Memorable, crazy movie

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I bought the DVD many years ago, but I just watched it today, and this is my thought about this movie.This movie is a good quality beautiful drama that will gives you a good and nostalgic feeling. The shots are so cinematic, this movie makes you like you're reading a novel (as the matter of fact this movie is based on novel). And the background music is so beautiful, really fits with the story. And the other plus point is the actors are so good looking on those 50s style that make the scene more enjoyable to watch.The acting quality of the actors are so amazing, no need to ask about the main actor Ryan Merriman because his acting performances are always amazing (but I don't know how his performance in his newer movies since the last time I saw him when he's in Final Destinantion 3 (2006)).Actually I wanted to give this movie 10 stars, but I decided to give it 8 stars because it has a lack for the story. The direction of the story (the theme, the genre) is inconsistent.At the first half, the premise of the story is like about an orphan boy named Eddie (Ryan Merriman) who try to follow his father step to become a pilot. It will makes you think Eddie will train so hard to fly the plane while he also has to face the problem with his uncle (Stanley Tucci), his care taker family Margaret (Dana Delany) and her husband Ernesto (Ruben Blades), and the support from her pretty friend Francesca (Paula Garces), but no, it turned out it's not about that.The last half the story change direction to about Eddie love story with Francesca, how they care each other, and then Francesca is raped by her father, the depression of Francesca, then her father committed suicide. Eddie seems forgetting his plane training and his head is full of Francesca. The story change direction from what they gave at the beginning. I mean yeah, love life of the main character will give a good flavor for the story, but not by changing the story line and the theme from family drama genre to romance genre. This made me disappointed. Just stick to one story premise.But other than that, like I said at the beginning, this movie is a good quality beautiful drama that really really worth to watch, I really suggest you to watch this movie.

Air Force Major Frank Haley(Mr S.Tucci)is a typical John Ford hero.Detached and somewhat remote,taciturn,more used to giving orders than taking them and completely comfortable in his own skin.You'd better listen when he speaks because he isn't going to say anything twice. When his brother and sister - in - law are killed in a plane crash("Stormin' Stan Haley" - a very evocative name),the Major acknowledges his responsibilities and takes their 10 year old son into his care. However,he has his duty to perform and flies off to Guam leaving the kid at the family ranch looked after by the Mexican top hand and his Anglo wife((Mr R.Blades and Ms D. Delany). When he returns,the boy has become a somewhat difficult teenager although much - loved and very fond of his foster parents. It is time for the Major to step up to the plate and help the boy become a man. I watched "Spin" on Freeview the other afternoon perfectly prepared for it to be the usual soporific,superficial,glossy and instantly forgettable stuff that is the staple of a channel where the ads are for ambulance chasers and loan sharks, but I was surprised that in fact it was quite harsh and it took me somewhere I hadn't expected to go just when it was looking at it's most routine. Set in 1950's Arizona,it is to all intents and purposes a Western although their is not a horse in sight. Instead we have photogenic old aeroplanes slipping through the endless sky and stunning light,almost like a perpetual gloaming. There is Fordian darkness before the dawn,but the boy grows tall and true, a credit to his father,and is accepted by the Air Force Academy (I nearly wrote "West Point")much to the Major's delight. Mr Tucci is excellent as the Ethan Edwards/Tom Doniphon type. If Andrew McClaglen took the reins from John Ford,then Mr Redford has seamlessly carried on where he left off. "Spin" is a fine film and deserves to be better known.

Ryan Merriman was young Eddie Haley, whose parents die in a small plane crash as the movie begins. Stanley Tucci is Major Haley, a pilot and Eddie's uncle who travels most of the time. Dana Delany is Margaret, pretty Paula Garcés is Francesca who eventually becomes Eddie's girlfriend in high school. Rubén Blades is Ernesto the ranch hand who effectively becomes Eddie's father after Major Haley leaves.Dad leaves Eddie a note, written in blood on a handkerchief as he is about to die after his crash, "Don't let this stop you." Eddie grows up bitter, is a class clown, gets into trouble here and there, wasting his potential. He even spurns the gift of love and friendship that Francesca offers. But when Major Haley returns, and offers to teach Eddie to fly, Eddie becomes an eager pilot, using a makeshift airstrip on their Arizona ranch.Eddie eventually comes around, the theme of the movie is "family", it is what you make of it with the people around you.SPOILERS, FOR MY RECOLLECTION, PLEASE READ NO FURTHER. Francesca's father has become a drunkard after her mother died, doesn't treat Francesca very well, even thought she is a model student and works after school at a local burger joint. One night while her friends are all at the school dance, her dad makes advances, beats her up and, we deduct from later comments, rapes Francesca. She leaves and he kills himself with a gun. Francesca gets out of town, gets drunk, gets sick with high fever, Eddie takes the plane to go to her, finds her, brings her back by plane for a hospital, magneto acts up, spare is bad too, crash lands safely, Major Haley comes to him in jeep, gets Francesca to safety, profess love for each other, as Eddie plans to head for Air Force Academy and Francesca for college in Mexico.

SPIN takes a road much traveled - the coming of age tale of a child whose parents are suddenly absent - but the result is much stronger a story than most in this genre. Based on the novel by Donald Everett Axinn and adapted for the screen by writer/director James Redford (yes, son of Robert Redford, but strong enough a talent not to need to depend on shadows!), SPIN is an evocative moment in history (the 1950s) when the world was more quiet and young people would work their ways through the maze of adolescence without clouds of outside threats. This, then, becomes more poignant and sensitive a study of one lad's growing up to become an adult facing mirrors of those faces from the past and the present.Eddie Haley (Max Madore) is very young when his parents die in a plane crash and is placed in the care of his parent's workers Margaret and Ernesto Bejarano (Dana Delaney and Rubén Blades) at the decision of his pilot uncle Major Haley (Stanley Tucci) - a man whose own demons have left him seemingly invulnerable to intimacy and family, electing to move away from the Haley ranch and its responsibilities rather than raising Eddie. Eddie's companion as a child is Francesca (Marissa Baca) who, while not an orphan, is motherless and living with a cruel father. They bond and in addition to the very supportive Bejaranos provide Eddie with as much footing as he is able to manage.Move forward to Eddie as a teenager (Ryan Merriman) and he has become a mild punk, floundering around seeking meaning to life and afraid of relationships - fearing he will be ultimately deserted. Francesca (Paula Garcés) moves back into town from Mexico and gradually the two become close and involved: Eddie's demons and issues riddle him while Francesca's equally brittle demons seem to make her stronger. Major Haley returns, is at first greatly resented by Eddie until the Major teaches Eddie to fly a plane left to him by his departed father. The relationship that develops between the two is as strong as it is difficult. A tragedy involving Francesca and her father occurs resulting finally in Eddie's ability to feel mature emotions and follows his courage and his heart to change his and Francesca's lives.Redford keeps this potentially saccharine story in tight reins, never allowing bathos but always sharing a view that each of us is human and capable of errors, but equally capable of recovering and resolving consequences. The cast is uniformly strong with Tucci giving one of his finest and most subtle performances to date. Merriman is young and shows great promise: Blades and Delany are seasoned veterans and bring a realistic rapport that adds to the credibility of a story also dealing with ethnic prejudice. The cinematography by Paul Ryan is excellent - some of the best aerial photography outside of the usual war scenes on film. Recommended, not because it is a great movie, but because it is an honest one and the first example of James Redford's seemingly generous talent. Grady Harp