| Gleaming the Cube | | Cast : | Christian Slater, Steven Bauer | | Director : | Graeme Clifford | | Studio : | Pioneer Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | January 13, 1989 | | DVD Released Date : | June 01, 1999 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 04, 2005 | | Summary | Still as wonderful as the first time! | Content
 | I love this movie! As a kid I used to watch this over and over and be in absolute awe of these skateboarders. Okay, I admit having a crush on Christian Slater as well... But, I am assuming it was more than that because I watched it 5 billion & 1 times or so it seemed. I had no clue they had brought out the DVD until it was too late. I had to buy it at a higher cost used. (Although it looked brand new.) It was well worth it, but now everyone wants to know how I got it. I wish the company would re-release this DVD again so that more people can buy it. C'mon! You get to see Tony Hawke when he was this gangly young teenager!! |
| Rating | | | Date | June 12, 2005 | | Summary | give it a break | Content
| Ok, so this movie is utter crap...who cares? When I was 9 years old, Christian Slater was quite possibly the coolest person on the planet. Every bit of that coolness came from this movie. When you go back and watch it again you remember how much of a dork you really were with half of your head shaved and the other half covered with partly bleached hair that completely obscured the vision of one eye. God it was great. So complain if you will about the movie lacking plot or any number of other qualities that are so desirable in classic and modern cinema, but this was the 80's preteen guide to all that was cool. If all this wasn't enough, the skaters in THIS movie actually skated...you know...what skaters do sometimes in between destroying cars and jumping off the roof into bushes in the new skate videos. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 06, 2005 | | Summary | Mixed Bag | Content
| Still the only "skateboarding movie" worth watching, Gleaming the Cube has as many strong points as it has weaknesses.
On one side of the coin, Gleaming the Cube is just filled with late 80s skateboarding, and that's a good thing. Utilizing Stacey Peralta's as skateboard choreographer and Rodney Mullen and Mike McGill as look-alikes for Slater's character Brian, the skateboarding is truly amazing. Just as good, the skateboarding begins with the opening scene, and it doesn't end until the credits roll.
On the other side of the coin, however, the plot never really matches the skateboarding used in the film. I'm no film snob by any measure, but I think that the plot is too linear to capture the viewers attention. For a PG-13 movie, you wouldn't expect to figure out who the villains of the story are so quickly. Hence, you wouldn't expect to see Mr. Londale and his minions kill Brian's brother within 30 minutes, wasting the last 60 minutes with police work, phone tag, and other trivial matters. Meanwhile, you wouldn't expect to hear some "coming of age" type of rhetoric that never really works.
Despite the great skateboarding, this movie leaves much to be desired. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 10, 2004 | | Summary | how exactly do you "gleam the cube"? | Content
| introduction:
How DO you gleam the cube? some unfamiliar with the skateboarding world might just think it's a technical industry term. to think this would be incorrect, as no one-- skateboarder or not --knows what gleaming the cube means, even after watching this movie. the absurdities of this film only begin there.
plot synopsis:
christian slater and professional skateboarding company, et al, skating their way through the underbelly of the san diego vietnamese mafia, trying to avenge the death of slater's adopted vietnamese brother while, by-and-by, slater begins to fall for said deceased brother's girlfriend, whose father is the kingpin, or godfather, of said crime syndicate.
who comes up with this crap?
today:
the success of this movie can only be accredited to the mainstream popularity of "X-treme sports" at the time of the film's original release (mid-eighties), and their unprecedented resurgence in the late nineties, failing to mention the decade in between, which, littered with bankruptcy and drugs, skaters and christian slater alike would like to pretend never happened.
advisory:
we suggest you rent it at the video store, then laugh about the stupid movie you watched as a kid, while hanging out really late with your college friends.
reviewers:
stephen mayer, age 20, watched this movie in '98, dictated the review to emily garrett. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 25, 2004 | | Summary | A must have for anyone's collection | Content
| The movies is completely Rad! |
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