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Post by kds on Jun 24, 2022 13:00:52 GMT
Since we'll now officially in summer, I thought it would be fun to start a thread on summer movies. Not blockbusters that were released in the summer months, but movies that take place during summer, or have a summer feel to them.
My favorite kind of summer movies are light comedies, mostly from the 1980s. My favorite of this type of movie is.......
Summer Rental (1985)
The Carl Reiner directed comedy is actually the first movie in which John Candy has a starring role. Candy plays a burnt out air traffic controller who is ordered to take a vacation in Florida. The movie wastes absolutely no time as Candy, with his wife, three kids, and dog, are in Florida before the opening credits are finished.
As tends to happen in this time of movie, all sorts of hijinks ensue, and having grown up going on beach vacations, and taking my own family on them now, I find some of them relatable. Like, waiting in line to get into a popular seafood joint, trying to navigate a crowded beach, and getting a nasty sunburn on the first day of vacation.
One of the popular tropes of 1980s comedy is the theme of "slobs vs snobs," and that plays out here too when Candy's character butts heads with the rich day sailor played by Richard Crenna.
Long story short, after some run ins, Crenna gains ownership of the house Candy is renting and throws Candy's family out, cutting their vacation short. But, Candy challenges Crenna in the upcoming regatta.
With the help of Rip Torn and an assorted cast of characters, and a montage featuring an uber 80s Jimmy Buffett song, Candy and Crenna race each other on the water.
This clean family friendly comedy packs in 87 minutes of summertime fun.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 24, 2022 13:44:01 GMT
One that I love, and probably watched 10+ times back in the days of VHS rentals, is the 1987 summer comedy Summer School, directed by Carl Reiner. It is formulaic and stupid, but I absolutely loved it.
Mark Harmon stars as Mr. Shoop, a gym teacher whose summer vacation plans are ruined when he is forced to teach summer school to a bunch of misfits. His love interest is Kirstie Alley, who plays the teacher in the next room over. She is, of course, already dating the principal who forced Harmon into teaching summer school. Among his students, Chainsaw and Dave are the comedic focus. I've always thought they could have been a precursor or inspiration of sorts to Bill and Ted, or Beavis and Butt-head, as a pair of dumb-but-clever weirdos who are a package deal, more living in isolation between themselves than living in a real world with other people. In their case, it's an obsession with horror movies, which also works its way into the plot.
Their book report--yes they presented it jointly--leads to one of my favorite lines in the movie. It is about Rick Baker, the horror movie special effects wiz, and to hit the word count, they end with something like "that is why we like him very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very very, very, very, very, very, very, [switch from Chainsaw to Dave talking] very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very much. There it is, 500 words on the dot. You can count them if you want."
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Post by kds on Jun 24, 2022 13:52:18 GMT
I forgot Carl Reiner did that one too. He must've been on a bit of a summer kick in the later half of the 80s.
I haven't watched Summer School in ages, and it's one of the few 80s summer based comedies that I haven't yet added to my collection. I need to rectify both of those things at some point (I've been saying this every June for probably a decade now).
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 24, 2022 21:04:25 GMT
Here's one that I absolutely identify as a summer movie, though it doesn't really fit into the genre of the ones above. And this is not only one of my favorite summer movies, but one of my favorite movies of all time, period. It's got to be in my 5-10 favorites ever, which is funny when you consider it comes from a story written by a very successful, but usually critically dismissed, writer.
Stand By Me (1986), directed by Rob Reiner, based on Stephen King's story "The Body."
You've all almost certainly seen it: it was a big hit and had a cast full of (both contemporaneous and future) stars, including River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Wil Wheaton, Jerry O'Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, Richard Dreyfuss, and John Cusak. I was 10 when it was released, and probably 11 when I saw it (though that is a guess). And while it was set in the late 1950s and I grew up in the 80s, while it involved those kids seeking and finding a dead body and getting into a potentially fatal encounter with older bullies, somehow it seemed to me a perfect representation of MY story. Or at least what could have been my story.
Why? Which one was I? I dunno, depends on the scene ... and hence the beauty of the story. Sometimes I felt like Vern, which is nothing to be happy about. Other times, Teddy. Mostly Gordy. Sadly not Chris, though that's who everyone would want to be. It's one of those things I suspect is so universal that anyone can find him- or herself in it. But I was around that same age, and the surprising (to modern parents) freedom of a rural tween in summer, spent largely outside the home and family with friends on adventures of varying (but usually minimal) importance ... that's so familiar. The relationships of boys (and probably girls, but I can't say) at that age, not quite kids and not quite teens, much less adults. The interests of those boys, one minute talking about Superman and Mighty Mouse (GI Joe and Transformers for me) and the next talking about stolen Playboys (stolen Playboys for me...). The fears of going to junior high, even though in my case that wasn't really any different from elementary school in any serious way, and in fact was all part of the same large, interconnected building, just in different wings. The desire for independence and the terror of it, too. Becoming more familiar with social class, whether economic or truly social (e.g. popular kids, jocks, nerds), without quite understanding it all. Stand By Me has all that.
