CLOAK & DAGGER (1984)

A young boy (who has pretty much zero parental supervision) witnesses a murder. The man, right as he's dying, gives the boy an Atari cartridge and tells him to go to the FBI with it.  Being an idiot, the little boy listens to his imaginary friend instead of the dying man and does everything in the world except go to the FBI.  Bad guys chase him around for the rest of the movie.  People die.

I like the basic idea for CLOAK & DAGGER (young boy is being chased by bad guys and nobody believes him), but the execution of the story is really bizarre.  He gets police attention immediately after the first murder, but then clams up thanks to his imaginary friend, so the cops just take him home.  Everything that happens after that is his own fault.  The story would have been more compelling, if he had gotten the attention of the FBI and then something went wrong.  Example: he gets kidnapped or maybe a crooked FBI agent double-crosses him.  Anything would have been better than his self-created danger, but then again, kids are mostly stupid, so I'm kinda dumb for thinking that he's going to act logical.

That said, C&D is still entertaining, especially for fan's of 80's kid's movies.  Dabney Coleman is very good in his double role, screenplay by Tom (FRIGHT NIGHT, CHILD'S PLAY) Holland, old video game graphics, 80's fashions, early William Forsythe sighting, a very delightful John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan appearance (that really made my day), bland San Antonio locations, a wannabe Hitchcock feel to the entire film, strange younger girl next door character who talks like she's 45 years-old despite the fact that she's probably less than 10.  I liked CLOAK & DAGGER, but, I think, it would have been a better film in the hands of stronger director.  

Another curious thing about CLOAK & DAGGER is why in the hell did the people in charge of this movie allow it to be released during the 1984 Summer Olympics and then up against other youth oriented films like GHOSTBUSTERS, GREMLINS, RED DAWN, THE LAST STARFIGHTER, THE KARATE KID, THE JUNGLE BOOK (re-issue), INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, THE NEVERENDING STORY and THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN???  Jesus wept!  Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!  That is just pure insanity.

BAD RONALD (1974)

Teenager Ronald Wilby is a weirdo.  And when a young neighborhood girl says as much, Ronald does then only logical thing you could do in a situation like that: he caves her head in with a brick and then buries her in a shallow grave.  When Ronald's mom hears about this, she's understandably upset, but not because he killed somebody, but because this is going to ruin Ronald's chances of getting into medical school!  She then hatches the brilliant idea of hiding Ronald in a secret room hidden behind the pantry.  This works out alright at first, but then, when the mother dies and a new family (with three sexy teenage girls) moves in, things go from bad to worse.  It also doesn't help that Ronald is as crazy as a shithouse rat.

The basic story idea is full to bursting with all kinds of perverted possibilities...and none of them ever happen (since this is a 1970's TV movie), but it's still fun to think about!  A creepy male teenage virgin lurking in the walls of a house populated with three attractive teenage girls...maybe the youngest girl thinks Ronald is an imaginary friend come to life; or the oldest girl is a murder groupie and talks Ronald into murdering her family; Ronald comes out of his hiding place, ties up the entire family and starts raping and eating everybody; Ronald kidnaps one girl and holds her captive in the walls; how about an alternate reality sequel where the murderous Ronald is hiding in the walls...when a family of psychopaths move in!  Now Ronald is hiding for his life.

Anyway, as it is, BAD RONALD is interesting to see what people were watching on TV back on October 23, 1974. I imagine any youngsters who saw this back then were probably pretty creeped out by the idea of weird Ronald watching them through their walls. As for me, I enjoyed the story and got a kick out of seeing Kim Hunter, a young Dabney Coleman and brief appearances by John Fiedler and John Larch.