If you were a kid that grew up in Ellwood City, you were looking to rent one of three movies that were the hottest of childhood commodities: Rad, Thrashin' and The Dirt Bike Kid.

Who doesn't want to watch Peter Billingsley go one on one with Stuart Pankin over a magical dirt bike? Having this movie for the night was a near mythic power trip and I still wonder, why didn't the video store get another copy? Did they not care about the children?

Billingsley - wearing the exact same pair of glasses that he wore as Ralphie in A Christmas Story - is Jack Simmons, Pankin is the town's banker Mr. Hodgkins and Jack's mom Janet is played by Anne Bloom, making this a Not Necessarily the News reunion for her, Pankin, Danny Breen (who plays Flaherty) and director Hoite C. Caston, who also made thirty-two episodes of that HBO comedy series. But isn't the real star the 1985 Yamaha YZ80 that Jack buys for $50 that is filled with occult energy?

The idea for this came from Julie Corman and she has the same carny instincts as her husband, knowing that young kids would need something to rent along with their parents and older brothers and sisters. She made this for $800,000 and it moved 100,000 tapes, back in the day when rental copies cost ninety bucks. Never doubt a Corman when it comes to making money.

This 1985 comedy-fantasy stars Peter Billingsley, Stuart Pankin, Anne Bloom and Patrick Collins. Billingsley (A Christmas Story) plays young kid, Jack who lives with his mother, Janet (Bloom). After she sends him out to buy groceries, he buys an old dirt bike instead. Soon, Jack discovers it has special abilities like coasting through the air. Pankin (Second Sight) plays Hodgkins, an obnoxious banker who decides to develop a bank where a local hot dog restaurant, Mike's Doghouse is located. Collins plays the owner, Mike who is also Jack's little league coach. With his magic bike's help, Jack tries stopping Hodgkins from demolishing Mike's establishment. This is one of those films from my childhood I've always enjoyed and can't forget. It has silly and a bit of heartfelt moments and Billingsley & Pankin are great in it. I recommend this 80's classic.

THE DIRT BIKE KID is a familiar children's adventure flick of the 1980s, focused around a Milky Bar Kid lookalike who finds himself in possession of a magical dirt bike (yep, I'm not kidding),with a mild kind of R2D2 personality and a lot of tricks up its sleeve. It's a bit like a kid's version of KNIGHT RIDER, a wish fulfilment fantasy in which this ordinary kid finds himself in possession of the power to stop a greedy property developer in his tracks. A local arcade is at threat, so the film turns into a kind of running battle between the kid and his various allies and the corporate bad guys. It's sunny, simplistic stuff, fun without engaging the brain.