The album contains songs by various artists, including two themes from the film, composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri.

Ebert opened his print review by writing: "American Anthem" is like a very bad Identikit sketch of "Purple Rain," the previous movie by the same director.

You can almost hear the police artist as he tries to make his drawing, based on half-witted descriptions of the big hit from the summer of 1984: Q.

And put in lots of shots where the camera peers into the light source, so the heroic youth can be seen in silhouette as he tosses back his head and sweat flies through the air.

With this incomplete description, a filmmaker from Planet X might have made "American Anthem" from the basic ingredients of "Purple Rain."

The hero this time is not a rock star like Prince, but a gymnast played by the Olympic champion Mitch Gaylord.

But since the movie treats him like a rock star, photographing him not as a sweating, breathing, striving athlete but as a pinup for the girls' locker room, the difference isn't as big as you might imagine.

[3]Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times remarked: Years from now (in a galaxy far away), some weary film historian will look back at teen movies of the ‘80s and wonder--what was with those kids anyway?

[5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.