Johnny Be Good

JOHNNY be worthless. Anthony Michael Hall, the likable teen star of the John Hughes comedy SIXTEEN CANDLES, appears here with a new image, as a squeaky clean All-America quarterback. Looking awkward with his newly muscular physique, Hall tries hard to be a regular guy in this film, but can't shed the aura of geekiness that served him so well in early adolescence and crippled his adult career. We're supposed to believe that Hall is the hottest high school quarterback in the entire nation. The script botches a nice opportunity to satirize the venal realm of college athletic recruiting, instead playing on crudely rendered male fantasies, double entendres, toilet humor...