*Spoiler Alert*

Lucas is the story of an odd, but gifted pre-pubescent youth who happens to be attending high school at an early age. He falls for the pretty new girl in town who happens to be a few years older. She, on the other hand, has the hots for hunky Charlie Sheen, and Lucas is relegated to "friend status". (As if he ever had a chance with her in the first place.)

Lucas is played by to perfection by Corey Haim. In fact this is most likely his best film role. (It sure beats the heck out of Blown Away!). Kerri Green (I wonder what she's doing today) plays the new girl in town.They along with the rest of the cast is top drawer. Many of the main characters are well-known celebs today. Look for Winona Ryder in her screen debut as a nerdy girl who has a crush on Lucas. The lovely Courtney Thorne-Smith plays Sheen's hottie girlfriend before he dumps her for Green.

As the action unfolds, we see Lucas try everything to win Green's affection to no avail. At one point he even tries out for the football team and proceeds to get clobbered by the bigger upper-classmen. We as the viewer feel for the kid, because we all know the deck is stacked against him.

This film is truly special. It packs a real emotional punch at a time when most movies dealing with teens were pretty shallow. We can all relate to Lucas to some degree. We have all pretty much had strong feelings for someone we knew we could never have. This film captures the pain involved with crushes better than any other I have seen. In some ways it can be tougher to just be friends with a girl you like than if she never talked to you at all.

Another thing that is really great about the film is the ending. It isn't simply your run-of-the-mill happy ending where the hero gets the girl. Lucas fails to win her over, but at least he wins the respect of the guys who have been tormenting him.

If you haven't seen this one, SEE IT! If you have, SEE IT AGAIN!

4&1/2 of 5 stars

So sayeth the Hound.

There's something extraordinary about "Lucas"; something that makes it impossible for us to reject it. We have always watched movies like "Lucas" along the ages, I have watched plenty of movies like it; and have disliked them all. Not that "Lucas" is great, but you know what I say about 'Love Actually"? If you express it with this film, "Lucas" is good as a movie, but almost brilliant as a family inspirational picture.

What happens in the film is like a tale…An old tale of a boy who is not accepted in his everyday environment and tries to live with it. The hero of this tale is the special Lucas, played by Corey Haim as a boy who is definitely stranger and more intelligent than the rest of his companions; it's something you notice immediately.

Or at least Maggie (Kerri Green) notices it. She spends the entire summer with him and when school starts he doesn't know what's going to happen. Logically, he has his two or three nerdy best friends that are there for him, included a girl named Rina (the first role Winona Ryder ever played, with 15 years old or so…Gorgeous), who obviously likes him and follows his look while he is searching for Maggie on the first day of classes.

It's not that Lucas dislikes his friends, but that he had sensed something different when knowing Maggie. But Maggie is older, and interested in older guys like Cappie (a very young Charlie Sheen), for example. In a very good scene where Cappie takes care of Lucas, Maggie thanks him and they both talk about Lucas…My brother thought Maggie was in love with Lucas, but I told him that she had a crush on Cappie…The movie understands the characters so well that it turned out the way I said, of course.

The language these kids deal with, the situations they live are real. David Seltzer, who directed and wrote the film, puts strong and hurtful words in his screenplay so they generate an impact in the picture's most moving moments. "But that doesn't turn you on, does it?", Lucas tells Maggie…That's not the kind of phrase you'd commonly listen a 13-year old say, even less on a film. That's the way Seltzer shapes his characters, in a way that we believe everything they declare and in a way that the only thing that becomes predictable in the movie is the storyline itself.

A known writer, Seltzer has directed few things. As a director, he also preserves his characters. Watch a beautiful scene where the choir is singing and the camera goes from side to side showing each of the main characters looking at the person he likes, but not one of them being corresponded with the look. That's perfect directing, even more in a film of this type…So classic: the simple edition (Priscilla Nedd-Friendly, "Down to Earth"), the touchy score (Dave Grusin, "The Goonies", "Hope Floats", "Selena").

What I'm trying to say is that, to Seltzer, is all about the movie. The actors don't show off, Corey Haim is the hero but not the star. It's about the movie; a piece with an absolutely clichéd resolution that we find inspiring and therefore embrace.