The Strongest Man in the World

By Kimberly Heinrichs

Once again Dexter Riley (a young Kurt Russell) and his science lab pals astound and confound Medfield College's head dean when their latest concoction might either save the struggling institution from bankruptcy or get the top-level staff fired. In this third of the four Medfield films, Riley accidentally ingests a vitamin compound that gives him superhuman strength, leading to sponsorship by a cereal company and possible defeat of a rival university in a weightlifting contest. Although today Medfield's team would be disqualified for drug use, in this pre-steroid scandal picture it's the scheming adults who are the bad guys. Thanks to a Medfield Board of Directors traitor (an amusingly villainous Dick Van Patten), the competing sponsor sends a couple of bungling burglars (one played by Cesar Romero) to steal the formula. Kidnapping, hypnosis, and a down-to-the-wire weightlifting finale mark this 92-minute, G-rated film, which is short on subtlety but long on wholesomeness. Kids as young as 4 will enjoy the weightlifting and burglary antics, but the school politics and corporate warfare subplots will lose them temporarily.

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