Rating: 
Summary: You'll see a whole different side of Rick Springfield !
Review: Rick Springfield is a talented actor and musician. This movie did not show his full potential as an actor, but the music rocks. Not every film has to be deep and meaningful, it is okay to just have fun sometimes. This movie is a great escape...some funny moments...some sexy moments...a little bit heavy in some places...a great Saturday night all alone and solitary film.Jennifer
Rating: 
Summary: Rick's Best Flicks
Review: Romantic and fun. It kept me watching with my jaw dropped. Rick Springfield did it all. I loved it, loved it, loved it. A must see for Springfield fan's.
Rating: 
Summary: For Die Hard Rick Springfield fans only!!
Review: Sure the acting is pretty horrible and the plot is pretty stupid,but if you love Rick Springfield you can not miss here. Music is very very good and we get some much needed rear-end views of Rick. They could have come up with better story and supporting actors but you win some and you lose some. Poor Janet Ebert( the prissy phys. here) I do not think she has done anything but a bit extra part in the movie Might Joe Young since this movie. If you are a fan and have not seen this movie yet do not wait. Rent or buy it now. Or wait and check tv listings it is usually on USA's up all night.
Rating:
Summary: Pure nostalgia
Review: The main value this movie has for me is the nostalgia. It sort of got lost in the shuffle, seeing as Prince came out with a similar rock-star-struggling-to-find-himself think a few months later, and he did it much better (remember a littel film called Purple Rain?). I remember staying up all night long calling into the local radio station to win tickets to the premier showing in our town. It was a fun event, and Rick and his music generally are just a huge part of my teen years. Yes, the script is very weak (Diane:"You know, I really, really, really, really...care about you." to drive the point home that she couldn't bring herself to say "I love you." C'mon, two reallys would have done it)and the director should have had his guild card revoked and had cut up pieces of celuloid shoved up his fingernails. I mean, yes Rick has a very cute tushy and I got a kick out of seeing it as much as the next person, but around the third time, I was like "c'mon, he's more than a cute butt!"
BUT... that having been said, this character was a nice departure from Dr. Noah Drake, his General Hospital alter ego. He CAN act, but this film just didn't give him much to work with unfortunately. If you want to see Rick flex his thesbian muscles, check out Silent Motive. He co-stars as a not-so-recovered cocaine addict, and is so convincing it's scary. But on the plus side for Hard To Hold, Rick looks really good throughout this movie, and the sound track is one of my favorite Rick Springfield records. I know it's not his favorite (he says it was written and recorded under the influence of a big case of Page 37 syndrome. You know, "this is what happens on page 37 of the script. Write a song to fit it") but it's still some really great work. The concert scenes are fun, too. I think it's worth it for Springfield fans, just so we can show our grandkids the rock star we had a crush on oh so many years ago.
Rating:
Summary: Great songs, just an okay movie
Review: This is one of those movies that falls into my "I enjoyed it when I watched it but I wasn't dying to see it again" category.
Rick does a decent job in it. He really is a good actor, but his character in this isn't so great. I don't blame Rick - I blame whoever wrote the movie. The story could have been a lot better.
The best thing about this movie is the music. (That's the reason I gave this 3 stars.)Some really great songs were featured in this movie - "Love Somebody" being the most famous one. Another favorite of mine in this is "Stand Up." Rick's performance of it is probably my favorite part of the whole movie.
Like I said, this isn't a bad movie. It's far from great, but it's okay. I wish the story had been a little better. Rick's a good actor and it's a shame he didn't have better material to work with here.
Rating:
Summary: NOT EXACTLY OSCAR MATERIAL BUT I LOVED IT!
Review: THIS MOVIE IS PRETTY MUCH FOR THE HARD CORE RICK SPRINGFIELD FANS. ITS GREAT TO SEE HIM HERE IN HIS PRIME(OOOOH THE 80's THOSE WERE THE DAYS !)
Rating:
Summary: I agree with the previous poster...gooood chick flick!
Review: This movie, I think, is very underrated. I enjoyed it alot as a kid and consider it a nice piece of nostalgia now. I still remember this girl in elementary school who used to see all his concerts with her mom and they'd wear the T-shirts and stuff...I'm definitely a child of the 80's...teehee...Anywayz, I would buy a copy of the DVD because I liked Rick's character but the plot was kind of lacking...still enjoyable, though.
Rating:
Summary: The fundamental things apply...and this movie proves it!
Review: With the exception of Christopher Reeve's Somewhere In Time (1980), Rick Springfield's 1984 first full length major feature film, Hard to Hold, is probably the most underrated movie in the 80's romance film genre! Both were viciously rejected by the critics at the time, but discovered by the people one by one, and now both movies enjoy a cult following appeal and are frequently amongst the highest rented videos in most stores!
