Verdict
Summary
Purely innocent and delightfully simple, Summer Rental is a movie set to cruise control if ever there was one. With a basic as applesauce plot, performances that don’t need nuance to be convincing, a calypso score by Alan Silvestri, and a theme song by Jimmy Buffet, this movie is such a good time that I didn’t care about anything else in my life as I watched it, which makes for a virtually perfect viewing experience.
Plot:
A summer vacation for a stressed-out dad turns into a life-changing experience that he needed.
Review:
Jack Chester (John Candy in his first big leading role) is a stressed-out air traffic controller who is forced to take a mandatory vacation over the summer with his family to rest and recuperate from his high-stress job. They pack the three kids and the dog and head to Florida where they plant their roots in a rental (the first night is a disaster because they spend the night in the wrong house) right by the beach. The wife (played by Karen Austin) makes friends with a local (played by John Larroquette) who could end up being a threat to her marriage, except she’s entirely devoted to Jack, who’s a great guy. Their teen daughter (played by Kerri Green) finds herself a boyfriend, while the two younger kids tend to whine and cry when they don’t get their way. Jack, meanwhile, engages in a war with a nemesis, a local boating champion (Richard Crenna) who is the stick in Jack’s craw from their first day in town to the last. When his nemesis becomes the owner of the home he’s renting, Jack gets an eviction notice but comes up with a wild idea: He proposes racing against his nemesis for more than a bit of dignity, but for a free stay at the rental until the end of the summer! But in order to win, Jack needs to be taught how to sail, and so he takes lessons from a crusty pirate (played by Rip Torn in nice mode) who sees this as his chance to dust off his barnacle-laden old ship that’s been used as a restaurant for decades.
Purely innocent and delightfully simple, Summer Rental is a movie set to cruise control if ever there was one. With a basic as applesauce plot, performances that don’t need nuance to be convincing, a calypso score by Alan Silvestri, and a theme song by Jimmy Buffet, this movie is such a good time that I didn’t care about anything else in my life as I watched it, which makes for a virtually perfect viewing experience. It was shot, edited, test screened, edited again (to eliminate some material with Larroquette and some nudity), and released all within a six-month time period, and it shows, but what’s to complain about? Carl Reiner directed it.
Kino Lorber has just released a Blu-ray of Summer Rental, and it comes in a nice, shiny HD master that looks primo, and it comes with a new audio commentary by a film historian, as well as a short feature on Silvestri’s score, plus the trailer. There’s also a slipcover.