It also has great music of that era, not to mention a score by the great Jack Nitzsche.
I suppose in hindsight predictably, though I had no idea then, the movie didn't have a great critical reception. I just found this on its wiki page. "Reviewing the film for The New York Times, Walter Goodman opined that Reiner's direction was rather self-conscious, "looking constantly at his audience". Goodman called the film a "trite narrative" and said that "Reiner's direction hammers in every obvious element in an obvious script."[23] In his review for the Chicago Tribune, Dave Kehr wrote that there was "nothing natural in the way Reiner has overloaded his film with manufactured drama"."
The film's Metacritic score is 75; its Rotten Tomatoes (popular) score is 91.
Why a great summer film? It's a great summer film because it's at the end of summer vacation, while these boys are still free--but know they return to not just "the" tedium of school, but a new tedium of school, where they will be split up in separate tracks for the college-bound and not college-bound. I suppose it's almost an autumnal kind of thing, the ending of something. But its action is firmly in (late) summer, and its vibe of a road film, even if on foot, is also a summer thing.
Sorry for rambling. But I loved Stand By Me as a kid, and I love it now.
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Post by kds on Jun 25, 2022 0:23:10 GMT
Did you know that Gary Riley, who plays Dave, Chainsaw's buddy in Summer School, played Charlie Hogan in Stand By Me?
Stand By Me is probably a top ten movie for me. I never thought about it, but definitely a summer movie.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 25, 2022 12:03:17 GMT
Did you know that Gary Riley, who plays Dave, Chainsaw's buddy in Summer School, played Charlie Hogan in Stand By Me? I can't believe I never put that together! There is something about him that just screams "'80s actor," it almost feels like he could've been cast as "friend #2" or "toadie #3" in any- and everything in that era. And having just googled to check his other credits, I see that not only did he appear in plenty of '80s shows (Growing Pains, Silver Spoons, etc.), but auditioned for Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (for which I'd speculated before he might've been an inspiration)!
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Post by kds on Jun 25, 2022 12:29:41 GMT
Did you know that Gary Riley, who plays Dave, Chainsaw's buddy in Summer School, played Charlie Hogan in Stand By Me? I can't believe I never put that together! There is something about him that just screams "'80s actor," it almost feels like he could've been cast as "friend #2" or "toadie #3" in any- and everything in that era. And having just googled to check his other credits, I see that not only did he appear in plenty of '80s shows (Growing Pains, Silver Spoons, etc.), but auditioned for Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (for which I'd speculated before he might've been an inspiration)! I'd known both these movies for over three decades now, and only recently discovered the connection thanks to a random IMDB dive.
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Post by kds on Jun 27, 2022 12:28:34 GMT
I've already mentioned Summer Rental, so I'll mention it's teen comedy counterpart (unofficially at least, I really don't know if the similarities in the plot were intentional). Swap out John Candy for John Cusack, Florida for Nantucket, Richard Crenna for Mark Metcalf, and a nuclear family for recent HS graduates, and you have......
One Crazy Summer (1986)
Also featuring Joel Murray (Bill's brother), Curtis Armstrong, Bobcat Goldthwait, William Hickey, and Demi Moore, this is a madcap comedy from Savage Steve Holland, who also directed Better Off Dead. John Cusack plays "Hoops" McCann, who has just graduated from HS with an uncertain future. So, he accompanies his friend (Murray) to spend the summer in Nantucket. Along the way, he meets an assortment of whacky characters, and has two woman vying for his attention - the blonde bombshell (whose boyfriend just happens to be the bully son of the town's rich villain) or the brunette musician hottie who dresses down a little (Moore).
Much like Summer Rental, the gang needs to fix up a dilapidated boat in order to win the annual regatta to win the money to help save Demi Moore's late grandfather's house from being turned into a lobster restaurant by the evil rich Metcalf.
Plenty of silly hijinks ensue in the 89 minute runtime (I really miss tight runtimes for comedies). As a bonus, the soundtrack features four Beach Boys classics (Do It Again, Wouldn't It Be Nice, Fun Fun Fun, and In My Room).
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Post by kds on Jun 28, 2022 12:46:49 GMT
I'm kinda kicking myself for not leading with this one. I started this thread four days after the anniversary of the movie's release in 1975. It also happens to be my all time favorite movie.
