Sooooooo Eighties!

Rating: Null/10 (21 October 2003)

Over the Top sees Sylvester Stallone returning to the sporting arena in an attempt to hit the box office heights of the Rocky series. Boxing is not the sport in question here, though. This is an arm-wrestling movie, and believe me when I say there's not much to get excited about when two big, strapping guys hold hands and try to out-muscle each other.
Stallone plays trucker Lincoln Hawk. He's estranged from his young son, but when the boy's mother falls terminally ill, Hawk takes him on a cross-country road trip to be with his ailing mom. En route, Hawk tells the kid that he plans to make his fortune as a world champion arm-wrestler. At the end, he goes to Las Vegas to take on the other contenders. Oh yes, and the boy's grand-father (who hates Stallone) spends the film trying to drive a wedge between them.
This film is quite painful. It can't decide whether it wants to be sensitive or tough; it can't decide whether to focus on the relationship between Sly and his son, or the impending arm-wrestling tournament. It goes through ludicrous mood swings, with a tender scene one instant during which the mother dies, and a destructive scene the next as Stallone drives his truck through his father-in-law's house. The arm-wrestling contest at the end is filmed like an MTV pop video, with a zooming camera, staccato editting and a thunderously headache-inducing soundtrack poured over the action.
Fans of Stallone will probably find something to enjoy here, but not much. Those who aren't a great disciple of the actor and his work will probably see right through it and recognise it for what it is: mindless, cheesy junk!