Hard to Hold (1984)

The song remains the same.  Once again, like Two of a Kind, another movie in which the creativity stops with the casting.  Once the producers got Rick Springfield on board, they figured that any adventure that they put him through would be sufficient, even if it was tired and dated by 1955 and stars were Rock Hudson and Doris Day.

I was bored out of my mind by this movie.  Hard to Hold is one of the most listless, cliché-ridden chunks of indifference that I’ve seen in a decade.  Its one of those movies the equates the backstage equivalent of pushing through exhaustion to get to the next musical number with running up the hills of Normandy.  And by the end, that’s what I’d felt just having to sit through it.

Springfield, the rock star and co-star of “General Hospital” is the superstar casting here, playing James Roberts, the kind of rock god who is so sheltered that he barely knows how to tie his own shoes.  What do we expect?  More over what don’t we expect. 

* Do we expect that he gets locked out of his dressing room and can’t get back in despite the dozens of people who follow his every move?  Check!
* Do we expect that he runs into the one woman in town who doesn’t know his name?  Do we expect that she’s a drip who tells him to buzz off?  Check!
* Do we expect that he falls in love with her?  Do we expect the unexpected moments when he makes wide gestures to win her heart?  Check!
* Do we expect that she eventually gives in to his charms?  Check!
* Do we expect that he has a psycho ex-girlfriend?  Check!

This isn’t a movie, it’s a list of ideas piled together to look like a movie.  What really angers me is that the movie has no insights into the music business, something the Springfield would know something about.  It has no interest in the girl’s job as a child psychologist – in fact, she acts like she hates just about everyone.  I’m bored just writing about it.  Moving on.