Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 26, 1994 TAG: 9402260108
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: C12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Though director John Avildsen attempts to pump the story up to "Rocky" heights, there's just not enough to it. The characters seem nice enough, but their conflicts are fairly common. The rodeo setting will probably be enough for moviegoers who are already fans of the sport. For everyone else, though, it may seem too distant to be involving.
The hero is bull rider Lane Frost (Luke Perry), an appealing young fellow who doesn't fit the modern cowboy stereotype. He'd rather talk than fight in a barroom brawl and he flosses his teeth. He falls in love with his wife, Kellie (Cynthia Geary), the moment he meets her. Even though his friends Tuff (Stephen Baldwin) and Cody (Red Mitchell) think he's too pleasant to be a rodeo star, Lane sticks it out. He "cowboys up" as they say.
As is so often the case in this kind of movie, he works hard to make it to the top, and once he gets there, he finds that his problems are just beginning. But, in Monte Merrick's script, those problems are presented as such simple, easily solved matters that their resolution is never in doubt.
In the bull-riding scenes, Avildsen does manage to capture the violence and brutal action of the sport. Again, though, for the uninitiated, the idea of trying to sit on top of several hundred bounds of angry bovine for eight seconds is hard to accept or understand. Perhaps it's like religion: For the believer, no explanation is necessary; for the skeptic, no explanation is possible.
Beyond that part of the film, TV stars Perry and Geary are credible, likeable leads. They are, however, stuck with a story that ends with the grotesque oversentimentality you usually find only in bad country songs.
\ 8 Seconds: **
A New Line Cinema release playing at the Salem Valley 8. 96 min. Rated PG-13 for strong language, violence, subject matter.
by CNB