37
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 63Miami HeraldMiami HeraldBut in addition to the sex and violence, there is also surprising style, humor and, yes, drama -- drama that actually serves to justify much of the violence.[11 Jan 1985, p.D14]
- 60The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinEnough visual bravado to overpower the peculiarities of its class pretensions.
- 50Washington PostPaul AttanasioWashington PostPaul AttanasioTuff Turf is a youthsploitation movie that has fun with its formula, and for that, two cheers. But director Fritz Kiersch's twists promise more than they deliver -- it's just more grist for the run-of-the-mill.
- 50Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAustin ChronicleSteve DavisIf Tuff Turf had used a little more of Downey's relaxed intelligence and amiability, and a little less teenage angst and sense of violence as retribution, it might have been tough stuff. As it is, it's a lightweight in a genre populated with featherweights.
- 40Time OutTime OutThe intensity of the melodrama here is undermined by a camp-ish turn from Robert Downey Jr as Morgan's leathered friend and by risible musical outbursts from Spader and Kim Richards.
- 38Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertTuff Turf is the worst teenage exploitation movie since "Where the Boys Are".
- 30Washington PostWashington PostUnfortunately for the makers of Tuff Turf, the plot's as hokey as they come; the dialogue is dreadful ("Life isn't a problem to be solved, it's a mystery to be lived!"); and kids in 1985 are just too sophisticated for such juvenile tripe. Right kids? Right? [1 Feb 1985, p.19]
- 25TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineTuff Turf is so relentlessly derivative that its good points--chiefly an attractive, relatively talented cast--are buried in cliche.
- 12Chicago TribuneGene SiskelChicago TribuneGene SiskelResponsible for this trash is director Fritz Kiersch, and remember that name. Last year Kiersch gave us one of 1984`s worst films, his adaptation of Stephen King`s ''Children of the Corn.'' Now, with Tuff Turf, Kiersch has made the ''worst'' list two years in a row.