My Bodyguard (1980)

Clean-cut kid Clifford Peach is the new boy at a rougher-than-he's-used-to school. He doesn't know the rules and quickly runs into trouble with the classroom bully and his toadies. But there's one mysterious student in the class that even the bullies fear...can the clean-cut kid work out some kind of a deal? What do you think?

It's not bad -- but the style is undeniably '80s, complete with smiling montage of silent motorcycle joyriding (preceded by a weird slo-mo joy dance when the right part is found to fix the bike). Also, we spend a lot of time at Clifford's "home": an upscale hotel managed by his father. His randy grandmother lives with them (mom's dead, I think) and she's always causing problems by hitting on every guy in the bar. Also, dad's being watched by the second-in-command who'd love to see him fired. That stuff is kind of interesting, but it doesn't feel like it fits with the school half of the film. Sure, our situation at home might not always reflect in our situation in public, but if that's the point they're making, it wasn't very clear.

The coolest thing about this movie is seeing early roles of the oh-so-young Matt Dillon, Joan Cusack, and Adam Baldwin.

B-