Father & Son Reunion Tearjerker with Stallone as the Dad

Rating: 7/10 (30 April 2014)

"Over the Top" qualifies as one of Menahem Golan's better movies. This Sylvester Stallone arm wrestling saga casts the lean, muscular "Rocky" hero as a humble but defiant trucker named Lincoln Hawk. Jason Cutler (Robert Loggia of "Scarface"), Hawk's villainous father-in-law, who drove him out of his daughter's life will stoop to anything to get his way. Now, Cutler's daughter Christina (Susan Blakely of "The Towering Inferno") is dying, but she wants her twelve-year old son, Michael (David Mendenhall), to get acquainted with her estranged husband. Naturally, the father-in-law doesn't take kindly to Hawk's intrusion. Cutler has been more of a father to Michael than Hawk could ever be over the last ten years. Meantime, when we aren't dealing with this contentious family custody battle, we find ourselves drawn into the world of arm wrestling. Hawk is hauling loads and working his way to the arm wrestling championship in Sin City. As a film, "Over the Top" doubles not only as a father and son reunion tearjerker, but also as a sports themed fantasy about arm wrestling. Noted scenarist Stirling Silliphant of "In the Heat of the Night," and Stallone penned this thinly plotted but engaging chronicle. Appropriately enough, Stallone plays a "Rocky" like underdog character, but it is Stallone at his most colorless. The road to reunion is pretty rocky for our protagonist and his long, lost son. Aside from Blakely's cameo from the hospital, "Over the Top" doesn't dwell on romance. This is strictly a father-in-law versus his son-in-law epic with predictable but heartfelt results. Of course, Hawk and Michael come together in the long run, but they seem to be constantly at odds until the youngster discovers that his grandfather has been manipulating him from the start about Lincoln Hawk. Basically, Stallone doesn't perform any spectacular feats, and "Over the Top" is believable. He steers an eighteen wheeler and arm wrestles. Stallone delivers a sincere performance and Loggia is believable as his antagonist every step of the way. When Hawk isn't tangling with Cutler, he competes with a number of colorful arm wrestler who look straight out of a heavy metal melodrama. The gorgeous scenery, "Delta Force" lenser David Gurfinkel's cinematography, and Golan's polished direction bolster this lethargic but meaningful fodder. Golan does everything that he can to make the arm wrestling scenes appear intense with Sergio Leone-like choker-close-ups of the participants clenching their teeth and gritting it out.