Summer Rental (1985) from Tuna
Tuna's comments: 

Summer Rental (1985) is a PG family oriented comedy staring John Candy as Jack Chester, an air traffic controller who is given a mandatory 6 week vacation to recover from burnout. He takes his family to Florida for the much-needed rest, and has a series of mis-adventures. The film kicks into high gear when Candy refuses to let a wealthy local blowhard walk on him and ruin his family's vacation. He decides to take away the blowhard's lock on winning a local yacht race.
This is an amusing film, even though it is family oriented. There is ample opportunity in the script for a more mature version however. In one sub-plot, a neighbor woman, Lois Hamilton, has just had a boob job, and is proudly showing them to everyone who will look. The editor made a mistake,  and left one single frame showing her boobs. Before anyone asks, yes, I do know how sick and twisted it is that I could spot 1/30 of a second of  exposure in a family film. 

NUDITY REPORT
refer to Tuna's comments about Lois Hamilton
Scoop's comments

I agree with Tuna that it's a cute PG movie, with Candy especially loveable. It's nice to have something amusing to watch with the kids. 

I also agree that it could have been a really enjoyable r-rated summer film with some minor changes. I wish they still made the anarchic "up the establishment" summer comedies of yore, the films that pitted the tourists, kids, geeks, and average guys against the snobs, the military, the country club set, the in-crowd, the rich kids, the government, the administration, and the yachting crowd.

Hey, speaking of Candy, when are they going to get all the old episodes of SCTV on a DVD set? I'll be in line for that one.

OK, it's not "Duck Soup", but despite whatever Summer Rental may lack, Candy is sympathetic, and I really love Rip Torn in this film. He plays a crusty old sailor, so at one with the sea that he learned the sailors' ballads and ditties while still on his mother's knee. Only problem is, when challenged, he can't seem to remember any sea chanties more authentic than the theme from "Love Boat". His memory failings are partially redeemed by the fact that he does sing Love Boat with a proper pirate accent - "come abard, wa're expectin' ye".

DVD info from Amazon.

  • Widescreen anamorphic, no meaningful features
It appears that the closest he has ever come to real sailing is owning a floating sea food restaurant. (In which the "fresh catch of the day" entrees consist of warmed up Mrs Paul's)

By the way, the floating restaurant is the vessel they use to defeat the rich guys in the regatta.

One of my favorite scenes in any comedy is Candy and Torn in the dinghy, many sheets to the wind, singing "Love Boat" as they row into the sunrise. 

Welcome aboard it's love, love, LOVE.

The Critics Vote

  • Maltin 2.5/4.

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 5.4 
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C+.

Return to the Movie House home page