Where the Day Takes You (1992)

The greatest movie ever made..!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Having finished my look book at the career of Tom Cruise to date, I have decided to do Will Smith next, as I owned most of them anyway, but have not seen a movie of his (except Suicide Squad) since the awful After Earth. Where The Day Takes You (1991)Plot In A Paragraph: A group of teenage runaways try to survive on the streets of L.AWhat a cast, what performances, what a great little movie. How had I never heard of this?? If anything it suffers from his famous most of its cast became through various TV and film roles. Dermot Mulroney is the main actor here as The King, a sort of leader of the runaways. Sean Astin (in what I now consider his best performance) and Beltzhar Getty are his closest allies, as for Will Smith, he portrays Manny, a legless cripple, who is on the fringes of being in with The King. Riki Lake, Lara Flynn Boyle, Robert Knepper, Adam Baldwin, Alyssa Milano, David Arquette, Kyle MacLachlan and James Le Gros all have roles of varying importance to the plot, but all are fantastic. Considering the cocky, outgoing public persona Smith was portraying in public at the time, and the light comedic tone of The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, this was certainly an interesting first movie for Smith.Despite only a $3 million budget, Where The Day Takes You was a commercial flop, grossing only $390,000 at the domestic box office.

I don't know why, but I just love depressing g movies, such as "requiem for a dream", "trainspotting", "natural born killers" and "christiane f". This movie is depressing and great a the same time. It casted actors known for jolly and friendly characters (like Sean Astin from "Goonies" and Will Smith from "Fresh Prince"), and challenges them to portray hopeless kids who are self destructive and refuse help from the adult world.The story is about this pack of teenagers who are surviving in the streets without taking showers or changing clothes (despite having those luxuries available in charities), and they live mostly under a bridge. The first thought in my mind is that that place probably must be rat infested, but the kids seem to enjoy their lifestyle.It is hard to understand why they live like that, but the movie doesn't judge. It doesn't try to say whether they are good or bad, it just depicts their reality.

I was fifteen when I first saw this stellar movie, and was it ever a wake up call. This has been one of my top favorites for the majority of my life and it has been years since I was able to find it anywhere. This movie is a must see for anyone over the age of thirteen. The cast is beyond note worthy and features break-out roles from many of todays noted actors and actresses. It is true to life in more ways than we as a society would probably care to admit, but; worth every heart pounding minute. Spending some time being a homeless teen in California, when I first watched this movie it felt like they ripped the script from the pages of my life. I highly recommend that this movie be placed in everyones 'to watch' file and maybe people will stop looking baffled when I mention it from now on.

In the beginning I wasn't really convinced about the quality of the movie. Especially the first 30 minutes weren't too special. It felt too much like a typical late eighties / early nineties movie than like an all time classic. But I have to admit that, even though it's a bit of a slow starter, it really is a good movie especially at the end. It's about a bunch of youngsters that live on the streets of L.A. trying to make a living out of stealing and begging and some occasional prostitution. You'll get a good insight on what these people's lives are like. I'm not saying that I had sympathy for them when I saw them using drugs, stealing car radio's... but at least I understood why they did it.All in all I enjoyed watching this movie. It may not be a real classic, but it sure had some potential. I give it a 7.5/10.