Over the Top (1987) - Stallone arm-wrestling movie

I watched this a couple nights ago because I hadn't seen it in probably 20+ years. I know it was never considered a particularly good movie, but I always loved it and thought it was WAY better than it should've been. And for those interested, it's still pretty awesome. I actually think my mom took me to see this in theaters when I was a kid. Watching it now, having a son, it definitely hits a little bit different than it did back then. The premise of a custody battle set against the backdrop of arm wrestling seems so overly stupid, but it works for me.

For starters, there are few more awesome main character names than Lincoln Hawk. And what's funny and I never noticed before is that his last name changes throughout the movie. Several times people refer to him as Lincoln Hawks (plural). But his name is Hawk. But even when Mike finds all the letters Lincoln wrote to him and his mom, the letters are addressed to Catherine Hawks. I looked this up and found some discussions about it, and can't really find a reason as to why this exists. But it almost feels like halfway through the movie they changed the character's name but didn't bother to go back and fix any of the previously-shot takes. Watching it as an adult, it really stands out though.

The kid actor is actually pretty good in this one. And Stallone is not, but you can at least tell he's trying. Robert Loggia plays a great villain as the grandfather who hates Lincoln. And the soundtrack is solid (Kenny Loggins), with a GREAT song in "Meet Me Half Way."

But the highlight is all of the arm wrestlers. Bull Hurley is a really good sort of side villain as the 5-time defending (and undefeated) arm wrestling champion. And some of the other competitors are completely awesome characters with badass names like John Grizzly, Mad Dog Madison, Harry Bosco and Two-Time Canadian Champion "Slammin'" Carl Adams. And they are all unhinged and legitimate psychos. I mean, John Grizzly eats a gigantic lit cigar and drinks oil for chrissakes. And they are basically all absolutely gigantic, shredded humans, and sweaty basically 100% of the time (especially Bull...it's very strange that he stays soaked during the whole movie). And this was Stallone before he buried himself into steroids, so he looks really small in comparison:

















It's also great that they keep billing Lincoln Hawk as being from "the trucker category" or whatever. Like truckers get their own category in huge arm wrestling tournaments.

I also love the "different time" vibe in the movie. Mike is like 14, yet he's running away from places and taking cabs by himself. He also apparently flees to the airport and somehow gets onto a plane and flies to Vegas and finds his dad....all by himself. At 14 years old. And nobody seems to be bothered by that.

I always loved the "over the top" arm wrestling move as a kid and we used to always do it to each other when we arm wrestled, but I never realized how little it is used in the movie. Link does it once early on when he arm wrestles that dude at the restaurant. Mike does it against this awesome dude (I am very, very sad I can't find a gif of just how awesome this dude was in the movie):



And then Lincoln does at the END of the final with Bull. And that's it. I really thought the "over the top" grip thing was way more prevalent.

They really, really, REALLY bash you over the head during the tournament that it is double-elimination. So much so that you know Link is gonna lose at some point. I think the announcer literally stresses double-elimination no fewer than 4 or 5 times.

If Lincoln had played his cards right and cashed out on Robert Loggia's offer, he could've left Vegas a VERY rich man. And he could've just reneged on it after he cashed the check and gone to retrieve Mike like he did anyway. He had already signed over custody to him anyway, and Loggia gave him the half a million to "take it and get the hell out of my life." So he technically wouldn't have been reneging on that offer anyway if he just took Mike and left. But had he fricked over the grandfather, he could've totaled:
$100,000 from winning
$250,000 truck from winning
$140,000 from winning his bet ($7k at 20:1) on himself
$500,000 from Mike's grandfather
"The finest rig money can buy" truck, which I assume is worth a good bit more than the $250k truck he won from the tournament.

So $990k in cash/the truck, plus another truck that's worth probably a third of that too. That's not a bad haul for a couple days of work.

Anyway, great movie and is free on a couple of the streaming services. Sorry for the long post.