User reviews

It's quite an experience watching a movie that you haven't seen since childhood. Your memories of the film are filtered through an innocent perspective you no longer possess, and as you watch the film again you're struck by how different it looks to you now, even as the memories flood back.

Some of my favorite films from childhood, like "The Neverending Story," have not stood up well as I've grown older. Others, I've found, have been enhanced by my adult perspective. "Cloak & Dagger" falls in the latter category. Interestingly, my overall opinion of the film has not changed. Back in 1984, I perceived it as a good but not great film. I still perceive it that way.

At age seven, I enjoyed how the movie blurred the line between fantasy and reality. That's one of the techniques that make for good children's movies, the recognition that a child's fantasy life can feel as real as anything else happening around him. And movies in which the child's fantasies literally come true seem like vindication to young viewers.

Henry Thomas of "E.T." fame plays a youngster mourning his mother's death by escaping into a fantasy world of adventure games. He has an imaginary friend called Jack Flack, a suave super-spy with a passing resemblance to the boy's father (Dabney Coleman, in a wonderful dual role). The father, a hardened Air Force pilot, loves his son but wants him to grow up, telling him that real heroes are those who put food on the table, not those who go around shooting people. That may seem a harsh thing to say to a child, but the boy does appear to be having psychological problems, unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality even though he's old enough to know the difference. So when he witnesses the actual murder of an FBI agent, who slips him a video game cartridge right before dying, the boy is the last person anyone will believe. He knows the murderers will be after him next, but how will he get his dad to believe him soon enough to stay home from work the next day?

What's nice about the film is the seamless way it combines the conventions of adult thrillers and children's adventures. The child as the murder witness whom no one will believe is a setup that would have made Hitchcock proud. I'm sure the filmmakers realized the connection, for there are many nods to Hitchcock, including a visual allusion to "Vertigo" as the murder victim plummets down a long stairway, and a plot that combines elements of "Rear Window" and "North by Northwest." Like the latter, the movie greatly exploits its locale. Viewers who have been to San Antonio will recognize many of the places, including the River Walk, the setting for a unique chase scene.

Then there is the MacGuffin of the "Cloak & Dagger" cartridge itself, a special copy containing information important to the bad guys (whom the kid perceives to be spies, but who may simply be mobsters). The Atari game looks quite primitive today, and the scenes in which the boy calls upon his geek friend (William Forsythe) to crack the code will probably not impress those who take interest in computer espionage. But that hardly matters. The filmmakers understand, as Hitchcock did, that the MacGuffin is there only to move the plot along, and is not independently important.

As the boy evades the villains, Jack Flack keeps appearing and giving him kernels of advice. Although we realize that Flack won't say anything the boy doesn't already know, he helps the boy keep his calm and use his ingenuity to defeat some dangerous men, while gradually learning he doesn't need an imaginary friend. This isn't like "Home Alone" where the villains are portrayed as cartoon idiots. The movie takes its relatively uncomplicated plot seriously and manages to make some sense, without feeling manufactured. While it doesn't pretend to be realistic, it does grow out of the basic truth that adults don't take kids as seriously as they should.

The movie also confirms, once again, that Henry Thomas was one of the best child actors of all time. A lesser actor could have easily sunk this movie, as indeed Christina Nigra, playing the girl next door, almost does. She is cute, but can't act to save her life. Thomas never feels like he's acting, and as a result we almost can believe in the absurd events even when we watch the movie as adults, long having set aside our own childhood fantasies.

Cloak and Dagger was one of my favorite films as a child and continues to hold up well as time passes by. A reminder, in many ways, how much Dabney Coleman's performances marked the years 1980-1985. Henry Thomas remains in many ways one of a scant few child actors to make their mark in multiple films (something Disney has struggled with in recent years, even with the attempts to market mediocre talents like Hilary Duff and Lindsey Lohan). And in an era where role playing games of any nature were looked down on, this portrayed them in a heroic light-"Jack Flack always escapes".

There are a number of skilled character actors who make up the supporting cast for this film, and the script continues to hold up to today's standards. In many ways, this film should act as a template for movie studios looking to craft a story for young audiences, as opposed to "Shark Boy and Lava Girl".

Here's The 4K Lowedown on the 4K transfer of "Cloak & Dagger" (PG - 1984 - 4K) Genre: Action/Adventure

4K: 8.6 HDR=8 Audio=8 Bass=8 Bright=9 Speech=10

This was the much anticipated Vinegar Syndrome buy that I wanted most and it did not disappoint...for nostalgia alone and the box design it was worth the price I paid. The picture was grainy and that was ok...what sets it apart is the diologue completely overshadows the soundtrack. My 14 year old self will be sure to thank me everytime I put it in my player.

Movie Score: 7.5 Cast=7 Acting=8 Plot=10 Ending=9 Story=7 Violent=7 Pace=6 F/X=8 Mystery=7 Stunts=6.

