Dating from the post-Rambo period when Sylvester Stallone's career was in the doldrums, this tacky drama has its roots in that old Wallace Beery classic The Champ. Here, boxing is replaced by arm wrestling, as trucker Sly tries to re-establish a relationship with his military academy-trained son on a make-up or break trek across the States. The grapple scenes are so devoid of thrills that you long to return to the mushy melodramatics. It's slick enough, but you expect more from a script co-written by Stallone and the late Stirling Silliphant, who won an Oscar for his work on In the Heat of the Night.

Lincoln Hawk a hard-luck big-rig trucker takes us under the glaring Las Vegas lights for all the boisterous action of the World Armwrestling Championship. Relying on wits and willpower, Hawk tries to rebuild his life by capturing the first-place prize money, and the love of the son he abandoned years earlier into the keeping of his rich, ruthless father-in-law.