This film is among numerous movies I captured and saved over many years, likely from HBO shortly after it launched. I enjoyed it enough back then to not only keep the VHS tape but also to record it onto DVD when we upgraded our equipment. Naturally, the picture quality isn’t great, but seeing that it's now available on a streaming platform I don’t have access to, I decided to watch my imperfect copy. It didn’t resonate with me quite as strongly as it once did; maybe three decades have passed. Still, it remains an agreeable viewing experience. Corey Haim delivers a solid performance as the intelligent student who is academically ahead of his peers and attends school alongside older kids—essentially a junior high student in a high school setting. Lucas spends considerable time deceiving people. He believes he has a shot with an appealing older girl who’s clearly only interested in friendship, he invents stories about where he lives, and he makes an unrealistic attempt to join the football team. I felt that the movie could have explored Winona Ryder's character more fully. She has limited dialogue, but she seems drawn to Lucas, and I think there was likely more material cut from the final version. The depictions of the actual football plays were completely inaccurate. While I understand that genres like science fiction don’t always adhere to scientific accuracy when explaining events, even a brief consultation with someone familiar with the game could have ensured the plays looked realistic without altering the outcome. Really, refs! There's a minor surprise at the conclusion that works well, providing a suitable resolution for a movie primarily intended for teenagers.

Source on TMDB