Cloak & Dagger (1984)

I fondly remember this movie and watch it to this day. Its amazing how, as kids, we saw this movie in the 80s where a child is being chased, shot at, almost stabbed, threaten to have his knee caps blown off and shot in the gut, kill 3 guys (2 not by him but caused by him)and be held hostage...and it was a family film rated PG! Still this movie didn't dumb down the dangers of real violence, international terrorism, espionage, and dangerous people. A movie made like this today would make the kid a genius and the bad guys clumsy and stupid. I do miss serious films like this for kids. They never dumbed it down and took the audience seriously. Movies like Poltergeist, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dark Crystal (Which scared me to death), The Neverending Story, and more always played to the intelligence of the audience. Now all we have is fart jokes and one-note slapstick. When my kids get old enough I do want them to watch these 80s film and learned to appreciate good film-making, something lacking in the 21st century, and by box-office results, the audience notices it too.

It was commented by another reviewer that the movie should have been rated PG-13 due to the violence of the movie. However, it should be pointed out that the PG-13 rating had just been created the year this movie was released and the definitions of content were still a bit loose between PG and PG-13. Therefore, movies that should have been rated PG-13 were still being released as PG (Beetlejuice being one example) for some time after it's creation.That being said, the PG rating is defined as follows: Rated PG Parental Guidance Suggested—Some Material May Not Be Suitable For Pre-Teenagers That's a very loose definition and certainly doesn't imply a movie is meant for young children.PG-13 doesn't prohibit children under 13 from seeing a particular movie (even alone). It alters the definition to the following: Rated PG-13: Parents are strongly cautioned to give special guidance for attendance of children under 13 Either one seems to fit the content. Younger children may find some of the deaths disturbing (there are something like 10 of them - though some are a bit more surreal than others). Henry Thomas's character does act disturbed by some of them, which may lend empathy to the viewer.Like any movie where there is some violence, I would view this along with your children, rather than allow them to see it alone.

This movie was on HBO everyday for a two month stretch when I was a kid. And I never missed it. I thought it was the coolest movie ever. I had those little high end soldier figures. Tons of them. You use to be able to buy all kinds of knights, civil war soldiers, modern soldiers. Great time to be a geek. :) I wish it was on DVD.

Henry Thomas (of E.T. fame) is a young boy who would rather live in the fantasy world with imaginary friend Jack Flack (a character from various spy games played brilliantly by Dabney Coleman) than the real world with his Air Force father (also played by Coleman). But when some bad guys led by Michael Murphy kill a man and Thomas is the only witness, he gets involved in a high stakes game that appears to be another fantasy to everyone else. Thomas has also been entrusted with a video game cartridge which contains top secret blueprints of U.S. military aircrafts. A really good, but totally unheard of little film that has a smart screenplay and strong direction. Dabney Coleman proves he can carry a film with one of his finest performances. Look for Louie Anderson and William Forsythe in small roles. 4 stars out of 5.