Fluke_Skywalker 'American Anthem' is an awful sports melodrama starring Olympic gold medal gymnast Mitch Gaylord and Mrs. Wayne Gretzky as... gymnasts. From the director of 'Purple Rain', covering many of the same themes, but without Prince's music to bolster it. There was potential for some cheesy fun here, but the whole thing gets so bogged down in its family melodrama that any fun is sucked right out of it.Gaylord certainly had teen idol looks, but his acting had less range than a slingshot. But in his defense no actor could've done anything with this drivel. Even the montages are lame, and for an 80s film that's a no-no.

mbat19 Coming off the highly successful 1984 summer olympics and seen as the hearthtrob of the games, Mitch Gaylord took his shot at the movies with this pic. The plot, such as it is, has Gaylord playing a gymnast, quite a stretch, who meets the new girl in town Janet Jones who is the only thing worth looking at in the movie, as they train for the olympics with a strict coach. Guess what, they fall for each other too. Obvious plot, dumb writing, clichés everywhere. Only if you are a fan of gymnastics, Mitch Gaylord, or Janet Jones and even then there are other choices out there. This and Kurt Thomas' Gymkata were the two and thankfully the only 2 gymnastic movies released. We were spared a Mary Lou Retton and a Domonique Moceanu movie luckily... My rating is one only because there is no zero

tfrizzell A dull film that tried to capitalize on the craze the U.S. had with the Summer Olympics of 1984 in Los Angeles, but came way too late to make any impression with movie audiences. "American Anthem"'s stars are much more interesting than the film itself which is a dud to put it mildly. The movie focuses on a young man (Mitch Gaylord) who gets the itch to compete in gymnastics again after meeting the new girl in town (Janet Jones). She is training for the Olympic trials and of course he starts to compete once again just basically to be with her more. A corny production that has no real pep at all. Gaylord, a former Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics, proved to be a bust as a leading man. He would later appear in a few soft-core direct-to-video adult productions and become a stunt man for several other films (most notably "Batman Forever"). Janet Jones would later marry all-world hockey star Wayne Gretzky after this film. That is her claim to fame, not "American Anthem". Turkey (0 stars out of 5)

Edgard-6 I dont know why they rated the movie with 3.7, I think this movie is a GYMNASTIC CLASSIC, I really loved it. I don´t agree with other people that didn´t like it, I remembered when i first saw it, i was like 12 years old and I totally loved the movie and the actress, that is really hot. Well, if you like GYMNASTICS you can´t miss this great movie.