and gettting a pro sponsorship. He wakes up to find a note from his mom wishing him luck and leaving him money, with a note not to spend it on beer. Keep in mind, he doesn’t seem old enough to drink!

So he makes his way down to visit his friends, where he will be staying. He has no car, so he skates there, and thus begins the first of the “80’s montages” in the movie. It is scenes of him skating around, seeing the sights, all set to some cheesy music. Think baywatch, without the hot sluts in thongs and no shirtless Hasslehoff.

When he gets there, his friends really go all out by putting him up in a trailer they have in the backyard. Then they put him to work making him help re-ply the halfpipe. The ramp is pretty sweet, if not a bit narrow. After they repaint it, they spray the name of their crew on the ramp, “The Ramp Locals”. Dorks. They all argue about who is gonna take the first run on the new ramp, and finally after everyone pusses out, Corey steps up to the plate and shows his stuff. It is also worth noting that Corey was the only one of The Ramp Locals who gets laid in the movie.

After they “tear it up” for awhile, they hit the town where we are introduced to the heels of the skate crews, a gang called “The Daggers”. They are led by Hook (real name Tommy) who looks like Dweezil Zappa with a clip on ponytail. They seem to like the punk rock and all have outfits that would soon be worn by the “crossover” scene in the late 80s when all the hardcore bands started playing metal. As the heels, the Daggers are mean and cause trouble wherever they go. During this time, Corey notices a blonde girl, who looks innocent, and they make “eye contact”.

Later on, they all go to a club and sure enough, not only are The Daggers there, but so is this girl. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, who at this time were just starting out, and sucked even more than they do now, were the band playing at the club while the skaters were going crazy. Corey sees the girl, pulls her out of the ruckus and drags her outside. Keep in mind they have never even spoken to each other yet. They talk and he speaks the most lame dialog I have ever heard. There is no way that any girl with her wits about her would ever buy into his chessy lines, let alone end up falling for this dork, but I guess these things don’t apply to girls from IN, which is where this girl (named Chrissy) is from. We soon find out she is Hook’s sister. Hook has a hot, live-in girlfriend named Velvet, played by the uber-hot Sherilyn Fenn!

After they stay out all nite, and we are treated to 80’s montage#2, Chrissy arrives home the next morning and Hook is pissed, even more so when he finds out who she was with. He forbids her to hang out with anyone who is not a dagger. This leads to trouble between the factions and fighting ensues. The daggers throw jacks in the pool during Corey’s contest and he gets hurt. He later fights hook in a game of skate joust, which was a bizarre scene in itself and was pretty cheesy, and ends up getting his arm broken by Hook, and thus dumps his sister, who decides to go back to IN as she is heartbroken. I forgot to mention, at one point Hook catches Corey sneaking around with his sister (this was after he walked her home after they had sex for the first (and only) time, and we were treated to 80s montage #3 – the love scene), and they chase him thru the city while the Circle Jerks “Wild in the Streets” is playing.

So with a broken arm and his troublemaking lady gone (or so he thinks), Corey is down in the dumps and ready to pack it in, but he has a change of heart and vows to get revenge on Hook by beating him in the big downhill race, plus he will then get sponsorship by the sleazy skateboard company owner (who was so creepy and sleazy, you’d think he was a kid toucher). Corey decideds to get on the board and practice. Apparently a broken arm hinders yr balance as he was falling all over the place. Thus begins 80s montage #4 – our hero trains to overcome his obstacles.

The big race comes and Corey shows up at the last minute to enter. During this time, Chrissy decides that despite Corey dumping her, she will not give up so she gets off the bus and hitchikes her way back to Los Angeles. She somehow does this without being raped or killed. She manages to get there just in time for the big finish where Corey wins and gets his sponsorship, and the 1000 dollars which will be used to replace his friends’ halfpipe that The Daggers burned down because Corey nailed Hook’s sister. During the melee of victory is when he sees Chrissy is there for him and he takes her back as if nothing happened. Thus ending our movie.

The movie is ultra cheesy, but the skateboarding stuff is pretty cool in most cases and it is really cool to see how skating and tricks have changed over the years. I listed 4 80’s montages, but I now recall another one where The Ramp Locals skate around Hollywood, so make that a total of 5! That could be a movie record! Most of the music is 80s cheese with few exceptions like the Circle Jerks. Despite the cheese, it is cheese in a good way and I’ll be watching this again (I did see it numerous times on cable back in HS) with friends I’m sure. It was well worth the 10 bucks for a trip down memory lane. Hell, it made me long once again for the days of my skateboard youth and make me regret ever giving up skateboarding.