Synopsis
It's recruiting time and despite being short and scrawny, Johnny Walker is America's hottest young football prospect. His dilemma: should he take one of the many offers from college talent scouts or should he attend the local state college with his girlfriend and give up his football career?
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Cast
- Anthony Michael HallJohnny Walker
- Robert Downey Jr.Leo Wiggins
- Uma ThurmanGeorgia Elkans
- Paul GleasonWayne Hisler
- Steve JamesCoach Ned Sanders
- Jennifer TillyConnie Hisler
- Seymour CasselWallace Gibson
- Marshall BellChief Elkans
- Deborah MayMrs. Walker
- Robert Downey Sr.NCAA Investigator
Recommendations
- 30
The New York Times
But mostly the satire is as dated as the recruiters' plaid jackets, as lame as the Johnny Walker joke. - 25
Chicago Tribune
A dim-witted teen comedy and romance about an ace high school football player who has to fight off college recruiters as well as the father of the girl he's dating. Neither part of the film works, save for a few throwaway gags about recruiting. [25 March 1988, p.A] - 25
Chicago Tribune
Buried somewhere in the screenplay are some Robert Altman-esque satirical intentions, in which the wildly corrupt college football recruitment process is offered as a panoramic image of frenzied American venality. But Bud Smith's broad, colorless direction removes whatever sting the material may once have had, edging the action instead toward sub-"Police Academy" slapstick-flying pizzas, exploding fire extinguishers, mass fist- fights that break out for no discernible reason. [25 March 1988, p.D] - 20
Los Angeles Times
Johnny Be Good, a would-be satire on the excesses of big-time college football recruiting, is so bad that the NCAA might consider using it as punishment for coaches who violate regulations. - 12
Chicago Sun-Times
The screenplay for this movie bears every sign of being a first draft - a quick and dirty one. The movie doesn’t feel written, it feels dictated. Three authors are listed, and from the way their movie plays, they must have sat around in an office somewhere trying to get all of their cliches in a row. - 0
TV Guide Magazine
Johnny be worthless. - 0
Washington Post
I doubt if I could stand to be in the same state as anyone who liked the new Anthony Michael Hall film "Johnny Be Good." If Chuck Berry were dead, he'd be spinning in his grave. - 0
Miami Herald
Johnny Be Good -- hah! Johnny Be Terrible is more like it. This dopey football comedy loses major yardage in the first scene and never recovers. Scene one: A high school coach turns a prayer for a state championship into a foul-mouthed speech so loathsome that you expect the Almighty to smite him. If only He had, film goers would have been spared this hell of a movie. [29 March 1988, p.B6]
