Classic Movie Review: '8 Seconds' Starring Luke Perry

8 Seconds (1994)

Directed by John G. Avildsen

Written by Monte Merrick

Starring Luke Perry, Stephen Baldwin, Cynthia Geary, James Rebhorn

Release Date February 25th, 1994

Published February 27th, 2024

8 Seconds is a painfully boring film. The mostly true story of famed bull rider, Lane Frost, played by Luke Perry, 8 Seconds is a by the numbers sports movie with all the innovation and excitement of a damp rag. Bull Riding is a sport. It takes a great deal of dedication and very strong hands. It also comes with intense, life long pain for those who do it for any length of time and the distinct likelihood of getting killed by these remarkable animals who have no idea that they are participating in a sport.

So, yeah, I wasn't really the audience for a schmaltzy, dizzying, dimwitted movie like 8 Seconds. Lane Frost died tragically young and, as demonstrated in 8 Seconds, his accomplishments were notable if not anything most of the world cares about. He was a multiple time champion of his sport and was kind to children. Lovely qualities that are at odds with the moody, broody, young man who could turn on a dime and be cruel to his loyal and loving wife, Kellie (Cynthia Geary). Kellie takes the brunt of Lane's unpredictable mood swings, often related to his anger toward his father, Clyde (James Rebhorn), a man who cannot tell his son that he loves him.

The father-son dynamic is underplayed to a ludicrous degree. Rebhorn, a popular character actor, often cast as villains or just jerks, is poorly cast here as a dad who can never be satisfied with his son's accomplishments. This detail arrives halfway into the movie and is treated as the dramatic crux of the movie. Until the midpoint of the film, we have no context other than Lane and his dad get along well and dad supports him riding bulls. Halfway through the movie, Rebhorn's Clyde is assigned dialogue that indicates he's never satisfied with Lane's accomplishments. By turn, the heretofore affable Lane turns into a jerk who takes out his inability to earn his Daddy's love leads him to be emotionally abusive to his wife.

The only person who understands Lane on any level is his best friend and fellow rodeo dude, Tuff Hedeman (Stephen Baldwin). My guess is that they suffer from the same form of head trauma related to being thrown from bulls. Uniquely suffered head trauma would be a bonding experience and it would also explain why these two actors say so little of any remote interest but are the closest of friends by the time the movie ends. Baldwin's performance being chalked up to severe head trauma may actually improve my assessment of his performance. Otherwise, there is no excuse for him to be this bad in this or any movie.

8 Seconds was directed by John G. Avildsen a director who embodies the adage 'when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.' Avildsen's metaphoric hammer is Rocky and he uses it to turn every sports movie into a lesser re-creation of Rocky. The magic of Rocky however, comes not from Avildsen's basic direction. No, it comes from the uniquely explosive combination of Sylvester Stallone's raw passion and Stallone's unexpectedly potent chemistry with Talia Shire. Avildsen's job is to get Stallone on camera and not trip over himself and he does this admirably in Rocky.

8 Seconds is not Rocky, not even close. Poor Luke Perry doesn't even begin to approach Stallone, who is not a great actor but in Rocky was a wildly passionate and hungry actor. Perry made 8 Seconds when he was already a television star with a steady career and steady pay. He didn't need 8 Seconds. Where Stallone faced professional ruin if Rocky didn't work, Perry has nothing to worry about, his hit TV show was going to provide comfy residual checks for years. Again, Rocky had a highly unique chemistry that 8 Seconds cannot hope to match but cannot escape thanks to Avildsen's one size fits all style of direction.

I'm not sure that any director could have made 8 Seconds into a good movie. Avildsen manages to render the film more boring than bad and that's kind of an achievement, considering how little the movie has going for it. That 8 Seconds isn't completely unwatchable is a testament to Avildsen's professional capabilities, even as his storytelling could not be more basic and dull, a rehash of sports movie clichés, picking the bones of Rocky to little positive effect until the movie peters out to a melodramatic conclusion contrivance that may or may not have some semblance of reality.

8 Seconds is the latest subject of the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast Spinoff, I Hate Critics 1994. On the spinoff, myself, and my co-hosts Gen-Z'er M.J and Gen-X'er Amy, watch the movies that were released 30 years ago that weekend and use them as a mirror to peer back over 30 years of popular and film culture to see how things have changed, for better and worse. It's fascinating to see which movies are still remembered today and which ones, like 8 Seconds, have not stood the test of time. Find the I Hate Critics 1994 Podcast on I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast Feed, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Find my archive of more than 20 years and nearly 2000 movie reviews at SeanattheMovies.blogspot.com. Find my modern review archive on my Vocal Profile, linked here. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean. Follow the archive blog on Twitter at SeanattheMovies. Listen to me talk about movies on the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have enjoyed what you have read, consider subscribing to my writing on Vocal. If you would like to support my writing, you can do so by making a monthly pledge or by leaving a one time tip. Thanks!