The commonalities between the two movies are readily evident. Both male characters are successful in creative fields (playwright and rock musician), both are feeling like "there's got to be something more than this" in their lives, they both are seek an enduring love, and both find it with women who are technically "unattainable".
That is where the similarities end. SIT is mired in the 1910's, and H2H is definitely a product of the 80's which still resonates with people today.
Musically, SIT was out of touch with the "Me generation.". While SIT is set to a Edwardian era highly sentimentalized "hearts and flowers" heart-fluttering, sugar sweet instrumental soundtrack, the highly charged, "living on the edge" rock music and lyrics in H2H captures the true spirit of the state of love and romance in the post-sexual revolution America where cynicism was more in effect than sentimentality. The songs are still sung today-Love Somebody still rings true today as it did back then as does Bop till You Drop and Stand Up!
Rick, as Jamie Roberts, almost appears autobiographical-as he did have a HUGE screaming teen fan base at that time which at times appears to have helped and hinder his career. In fact, the buttoned up female protagonist, Diana Larson, played by actress Janet Eilber, dismisses him and his musical style as "bubblegum" and expresses an affinity for crooner Tony Bennett. Come on, who admittedly listened to Tony Bennett back then? (Ok I did...but so what? I'm an anonmaly!)
Well, apparently, the way to that woman's heart (and bed) was through a Tony Bennett song. Let me tell you if someone hired a singer to serenade me, I'd leave my "heart in San Francisco" in a New York minute! How incredibly romantic is that? Yet, they don't drown us in sentimentality. I found it shocking at the time that they would talk about STI's so casually in a movie like that, but they were "keeping it real" in a society that not only expected it, but demanded it!
As for Rick's acting performance in H2H, my question is "Who's acting?" Every move he made seemed to be natural and an extension of himself. Janet's performance is reminiscent of Andie McDowell who would play in the 1994 romantic comedy 4 Weddings and a Funeral. Both actresses, in my view, appear more like cardboard cutouts instead of potentially passionate women-which was too bad. It made the movie drag a bit. I also enjoyed Patti Hanson's "songwriter-on-the-verge-of-nervous-breakdown" jealous ex-girlfriend. You want to hate her, but you really can't. She's just trying to make sense of her own angst, and let's face it, it's never easy to say goodbye, is it?
When I first saw the movie back in the 8's, I was not really ready for it. Far from ready. At the time I was very conservative and when the "fireplace scene" came up-the kinds of emotions and longings it stirred up in me freaked me out so much that I immediate shut off the video and drove it back to the store. I would not view that video again for at least 19 years!
I rented the video to hear Rick singing-and was rewarded with a fabulous commentary on the state of love and romance in the 80's! Now I play that fireplace scene over and over again. Not just for the majorly heartstopping sensuality of it all (the horniness factor, I must admit, is there!) but for the real "exposure" of two strong willed people who are willing to take a chance and be emotionally vulnerable to each other as well. Now that's truly a story to be told. So subtle, but so powerful at the same time. One of the things I appreciate about this move is that it chronicalizes a time in our recent social history when it was often easier to give your body to someone than it was to give your heart. Presently, in this era of AIDS and so-called "family values", it seems like everyone wants to re-write their own history. Today, courtships are played out by the "Rules" and to hear people talk everyone was as chaste as the driven snow! I say not if you came of age in the late 70's and early 80's!
Back in the day, one- night stands were the rule, not the "exception." And no one used the "L" word for fear of appearing weak. Throughout the movie, Diane tries so hard to be a "modern woman" and act like it's a physical thing only. Only once does she tell Jamie she "cares" about him but it was Jamie who took the REAL chance on declaring his love for her during that famous "fireplace" scene!
It transcends time and space-that need to love and be loved. What woman wouldn't give her left arm to have someone look her in the eyes soulfully like that and whisper, "I love you" And mean it? Just the thought moves me to tears as I write this. In my not so humble opinion such a emotionally gripping love scene would not play on the screen again until the 1997 blockbuster Titanic.
Whether it is the 1910's, or the 2000's, love is "hard to hold" but well worth the attempt. As the classic song about another relationship involving a man named Rick says, "the fundamental things apply...as time goes by" and viewing this movie two decades later PROVES this fact!
I can watch this movie now, and while it is not in the Gone with the wind or Casablanca class, it does have a message of its own-primarily this: even if love sometimes seems Hard to Hold onto, don't give up! Hang on, enjoy the ride, take the risk...and if it is truly right-NEVER let it go. A rather positive and timely message especially applicable in this post 9/11 culture of fear and uncertainty where nearly everyone wants a "sure thing" when life holds no guarantees.
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