8 Seconds movie review & film summary (1994)

"Eight Seconds," on the other hand, observes the rodeo as a fan might, from the stands. There's not much arcane information, not many insights into how you get to be a rodeo cowboy, and what separates the good ones from the bad ones. Lane Frost turns out to be a very good one, but he seems to have had his talent from the first, and he is thrown so very, very rarely that he makes the sport look too easy.

Even a duel with a dreaded bull that has thrown more than 300 riders is set up for an inevitable outcome.

The film's ending, which I will not reveal, tempts us to like the movie simply because we feel sympathy for the characters. But that won't do. There's a certain slackness in "Eight Seconds," a feeling that a lot of the material has been included simply because it happened in real life - not because it adds much to the story. The whole character of the best friend, Tuff, seems like a distraction; Lane often prefers to hit the circuit with Tuff instead of staying home with his bride, but this is not intrinsically very interesting, and the filmmakers should have either dropped Tuff, or written the character with more complexity.

The surprise in the movie, I guess, is Perry, whose name cannot appear in print without the words "teen heartthrob" attached to it.

Like earlier throbs (Matt Dillon in particular) he looks capable of rising above the fanzine drivel and proving himself a real actor. But this isn't quite the movie.