One on One (1977)

Directed by Lamont Johnson. Starring Robby Benson, G. D. Spradlin, Annette O’Toole, Gail Strickland, Cory Faucher, James G. Richardson, Lamont Johnson, Hector Morales. [PG]

Benson plays a hot basketball prospect attending college on scholarship (I’d sooner believe Transformers were real, but, yeah, yeah, get on with it), although he struggles to impress his tyrannical win-at-any-cost coach (Spradlin). Softening the blow is a romance with tutor O’Toole, who doesn’t like jocks, but, ooh, this boy is special, ya know? A sports-drama-slash-love-story as earnest and naïve as its protagonist, and if the formulaic clichés and sluggish pacing and Seals and Croft soft rock songs didn’t turn me off to the story completely, Benson could have done it all by himself—the phrase “jaw-dropping” is tossed around liberally, but my jaw literally did drop watching the teen idol try to act. He’s so soft-spoken and wishy-washy, he turns to soapy sludge onscreen. Robby gets credited for co-scripting with his dad, Jerry Segal. Melanie Griffith has a small role as a sordid hitchhiker.

25/100