CLOAK & DAGGER is a wonderful film from the '80s, a touching story about a boy who has an overdeveloped imagination, largely due to his mother being dead and his father being a career military man who often seems too busy for his son. The boy, Davey, has an imaginary friend by the name of Jack Flack who looks just like his dad. His imaginary spy games and tall tales tend to get on his father's nerves, and there is talk of sending him to a psychiatrist. When Davey actually does witness a horrible murder and is given a video game cartridge with top secret plans encoded inside, he tells his father about it and of course he doesn't believe him. He thinks it's just another one of his son's tall tales. Davey soon realizes that it's up to him and Jack Flack to get out of this alive, and a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues with the spies who are after the game cartridge. This film is great in large part due to the gifts of Dabney Coleman. In a duel performance here, he's equally perfect as both Col. Osborne, buttoned up military guy, and as Jack Flack, the idealized, slicker version of the same man. It's really a great father-son movie, with plenty of action to entertain even the dimmest of children. Obviously inspired by the Bobby Driscoll classic THE WINDOW, CLOAK & DAGGER is a timeless classic for the whole family to enjoy.

Davey Osborne (Henry Thomas) lives in an imaginary world playing a game with superspy Jack Flack (Dabney Coleman). He lives with his single father Hal Osborne (Dabney Coleman) in San Antonio, Texas. He witnesses a murder and the victim gives Davey a Cloak & Dagger video game cartridge. The body disappears and nobody believes him. When the bad guys come after him, he turns to his friend Morris (William Forsythe) who runs the video game store at the mall. The bad guys kidnap his friend Kim and offers up a trade.

Video game movies do have a bad reputation. This is a good kids movie with or without the video game tie-in. It has a few good Hitchcockian moves. It is a little unreal that he gets away from the bad guys so many times. It does lead to a great section on the boat ride. It is always great for a kids movie to have the adults not believe in the kid hero. This is a solid thriller except possibly for the bomb. That part doesn't really make sense.

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.

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.

Starting a good premisse and walking an unusual ground the picture for some reasons never take off, a mix of juvenile action with a parallel word won't convince anyone, besides Dabney Coleman was maked by previous works as a crook is totally miscasting for this role, the high point are two old characters who stolen the show easily Jeanette Nolan and John McIntire and the rare opportunity to visit the legendary "The Alamo" at least on a brief time on TV and for those who loves Land of the Giants like me pay attention on Airport security chief, Linden Chiles, Joe/Logar in the episode The Flight Plan, a bit too old, so good memories!!

Resume:

First watch: 1989 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.

This started off very strong with a fun spoof of James Bond-type spy movies with Dabney Coleman playing a secret agent using funny gimmicks in a short action scene.

After that it settled down into a story of a young boy, "Davey Osborne," (Henry Thomas) who accidentally stumbles onto real-life spies and with the help of his imaginary super-hero, eludes them as they chase him down.

The familiar storyline of nobody believing the young boy got tiresome quickly and the cloak- and-dagger scenes were too juvenile for adults to enjoy. The kids might like as the focus is entirely on "Davey" and his little friend "Kim," who, by the way, is very annoying and a poor actress.

Coleman, meanwhile, plays a double role: the "invisible" hero and "Davey's" real-life father.

It's movies like this one that are the reason I love movies. One of the greatest forgotten gems of the 80s, "Cloak & Dagger" is the exciting tale of deadly spies, imaginary superheroes, and ATARI. Henry Thomas ("E.T.") plays Davey Osborne, a lonely boy who has escaped into the fantasy world of his favorite video game hero - Jack Flack. Dabney Coleman gives the greatest performance of his career in the dual roles of Jack Flack and Davey's father. Sporting the coolest-looking leather bomber jacket and beret ever seen, Flack guides young Davey through the treacherous world of real spies, real secrets, and real bullets. Davey must keep an ATARI game cartridge containing plans for an invisible bomber plane encoded inside of it out of traitorous spies' hands, but no adult believes him, and he gets little help from the only person who does - his even younger friend Kim. A young William Forsythe co-stars as the gaming genius who unlocks the code within the cartridge. And Louis Anderson also has a short cameo towards the end.

"Cloak & Dagger" is an excellent movie about a boy who must face the dangers of the world all by himself following the death of his mother and his father's preoccupation with work. Dabney Coleman's character of Jack Flack is the best imaginary mentor ever featured in a film, preceding the likes of Tyler Durden and Frank the Bunny by over 15 years. The ending is truly touching and inspiring. This movie also has a heartwarming message to it - that at some point, you must learn to handle life's challenges all by yourself. And also that the greatest heroes exist in real life, not in fantasy. "Cloak & Dagger" is a film suitable for the whole family whose time has finally come to get the recognition it deserves. 10/10

I first saw Cloak and Dagger when a substitute teacher showed it to our 6th grade class. It was the coolest movie I'd ever seen because it was an action movie about kids who solve a mystery and save the day.

Henry Thomas is Davey Osbourne. His entire life is an imaginary world of secret spies. And to aid in his games of eluding spies and dodging secret plans of assasination, Davey defers to his wartime hero, Jack Flack, an action hero that he has turned into an imaginary playmate as well as a father figure guidance to make up for an absentee father.

