One Crazy Summer

Let me say, as far as summers go, I've seen crazier. In fact, I think I've lived crazier. I guess crazy is relative. I'd say the hijinks of Hoops McCann (John Cusack), Cassandra (Demi Moore), and the Stork twins (Bobcat Goldthwait & Tom Villard) in One Crazy Summer (1986) are more silly, goofy, wacky, or zany. Yeah, I like zany. You don't see zany used enough in movie titles. One Zany Summer. Yeah, I guess it's a little clunky. Beats It's a Zany Zany Zany Zany World, though. Anyway, I don't think I'd go as far as crazy. But, you know, it's not a bad film, it's got a few laughs, and it's always good to see John Cusack in something that doesn't suck. Because damn if his track record hasn't been spotty of late.

Hoops (ironically named, since he can't play basketball worth a shit) has just graduated high school in, wait for it.... Generic, NY. Yep, instead of make up some town, director Savage Steve Holland goes straight for the ironic sucker punch with Generic, NY. Clever. I like it. Anyway, back to Hoops. He's trying to get into art school, and his entrance exam requires he write and illustrate a love story. Hoops has got til the end of the summer to draw his masterpiece, starring a frumpy rhinoceros looking for love, but continually foiled by evil little bunnies. The animations (by Holland himself) serve as interludes along our journey with Hoops, who decides to relax on Nantucket at the bidding of his friend George (Joel Murray). But it seems like relaxation is the last thing he'll get. On the way to Nantucket, George and Hoops pick up Cassandra, on the run from a gang of bikers, and headed to her grandfather's funeral on the island. Now Hoops has got to help Cassandra raise enough money to pay the mortgage on her grandfather's land, or the greedy Beckerstead clan will snatch it up to make way for a condo development.

The plight of the little guys fighting to keep their land against corporate development is as old as film itself and quite a bit older. Holland makes no attempt to say something deep on the subject, but rather uses it as a plot device to ultimately pit Hoops and his friends against the devious Beckersteads in the annual Nantucket regatta. And what's a regatta without an '80s music montage about friends fixing up an old boat? That's classy. And then there's Bobcat Goldthwait. Man, that guy must be really hard to work with. Also really hard not to punch in the face. He's about 80% annoyingly growling psycho in this film. The other 20% of the time he's actually funny, you know, in an Ace Ventura physical comedy sort of way. The highlight is an over-the-top extended Godzilla parody, as Goldthwait stumbles around, trapped in a lizard monster costume. Hey, it's not highbrow comedy or anything, but it's not bad.

Unfortunately, there is absolutely zero chemistry between Moore and Cusack, so the romance (the central theme of the movie, remember?) kinda fizzles. Also, Moore's character is some kind of pseudo-hippie and she goes the entire movie with these horribly unattractive, greasy looking braids all in her hair. It's really quite repulsive. Oh yeah, so's her voice, which is featured in a couple of terrible bar songs (Cassandra is some sort of singer, apparently, though you wouldn't know it from her screeching voice).

Basically, this is a fun summer movie, something you could make fun of in a group setting. It's movie fluff, but it never pretends to be anything else.

Storyline & plot: 4/10
Cinematography & effects: 6/10
Music & mood: 5/10
Performances: 6/10

The Reverend says: 5/10