Part of the brief 3D revival of the early 80s, not as well known as the sequels done in 3D, this is the sort of movie that underperformed at the box office but found some fans on video. I'm not sure why it escaped me, I was the right age, but I did and as a result it has little charms.
It's confused, sluggish, despite some decent production design. They sacked the director two weeks in and replaced him with Lamont Johnson who wasn't what this production needed. It needed a Brian Trenchard Smith and a script do-over by John Sayles.
Peter Strauss is a very good actor and handsome but seems awkward in his role - how Han Solo to play it? It needed a personality actor who could fall back on tricks - they should have used someone who came close to getting Han Solo like Kurt Russell who would have been cheap then or Tom Selleck (who admittedly may have been busy on Magnum). Or just had more of a firm idea of what he was to play.
Molly Ringwald I think is a debit. It's progressive in a way to have a young kid sidekick but she's tooo close in age to Strauss - the possible romance is always there and the film leans into it by having them share a sleeping bag and playing them screwball comedy-ish. It was too high a bar for them to go for - either cast an older actor to play Straus' part or pick an elder one to play Ringwald and go for romance.
The idea of three girls crashing on the island and having to be rescued is fun... but they do nothing with it. We barely see the girls, or spend any time with them. They seem to have no personality. The girls may has well be a pile of gold.
Ivan Reitman was a producer. Michael Ironside is the villain.
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