But Davey soons finds himself in trouble as the imaginary world becomes a reality when he witnesses a shooting in a stairwell. But, before the victim draws his last breath, he hands Davey a Cloak & Dagger video cartridge that contains top secret plans. And, while the adults think he is just playing another game, Davey and his sassy friend Kim and Jack Flack all try to solve the crime.

It is a great movie in part because you get a peak at the imagination of a twelve-year-old-boy and, once again, because a few clever kids get to save the day. It definitely looked like a fun movie to make.

I watched this movie keeping in mind it's basically a kid movie and it's from 1984. Based on that it deserves a six. I don't remember if I watched it as a kid, probably did, and probably enjoyed it much more than now. The story is appealing for kids, maybe even for retro gamers as there are a lot of memorabilia from that time, like the Atari ET game, where Henry Thomas was the absolute child star a couple years ago in ET the movie. In Cloack & Dagger he isn't bad again. The little girl on the other hand is annoying to watch. Not sure if kids from this era would still enjoy this spy story, maybe the ones with a vivid imagination, if that still exists.

Short and sweet: I loved this movie as a kid--now I'm an adult and I still love it. Yes, the computers and games are horribly dated. Heck, my computer from two years ago is horribly dated. That doesn't change the fact that this is a solid, exciting movie which is appropriate for most school-age children without being dumb or talking down to them. I know there's nostalgia involved in this, but kids movies have gone downhill since the '80's. We had The NeverEnding Story, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, The Secret of Nimh, The Goonies, Cloak & Dagger...what do kids today have? See Spot Run. ANYWAY, this is a good movie, your kids will probably like it (if only to see what video games were like in the dark ages) and you'll like it, too.

I guess I will begin at the rating. I seriously think this should have been rated PG-13, simply because: What kid 12 and under wants to imagine that when they get rid of their imaginary friend by stomping his toy into the ground, the imaginary friend becomes real and gets a bunch of bullet holes in it and bleeds to death in front of the kids eyes? You would also think someone 12 and under (I'm just assuming that most teenagers wouldn't take this part too seriously) would not want to imagine that some adults with really big guns do, in fact, hunt kids for a living. Oh and then of course I'm sure all kids want to have images of winding up in the trunk of a car with their best friend, who has been shot in the head. One last thing and I promise I'll stop talking about the rating...I figure that anyone who takes movies seriously (aka younger kids) is now deathly afraid that their grandparents or someone else's grandparents are now going to kidnap them and hijack a plane with them. =)

Although she was cute, I must say I think Christina Nigra didn't do all that great a job on acting. Just like in E.T., Henry Thomas did a great job, but, unfortunately, that didn't really make the story any better.

The story did have some hidden potential, but they could have found a better, not so violent (or just change the rating), way to carry it out, and they could have found better actors to do it with.

I did think at the beginning of that garage scene where Davey has to drive with one of the bad guys' cars was pretty darn funny. That kid did one heck of a peel out...certainly a heck of a lot better than I could have done. (Yes I do realize it did become more like an 8 year old's driving after that, but the beginning was funny.)

This movie is always a go to when I feel like watching something entertaining and this one never fails to do it. The premise of the movie is easy to understand because if you were a kid, you have played games just like these. What made this fun was the bad guys have a total disregard and true hatred for the meddling kids. I thought both of the kids played their roles perfectly, specifically the girl. She didn't buy into the whole thing and let her disdain shine through. She had some of the movie's best humorous moments. All in all, this movie isn't meant anything to be pure kid espionage with wonderful violence and fun and everyone in the movie makes that happen. Give it a watch!

Well, now I know where Tin Soldier (1995) and Bogus (1996) came from, though why there was a need to make the same dull, silly movie THREE TIMES I can't tell. Henry Thomas was much better in E.T., and even he seems to realize there just isn't much to work with in this tired story of the boy with a penchant for fantasy who isn't believed when something rather fantastic actually happens. This story falls flat because the main character, Davy, can't make decisions or do much of anything without adult direction. What kid wants to see that? Christina Nigra, who plays opposite Thomas as "Kim," definitely out-acts him, but her character doesn't offer any more model of competence than his. Would you want your kids to be like these? Nah.

Henry Thomas (E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial) made this film two years after that incredible hit. Dabney Coleman ('Tootsie') stars as his father who is a military officer. Thomas' mother has died and his father is busy with his career. In the face of this, Thomas turns to an imaginary friend in the form of a spy. With visions of his imaginary friend, he becomes involved in an espionage plot involving government defence secrets.

Children will embrace this film as all of us at that age have had imaginary friends. The movie is evenly paced and builds up to an exciting climax the way an adult thriller would say in the form of a James Bond movie but while doing this the film doesn't insult the intelligence of children --- a lot of whom are more intelligent than we give them credit for.

Very entertaining spy kid movie mixed with video games and endearing Henry Thomas that is a joy to watch! Cloak and Dagger is more than I could hope for, a pleasant surprise from start to finish. Nerdtastic entertainment with the classic oldies vibe that is so lovable!