Gleaming the Cube

Brian Kelly is a slacker at heart.

The only thing he seems to care about is skateboarding, trivial things like doing his homework; making the grade in school have little meaning to him.

But he's about to take a crash course in reality.

When his adopted Vietnamese brother, Vinh (Art Chudabala) turns up dead after uncovering a mysterious error in the shipping records at his place of work, Brian (Christian Slater) begins to suspect something more.

Refusing to accept the police's theory of suicide, Brian launches his own investigation, determined to unveil the truth of what really happened to his brother. With the aid of the sharp-witted detective, Al Lucero (Steven Bauer), Vinh's ex-girlfriend, Tina (Min Luong) and a whole host of his skateboarding buddies, Brian manages to uproot the foundation of an illegal smuggling operation, to bring his brother's killer to justice.

Gleaming the Cube is most certainly one of those guilty pleasure movies for which the 80's are so well-known.

Though much of the cast (with the exception of Slater and Bauer) are largely unknown, the combination of skateboarding and crime-solving helps to put an original spin on an otherwise cliched tale.

Marked by its poignant moments of warmth and sincerity, Gleaming the Cube makes for a decent enough action/drama film.