Gleaming the Cube (1988) 20th Century Fox

Written by Michael Tolkien, Directed by Graham Clifford Starring: Christian Slater, Steven Bauer, Richard Herd, Ed Lauter, Max Perlich

Our boy Christian is the leader of a pack of SoCal skatekids who care little for the future and live only for their four-wheeled fun as they wreak havoc in the Southland. His adopted Vietnamese brother, however, is much more serious as a student and in every other way. In the course of his charity work at a Vietnamese relief organization he finds discrepencies in the accounts, asks questions and begins to investigate. He is accidently killed by a thug hired to keep secret the group`s illicit arms smuggling to supply anti-Communist guerillas in the home country. (an entirely fictitious scenario, YMP can assure you, for he reads news constantly and would know if this ever happened in real life!)

A grieving Christian must form an uneasy alliance with Authority, in this case detective Stephen, who is in charge of the investigation. Neither believes in the apparent suicide staged by the killers and they pursue the truth in their own seperate ways while trading information back and forth.

Christian begins to give up many of his proto-Generation X habits and attitudes as he tries to fulfill his new goal of solving the murder and providing justice in the case. His dead brother`s girlfriend is both a potential source of information and a possible love interest.

The entire situation falls apart, however, when the bad guys become caught in the pincer-like maneuvers of both the official investigation and Christian`s gonzo crusade. In the end, the long-haired, flannel-wearing skate droogs are called in and our hero truly Gleams the Cube (achieves radical boss perfection on his board) and corners the gangleader after a long, wild chase, then turns him over to Stephen for arrest. Mission accomplished, lesson learned, maturity attained.

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