A younger, different looking Tom Cruise (old jaw/nose?) stars in this movie about a high school student aching to leave his dying steel mill town and study to be an engineer on a football scholarship. He watches his best friend, also on the team, marry his pregnant girlfriend; another member of the football team is arrested for armed robbery; his brother gets laid off from the mill; and his girlfriend (a young, fresh Lea Thompson) complains that no one gives music scholarships, just football ones, and she's going to be stuck in the town. After turning down initial scholarship offers to middle of the road schools, Cruise finds himself blackballed after an incident at his coach's house with which he was only peripherally involved. Off the team, and with the word out that he has an "attitude problem," he sees his dreams turning to dust.

Craig T. Nelson plays the coach and does his usual fine job, and Lea Thompson is a vibrant, passionate Lisa. Cruise here gives a truer performance than usual - I usually find him a very external and not terribly believable actor. In "All The Right Moves," he's sympathetic and heartfelt. I much prefer this to the perfectly handsome, glossy figure he is today. Time to get back to basics, Tom, and get some of those right moves back.

OK, so there have been many movies about someone struggling against seemingly insurmountable odds to make something of him/herself. In this case, Tom Cruise plays a Pennsylvania teenager hoping to get a football scholarship. He does a respectable job with the role, considering that it's really nothing that we haven't seen before. What makes this movie really good is that it shows how the company that employs the men in town is laying everyone off, so people are having to look for opportunities elsewhere.

All in all, this is a pretty good movie. I've always thought that Tom Cruise was better in his earlier roles than in his later ones. Also starring Craig T. Nelson, Lea Thompson and Chris Penn.

I have to admit that I learned about "All the Right Moves" from "Scream". You may recall the line about pausing the movie just right, and what you can see as a result.

Stef Djordjevic (Tom Cruise) lives in poor Pennsylvanian town Ampipe, a company town for American Pipe & Steel. He is the high school football star defensive back. He has his girlfriend Lisa Lietzke (Lea Thompson) and dreams of a college engineering scholarship. After a lost, Stef fights with Coach Nickerson (Craig T. Nelson) and is kicked off the team. Nickerson's home is vandalized and the coach blames Stef. Stef finds himself blacklisted from colleges. His friend Brian (Chris Penn) is forced to marry his pregnant girlfriend. The mill lays off his brother and he's desperate to escape the town.

It's a very traditional small town kid struggles. Tom Cruise makes it better than its simple premise. He's full of himself and full of angst. It's also interesting that Craig T. Nelson isn't a simple character. Lea Thompson probably plays the most endearing and compelling character. Her talk with Mrs. Nickerson is fascinating. The teenage desperation is palpable although some of it is bad cliché. It reminds me a little of 'Friday Night Lights' but nowhere near as good.