SUMMER RENTAL (1985)
In this one Jack Chester can’t land planes anymore because he’s getting burned out. His family needs a vacation, so his friend/boss at work basically sets him up in a really crappy rental near a beach in St. Pete, FL. It doesn’t take long before Jack (played by by John Candy) gets in a bit of a beef with a local rich sailing champion over a seat at a seafood restaurant. Yeah – that is what is going on here. Hilarity ensues and Jack eventually involved in the sail boat race to get to stay in the rental he’s in, because on top of all this, that rich guy is trying to kick Jack and his family out of their rental.
Overall I am not sure this movie is quite as funny as THE GREAT OUTDOORS but it is better in my opinion. One reason is that I really kind of can’t stand Dan Aykroyd in anything but GHOSTBUSTERS. The other reason is that the two girls Roman has in THE GREAT OUTDOORS don’t seem to in any way resemble kids that would actually be in Roman’s family, much less his daughters. Anyway – back to this thing, I like the family dynamic Jack has. The daughter in this “Jennifer” is played by Kerri Green who’s most famous role was “Andy” from THE GOONIES. The younger son is played by Joey Lawrence, who was in a bunch of stuff (everything from Blossom to Give Me A Break). The wife in this is just okay.
When it comes to the sets this movie seems like it might have cost like $0.25 cents to make. While the script is serviceable the dialog has its moments where it feels a bit dated. A lot like THE MONSTER SQUAD, where you have a pretty solid idea and a pretty solid setting, but included some outdated jokes that (looking retro-actively) could have been left on the cutting room floor and you’d have had a better movie.
Character wise this movie is pretty strong, we like the
family, the bad guys we want to see lose and the characters in between aren’t
just filler. They are interesting. John Candy was an amazing comedian and had a
long list of great movies, but this one is probably right up there at #2 for
me. I give SUMMER RENTAL a surprising 5 OUT OF 7. Pretty decent for yet another
movie that slipped under my 80’s radar.
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