Over The Top (1986)

Over The Top was made when Cannon films was slowing going insane and drifting toward imploding and Sylvester Stallone thought he could do anything and make money. While Stallone may have been able to make a movie about anything and get it financed the insanity of Cannon thinking it was invincible lead to a notorious film that helped speed the company’s demise.

Over the top has Stallone playing a trucker who married rich. After his wife dies leaves his son with his rich in laws. Eventually deciding to make amends he tries to get the boy back and part of his plan is to win an arm wrestling contest where he’ll be able to win a truck with which he’ll start his own trucking company.

This is and always has been a very silly movie. It is in the enviable position of improving with age if only in that any pretense of it being a serious or good film has been wiped away by the decades and we can just laugh at the film without embarrassment. We can now look at this film and realize this is the moment that Stallone’s career started to slide. Yea he would have some hits after this but mostly it was a series of missteps and WTF choices. Stallone would try to stay close to hits (Rocky/Rambo) and action. Outside of Copland and Oscar he would never really move outside of the testosterone fueled box he found himself in.

Truth be told I’m not a fan of Over the Top. The film wore out its welcome way back when it came to home video and it was perpetual renter at the store I worked at as people would want to get a film they could make fun of. If you want to see something silly I recommend Over the Top