Gleaming the Cube

Gleaming the Cube is an American action-crime film from 1989 about Brian Kelly, an Orange County teenager whose life revolves around skateboarding and skipping school. When his adopted Vietnamese brother Vihn is found dead, the police treat the death as a suicide, but Brian refuses to accept that explanation and begins looking into the case himself. His investigation draws him into a scheme involving weapons smuggled out of the country disguised as medical supplies, and puts him and the people around him in danger.

The film was directed by Graeme Clifford, whose second feature it is, following Frances in 1982. Michael Tolkin wrote the screenplay, and David Foster and Lawrence Turman produced it for 20th Century Fox, Turman-Foster Company and Gladden Entertainment. Christian Slater plays Brian, with Steven Bauer, Richard Herd, Ed Lauter, Le Tuan and Peter Kwong among the supporting cast. Made for about 10 million dollars, it returned roughly 3 million at the worldwide box office.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.3 from around 9,800 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6 out of 147 votes. A critics' rating of 3.7 from seven reviews places it well below the audience scores.