Amazing Stories (TV Series) The Main Attraction (1985) User Reviews

First Part Very Funny, Then It Got Too Silly

[ccthemovieman-1 · 6/10 · 30 August 2007]

There were a lot of laughs in the first part of this episode, because of the exaggerated characters. Here, the egotistical high school hotshot jock is exaggerated. The guy looks like a young Ted Danson and acts like him: totally in love with himself with very funny scenes at home and at school. Lisa Jane Persky is very funny as the school nerd. This stud is bent on becoming the next Homecoming King, figuring he's a "lock" until the principal changes it from a personality contest to a selling-tickets contest.

The big change, though, comes after our Romeo brags that only and "act of God" could prevent him from winning and he didn't believe in God, anyway. Well, a meteorite proves otherwise!

The second half of this got carried away with the slapstick and a predictable ending, which was a shame because this was on its way to becoming a very funny episode.

"Well, we're in an All-State mood today!"

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 6 October 2021]

'Amazing Stories' got off to a surprisingly good start with it's first episode 'Ghost Train', but went downhill pretty fast with this second installment of the series. I think the premise could have worked but it got just a little too slapstick along the way and became somewhat boring. The central character is a handsome high school jock who feels he has a lock on the title of Prom King, with a fairly good looking and academically gifted opponent running against him. Brad Bender's (John Scott Clough) hopes are momentarily dashed when the high school principal changes the game from a popularity contest to one based on lottery ticket sales to help finance the prom. When a pair of meteors descend on the town of Rockridge, one of them lands in Brad's bedroom, magnetizing everything in it's path, including Brad. From that point, the show gets rather tedious, especially in the extended scene involving Brad's duel with the student lockers. In search of an ending to this fiasco, the screenwriters had the second meteor in question affect the school's resident nerd Shirley (Lisa Jane Persky), who's magnetic attraction to Brad features in the story's final frame. I don't think one would be missing much by passing on this episode, as it's more goofy than humorous, with characters that play it way too over the top.

A funny amazing story

[sonnyschlaegel · 6/10 · 11 January 2007]

This episode is about an ultra-talented, ultra-arrogant high school sports star called Brad. He wants to become Prom King so much that he even brutally intimidates a fellow student who promotes his biggest rival. He also promises more than one girl that he will make her his Prom Queen if they support him. But he doesn't want Shirley to help him, a not-so-beautiful girl who is infatuated with him. He says that only force majeure could stop him from becoming Prom King - and then a meteor hits his room. He survives, seemingly uninjured, but the meteor has turned him into a human magnet - which seems to make him even more attractive to Shirley...

This is a funny episode and I liked it o.k. In my opinion, especially those scenes are well done where all sorts of small iron objects are flying at Brad and where he has to fight against being pulled toward large iron objects. (It's probably meant to be a punishment for his arrogance.) However, I didn't like it as much as "Ghost Train", the previous episode. I guess it's mainly because I don't think that any of the main characters are really likable. But all in all, it's o.k.

A Magnetic Personality

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 20 May 2014]

The premise is so ludicrous. Let's face it. The story is designed so an obnoxious kid gets "his." He has mistreated others, he is filled with arrogance, and has no respect for the people around him. Of course, those people dote on him as well, so they are not to be admired. The plot is formulaic and predictable, but that's the curse of shows like this. We are set up to believe something will happen. As with the previous "train" episode, for a half hour anthology series, the special effects are quite astounding and we end up satisfied. It must be that Stephen Spielberg had a lot of influence on the pocketbooks of the production staff.

Pretty dumb

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 17 January 2015]

I remembered "Amazing Stories" rather fondly when I decided to try re-watching the series recently. Imagine my surprise, however, when I saw "The Main Attraction", as it turned out to be a terribly written and amazingly stupid program! I know this sounds very harsh, but after seeing this one, I think it deserves it. The bottom line is that the the characters were more caricatures--very, very broad stereotypes that seemed completely unreal and even annoying. The main character is a stuck-up jock but he's not just A stuck-up jock--he's 1000 times more obnoxious and the fellow students even bigger suck-ups than you'd find one a bad 80s sit-com! It was all so bad that my daughter kept begging me to turn of the TV!

The story ends up being all about meteorites and magnetism--which is odd as many fundamental precepts about these were pretty much ignored by the writers. After all, if the jock is attracting metals very, very strongly as is the super-nerdy girl, shouldn't they then repel each other?! Plus, a HUGE rock comes hurtling out of space and lands in a guy's bedroom and he's physically unharmed!! The bottom line is that at least this episode is god-awful and dumb pretty much from start to finish. Tedious, hard to watch and a bit embarrassing. If you like the idea of "The Twilight Zone" written for 4 year-olds, then you pretty much get what this program is.

Be careful something can strike from the sky and bring cruel fate!

[blanbrn · 8/10 · 4 March 2019]

This "AS" episode 2 from season one of the "NBC" Sunday night hit called "The Main Attraction" was memorable funny and clever proving that in life you never know what can strike and change things! It's set in sunny L.A. and it involves a hunk and cocky snob like all state male high school kid named Brad Bender, all Brad has to do is score the Homecoming queen and be named king to make his high school years complete. However big changes come for this stud as he said it only god can stop him. As when a meteorite hits unexpected life is changed in a sticky and magnetic kind of way! It's a little silly yet still the episode is memorable and fun proving that fate and unexpected science can change the way of life for some.