overthetop

What happens when you get Sylvester Stallone and the horrendous Golan Globus production
team on the same project? Well, you get a great performance by the leading actor and a terrible
story and production value around him, sans a classic 1980s rock song by Kenny Loggins. Mr.
Loggins, you are blameless.

In 1987, Stallone had already conquered the fictional world of boxing and Vietnam veterans. He
was now looking outward and would sadly and eventually star in “Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot.”
Sometimes the past is best forgotten. Such is the case with “Over the Top.”

Stallone is a truck driver who makes money on the side as a notoriously hard-to-beat arm wrestler.
He picks up his son, who he’s estranged from, from a private military academy, only to find his son
has been fed lies about him by his grandfather, the former father-in-law, who hates Stallone’s guts.
Meanwhile, the mother is laid up in hospital dying of some terminal illness and wants her son to get
to know daddy.

The kid is a spoiled, snot-nosed pansy who weeps a lot and no one watching could ever believe
he is the son of a champion arm wrestler, who by the way wants to win an arm wrestling
championship in Las Vegas. The winner gets an awesome tractor-trailer truck. Sweet.

With his lower lip set in signature fashion, Stallone is heading for greatness and tries to teach his
wussy kid arm wrestling along the way. The moral is no one can beat you if you believe in yourself.
Of course, the kid and the grandfather make life horrible for Stallone. He’s a dedicated dad, but I
would have dropped this little pain off at the nearest truck stop.

At the end of the day, cliches abound and the kid finally realizes it is his dad who is his friend and
not his evil rich grandfather. So, then we’re treated to a truly over-the-top montage scene of
Stallone whupping up on competing arm wrestlers, which resembles a villain line up from the
Secret Society of Super Villains. Yeah, it's totally insane. The biceps are ridiculous.

Watchable for Stallone, but hardly a great film and little replay value.