Hiding Out (1987)

 Netflix is overloaded with teen movies and teen shows. If you are curious what demographic that streaming service is going for, then just log in or research just a little. It's obvious. I had never seen "Hiding Out" (1987) when I was a kid in the 80s but growing up in that decade, I could tell you that Hollywood sure was aiming right for that demo. Other films, such as "Morgan Stewart's Coming Home" (1987) and "Pretty in Pink" (1986) were the films I was introduced to Cryer. Nowadays, I see him almost completely as Alan Harper from "Two and a Half Men", so every once in a while I need a chance to return to his developing years. Not too long ago I was able to catch Cryer's film debut, "No Small Affair" (1984), also featuring Demi Moore as his love interest (she wants to be a rock star in that film)--well, I looked back at my IMDb review and it was 2013, so it had been 8 years!--but I still lack a few to check off the 80s list. One of those, "Hiding Out", was among a busy year for Cryer in 1987. Cryer is not particularly fond of too many of these films from his past. Television wasn't too good to him until "Two and Half Men", either, but Lex Luthor eventually came along after a long time as Alan Harper. But the film, "Hiding Out" actually allows Cryer to be an adult, a 29 year old stockbroker running from the mob after he agreed to testify against them for the Feds. The mob wants him dead (it was a stocks scheme), even taking a shot at him in a diner (killing an agent), with Cryer's Andrew fleeing on a train, eventually on his way to his cousin's house, Patrick (Keith Coogan of "Adventures in Babysitting"). With complete beard and mustache, in the typical yuppie wardrobe, Andrew will need to do a total makeover, escaping into a hipster long jacket, dancing-skeletons T-shirt with shaved face and blond/black do. He will go "back to school", sliding into a teenager facade as "protection" but eventually the mob (and the Feds) make their way to his location. Adopting the name Maxwell Hauser, Andrew hopes to "lay low" but that doesn't exactly work out when he debates with a teacher (Nancy Fish) who is a Nixon apologist, defiantly opposing her positive portrayal of the failed president. A teenage girl, Ryan (Annabeth Gish), wrote a scathing paper against Nixon which brought that teacher's scorn that Andrew was vocal against.

The film is a bit creepy in that Ryan is smitten with Max and that whole age difference could be a bit eek for some viewers. That might be a knock against the film, in and of itself, but otherwise, the film follows Andrew as he gains in popularity--Fish is not a popular teacher, so Max challenging her in class is quite a favorable action--and becomes a candidate for Class President, despite his not wanting that honor at all. 

Tim Quill is the boyfriend of Gish who eventually loses favor with the likes of "mover / shaker/ motivator" Clinton (Claude Brooks; I knew this actor, and discovered he was in "Solarbabies" prior to this film) and his beatboxing rapper pals. Quill has been Class President the last few years and they want "fresh blood", orchestrating quite a campaign that makes Andrew's new persona of Max very uncomfortable. But this campaign is undeniable. They love him despite Max's wishes to remain invisible in school. 

As you might anticipate, mobster hired guns set up to kill Max/Andrew during a vote count for Class President in a gym full of teenagers and faculty. 

I realize while writing this review with "Ghostbusters" (1984) on, that there was still a lot of cigarette smoking in the 80s. Cryer in "Hiding Out" is often seen with lit smokes. A lot of the kids were lighting up, too. Diners in the film have plenty of smoke fog. This is mostly a teenager movie--Patrick is desperately trying to get his driver's permit, but his time behind the wheel seems to always inevitably end in disaster. Patrick eyes a "geeky" (in the standards of 80s film; today, she'd be seen as expressive in her style and perhaps hip) girl in his class with high-powered glasses because her eyesight is quite challenged (she allows Patrick to drive her father's jeep, removes her glasses, and tells him everything's a blur) and such a wonderful head of hair. Growing up in the 80s, while this was quite the aerosol era, I loved how a head full of hair was quite the rage.

Anyway, the film does have some startling violence including a fall from a great height into chairs on the gym floor and a bloody shootout in a diner. That Patrick's headlight in the gym blinds a hitman while Andrew gives him chase, scaling quite a distance up, causing him to fall to his death rather surprised me.

Andrew is given an access into the school by Patrick who knows he'll need somewhere to crash for some time. I would have loved that as a kid. Andrew can goof off with the principal's mic, peruse the halls, shave in the bathroom, shower in a gym lockeroom, the works. He even befriends a janitor (Lou Walker), who provides him with a better sleeping quarters that assures he wouldn't get caught, even sharing some strong booze with Max. Walker even saves his life later when the hitmen aim to kill Max.

Cryer fans should find some fun in the film. I thought it went by suitably fast, provided us with an early preview of the pretty Gish before she became a very notable television actress, offered an amusing turn by Googan ("Adventures in Babysitting" was right before this film and he later starred in "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead", so he was a very busy young actor) who couldn't drive for shit, and sort of tries to alternate between adult man-on-the-lam adventure and teen coming-of-age films. I didn't mind it too much, and as a return-to-the-80s departure, it occupies the time. Not exactly memorable, though. I wouldn't say, even for Cryer fans, "Hiding Out" will worm its way into the nostalgia station so many of us often enjoy chilling at. 3/5