Directed by Hal  Needham
Starring Bart Conner, Lori Loughlin and Bill Allen
Running time: 1 hour and 31 minutes
MPAA rating: PG for mild profanity,  drugs and alcohol

by Nikk Nelson

It’s a Saturday night in Wichita, Kansas, 1989. My parents are heading out to The Night Owl to drink Budweiser, snort coke and play foosball. Five-year-old Nikki needs a babysitter, more than just the TV this time, and the task can’t quite be left to his ten-year-old brother. Enter David Koonzy. I feel like a lot of little brothers had a David Koonzy at some point in their life. He was the surrogate older brother that was actually nice to me. And, he was cool. David didn’t just have his own room, he had his own pad in the basement of his house. He didn’t just have his own TV and VCR in his bedroom, the VCR was in the freakin’ TV. He had all of the best Nintendo games and the best movies and the best music. He called his dad ‘Bob’ and we were pretty sure he was in the mafia. The nights that David Koonzy babysat me are nights that I will never forget. One such occasion, my brother and I walked down the stairs to David’s pad, Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me” was blaring on the stereo, he already had pizza and Dr. Pepper waiting for us, and we all sat down and watched Rad (1986). 

I don’t know how exactly surfing, skateboard and BMX culture made it all the way to Kansas back then but I do know if you didn’t have either a skateboard or a BMX, or both, then you weren’t cool. I re-watched The Wizard (1989) the other day. Fred Savage carries a skateboard around pretty much the entire movie and never rides it. You didn’t have to ride it. You just had to have it and carry it around all the time like you did ride it. BMX and ramps were a different story. Every block had that one house with the BMX plywood ramp in their front yard and every day after school you took your bike and went and auditioned for coolness and air was how you got it. “Dude, you got so much air that time,” was a broken record in the chorus of onlookers. So, naturally, any movie, videogame, poster, anything depicting skateboarding or BMX, we were all about it. Therefore, at five years old, Rad was the raddest thing I’d ever seen. When Vinegar Syndrome announced they were releasing it on special edition 4K, a flashback kicked me in the nuts harder than a BMX crossbar on a jump I rolled ones on. I knew I had to review it. 

Last night was my buddy Kyle’s birthday. I’ve mentioned Kyle before—my compagnon cinéma who theorized that Gene Hackman plays the same character in The Conversation (1974) and Enemy of the State (1998). I grilled him a big steak and we watched Rad. At thirty-six years old, my read on it is very different. Rad is Footloose (1984) but with BMX. Down to the Kenny Loggins “I’m Free”-ish song that opens and closes the film and even a scene where they dance with their bikes, on a dancefloor, at a dance. It’s also part Rocky (1976). Of all people, Talia Shire plays the mother who thinks BMX is a waste of time. Other familiar faces include Lori Loughlin as the love interest and Ray Walston aka Mr. Hand from Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). If you grew up in this era, it’s a really fun nostalgia bomb but I think it’s definitely suited exclusively for that core audience.

Rad is available On Demand on various platforms. If you’d like a lead in or follow-up for it, Kyle and I watched BMX Bandits (1983) after. I would also recommend Gleaming the Cube (1989), Iron Eagle (1986), Airborne (1993) or Turbo Kid (2015).