Genre Guesstimation – The Legend of Billie Jean (1985)

The idea behind this feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies (or ones that I haven’t seen many times) from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

This month’s genre has been chosen by Todd of The Forgotten Filmz Podcast and we will be reviewing our favorite 80’s Teen Films.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Sep by sending them to teentodd@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box! Great choice Todd!

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of 80’s Teen Films…..

“I’ll be grounded till I’m 35 years old.” – Putter

Number of Times Seen – At least twice (Cable in the 80’s and 10 Sep 2020)

Brief Synopsis – After being bullied by town ruffians, a sister and brother go on a crusade to try and show the corruption of the system.

My Take on it – This is a film that I recall seeing on cable back in the 80’s and recalled enjoying it as a kid.

As an adult, it just doesn’t work at all.

This is a really silly story with characters who all feel far too stereotypical the whole way through.

The cast is great and features some very promising young actors, yet they aren’t given enough things to do for us to really care about them.

Helen and Christian Slater (no relation) are really wasted here and Peter Coyote plays the typical adult trying to do what’s right and comes across as being too disconnected with the teens.

This is a movie that doesn’t age well at all and watching it now, it’s easy to see how strange things are as presented here.

The one thing that this film has going for it is the great 80’s soundtrack which helps give an 80’s aura and vibe to things even if the film fails to work at all.

Bottom Line – Really silly film that doesn’t manage to work at all. Great cast is somewhat wasted in this story especially the two Slaters and Coyote. The film doesn’t age well at all and things are a bit too strange in the way that things are presented. The film has a great soundtrack of 80’s hits that gives off the right 80’s vibe of everything that happens here.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Helen Slater has frequently had to tell fans that she and Christian Slater are not related. The misconception has been around for years, entirely because they played brother and sister in this film. (From IMDB)

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Not even close. Really silly 80’s protest movie.

Rating – Razzie Worthy (3/10)