Jaws (1975)
Steven Speilberg's iconic masterpiece opens in the early part of the summer in a New England resort town called Amity Island. In one of the most chilling opening scenes in movie history, a female skinny dipper is attacked and killed by an unseen predator.
Meanwhile, Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) is looking forward to his first summer in Amity after moving his wife and two sons from New York. However, he gets a call about the missing swimmer. After discovering part of the victim's body on the beach, and speaking with the medical examiner, shark attack is listed as the cause of death.
Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) finds out from the Deputy that there was a fatal shark attack and Chief Brody is planning on shutting down the beaches. Vaughn explains to Brody that Amity Island is dependent on summer tourism, and to back off on the shark business.
However, after a young boy is killed just off the beach, word quickly spreads about a possible shark off the coast. Mayor Vaughn, the town council, and hotel owners still want the beaches open. The victim's mother puts up a $3,000 reward for the shark, sending an army of boats into the water with local fisherman trying to catch the shark.
As young marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) arrives on the island to offer his expertise, a group of fisherman bring a large tiger shark to the docks. This leads most of the town to believe the shark problem has been solved.
However, after a late night examination of the tiger shark and finding a great white tooth in a boat wreck of yet another victim (providing one of film's all time jump scares), Hooper and Brody try in vain to convince the Mayor that the tiger shark was not the culprit, and there's a bigger menace in the form of a great white shark.
Tourists flood the town for the Fourth of July, but the titular shark also shows up, causing a panic on the beach, as he claims another victim.
Desperate, Mayor Vaughn finally caves to the $10,000 price for local old salt Quint (Robert Shaw) to hunt and kill the shark. Quint, Brody, and Hooper go into the ocean to hunt the shark, and the third act takes place aboard the Orca, Quint's boat. An epic man vs beast battle ensues on the Atlantic Ocean.
I think this is a perfect movie. The pacing is brilliant, there's not a wasted second. The characters are perfectly cast, and developed quite well. The fact that the mechanical shark did not function as intended meant Speilberg had to resort to more practical ways of hinting at the shark's presence, which makes the beast more terrifying than gratuitous shots of the robot shark ever could. John Williams's legendary score helps build the film's needed tension as well.
It's not the light hearted summer fare that I tend to gravitate to this time of year, but the movie takes place from about late June to early July. Two thirds of the movie occurs at a beach town, the last third on the ocean. You even get some sea shanties.
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Post by kds on Jul 1, 2022 12:40:32 GMT
I'm going to do a complete 180 here and go from the masterpiece that's so good, so revered that Hollywood hasn't dared to remake, reboot, or retcon it to the epitome of later 80s mindless, goofy comedies.
Weekend at Bernie's (1989)
The premise is so dumb, so stupid, that there's really no way is should work. It shouldn't even work as an SNL sketch. But, somehow it does because everybody in the movie buys into the nonsense.
Two lowly employees (Jonathan Silverman and Andrew McCarthy) at an insurance firm stumble upon a major accounting error. When they bring it to their boss, Bernie's attention, it's revealed that the error is Bernie embezzling money from the company, and he invites the two friends to his house in the Hamptons for the Labor Day Weekend, with the intention of having them killed. However, the mobsters with whom Bernie associates decide to have Bernie taken out instead. So, when the clueless guys show up at Bernie's house on the beach, Bernie is dead. But, nobody else releases it. So, in order to milk their time at the beach with free booze and bikini clad ladies flowing, the duo decide to just pretend Bernie is still alive.
Summertime hijinks ensue in this mindless comedy that I absolutely adore.
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Post by kds on Jul 5, 2022 13:02:11 GMT
My next entry has a similar format as Stand By Me. The movie takes place three decades prior to the release, and is told in flashback through narration.
The Sandlot (1993)
Probably more than any other sport, there's something inherently nostalgic about baseball. So, it makes sense that one of the most beloved baseball movies plays into that. Released right around Opening Day 1993, during a great run of baseball movies from the late 80s / early 90s, and probably at the height of my own baseball fandom, The Sandlot takes place in the summer of 1962. Told in flashback by Scott Smalls, a nerdy kid who moves into a California suburb and winds up making friends with a group of eight kids who gather each day to play baseball in the summertime.
I do feel like the movie gets a little cartoony in the third act, but the first hour of the movie makes up for it in my opinion, and there's great chemistry with the young cast.
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Post by kds on Jul 19, 2022 13:22:57 GMT
Caddyshack (1980)
A couple weeks ago, while taking a lunch break while doing some yard work, I stumbled upon this classic comedy on IFC. I damn near watched the whole thing.
