Yeah, it's not the best movie. It could actually be a lot better... but it is entertaining as all.... heck?

Even if you aren't hip to the whole skater thing, this is a seriously fun movie to watch in the cheap 80s action/adventure kind of way. It has a compelling enough police drama vide, even if most of the action is centered around skateboarding... which is also fun to watch.

I honestly think a lot of the distaste comes from the fact that it is capitalizing on what was, in the 80s, seen as a passing fad.

But the story is still solid for what it is. It has a good message about family ties. It has actual character growth. The story is something that Hollywood has forgotten to do lately, make a compelling narrative. But this somehow manages to accomplish that and still, you know, exploit the skater phenomenon that was sweeping the nation at the time.

This is the story of a young confused high school punk who loses his adopted Vietnamese brother to a couple of gun runners. What is he to do? Well he could figure out who these people are and when he's frustrated, he could just skateboard while he's pissed. To lighten things up, he could hit on his dead brothers girlfriend.

There are many famous skaters who lent their abilities to this film. This does rank above the break dancing movies ('Breakin'')and the evil dancing movies ('Footloose' and 'Dirty Dancing') of the eighties, but I don't think it comes close to bike movies ('Rad' and 'The Dirtbike Kid')

One of Christian Slater's early hits finds Slater as a high school kid with the biggest passion of his life being skateboarding. Gleaming The Cube casts him as the son of Ed Lauter and Nicole Mercurio. He has an adopted Vietnamese brother Art Chuddabala that the parents may have gone overboard to make him feel like one of the family, possibly ignoring Slater. In any event he's a misfit kid with skateboarding on his mind 24/7.

Chuddabala works for Le Tuan a Vietnamese exile who has an electronics store but who also works to supply arms needed for counter revolutionists in the old country. One night Chuddabala discovers some bookkeeping errors and it gets him killed by arms dealer Richard Herd.

They fake a suicide, but that does not stop Slater. After the cops have closed the case he starts his own little investigation and when needed Slater's skateboarding posse is at his command.

Gleaming The Cube does not have Slater as one of the more outrageous and quirky characters he specialized in the 90s playing. Still there's a lot here for his fans to enjoy. The skateboarding acrobatics by the pros who worked on this film are spectacular. Christian Slater fans will like it as will others.