Directed by Harold Ramis, and starring Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Michael O'Keefe, and Cindy Morgan (I'm not sure if any 80s movie sex symbol was more aptly named than Lacey Underall) among others, this raunchy snobs vs slobs comedy takes place at Bushwood Country club during summer vacation for Danny Noonan (O Keefe) and his assorted group of caddies. Between the caddies, the eccentric Ty Webb (Chase), the uptight Judge Smails (Knight), the nouveau riche Al Czervik (Dangerfield), and the wacky groundskeeper (Murray), all sorts of shenanigans ensue throughout the movie that, like many comedies of the time, tends to play out like a group of sketches until the third act.
Simply one of the best, and most quotable, comedies of all time.
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 19, 2022 13:54:20 GMT
Caddyshack is one of my all-time favorite movies, summer or otherwise. In fact, when some friends and I were ranking our favorite movies this past spring, I put it 7th. (My rankings being what they are, it could just as easily be anywhere in the top 10 or so, from 1 to 10.) It is one of those movies that I've seen so many times, and from such a young age, that it is less a movie and more a part of my youth. I quote it without realizing I'm quoting it, which puts it in the company of movies like Princess Bride or Strange Brew.
It's hard for me even to say what I love most about this movie: I love almost all of it. The main quibble could be that it's borderline incoherent, or at least that it seems like a cobbled together series of comedy bits intended to fit the plot. Well, that's fair ... and true. Because my understanding is that's exactly what the movie was: originally it was intended to focus more on Danny and his unexpectedly pregnant girlfriend Maggie, but the script wasn't great and the comedians were--both great, and out of control being funny. They also had a short timeline to film at least some of them, including Bill Murray. So they recorded brilliantly funny moments, and made a movie around them ... almost ignoring the original plot.
Great performances? Chevy Chase. Bill Murray. Rodney Dangerfield. Ted Knight. And you can't forget John F. Barmon Jr, who played rich-kid Spaulding. ("I want a hamurger. No, a cheeseburger. I want a hot dog. I want a milkshake--" "YOU'LL GET NOTHING AND LIKE IT," Knight shouts.)
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Post by kds on Jul 19, 2022 14:24:50 GMT
Caddyshack is one of my all-time favorite movies, summer or otherwise. In fact, when some friends and I were ranking our favorite movies this past spring, I put it 7th. (My rankings being what they are, it could just as easily be anywhere in the top 10 or so, from 1 to 10.) It is one of those movies that I've seen so many times, and from such a young age, that it is less a movie and more a part of my youth. I quote it without realizing I'm quoting it, which puts it in the company of movies like Princess Bride or Strange Brew.
It's hard for me even to say what I love most about this movie: I love almost all of it. The main quibble could be that it's borderline incoherent, or at least that it seems like a cobbled together series of comedy bits intended to fit the plot. Well, that's fair ... and true. Because my understanding is that's exactly what the movie was: originally it was intended to focus more on Danny and his unexpectedly pregnant girlfriend Maggie, but the script wasn't great and the comedians were--both great, and out of control being funny. They also had a short timeline to film at least some of them, including Bill Murray. So they recorded brilliantly funny moments, and made a movie around them ... almost ignoring the original plot.
Great performances? Chevy Chase. Bill Murray. Rodney Dangerfield. Ted Knight. And you can't forget John F. Barmon Jr, who played rich-kid Spaulding. ("I want a hamurger. No, a cheeseburger. I want a hot dog. I want a milkshake--" "YOU'LL GET NOTHING AND LIKE IT," Knight shouts.)
I remember in one of the docs I've seen on Caddyshack, they mentioned is was originally supposed to be more of a teen comedy, but I honestly don't think the movie would've been nearly as funny, or timeless, had it not featured the bigger roles by the older comedic actors. In fact, the movie might've fallen into obscurity instead of becoming somewhat iconic in pop culture. I forgot to add that it was cowritten by the late Doug Kenney (with Harold Ramis and Brian Doyle Murray), in what would be the last project released before his untimely death. Kenney was a writer for National Lampoon, and also cowrote Animal House.
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 19, 2022 15:28:42 GMT
Agreed on the "adults." Bill Murray was typically brilliant. Rodney Dangerfield was unbelievably funny. And...
I think it might be the funniest movie Chevy Chase ever did. (Nobody really thinks of him as all that funny anymore, and sadly he has almost become a punch line rather than deliverer of punch lines. But I'd say he was almost always great at least up to his failed talk show in the early 90s.)
But even people who aren't big fans of the guy, I'd think they need to admit he was funny through the '80s and into the '90s. And in Caddyshack he was as good as ever, if not better. (Several of the Vacation movies and Fletch also belong in that territory.)
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