FILM FOCUS: SUMMER RENTAL

Summer Rental is part of the “nice guy-loser takes disastrous family vacation” oevure of the 80s and early 90s.  It never reaches the greatness of National Lampoon’s Vacation or even The Great Outdoors (also starring John Candy) but it has its moments.  It’s most enjoyable as a sort of 80s time capsule and just as goofy summer escapism.  I first saw it on cable as a kid (oh, the hours spent watching USA network on Saturday afternoons!  Totally worth it!) and at the time I found it scandalously sexy, mostly for a scene featuring a household of tanned, 80s lifeguard hunks and their jockstraps hanging on a clothesline.  Save for the mere suggestion of boobs that’s as sexy as it gets though-- it’s truly a family film.

In the film John Candy plays a stressed-out air traffic controller forced to go on vacation.  He rents out a beach house in fictional “Citrus Cove” Florida for his wife, teenage daughter, young son (played by Joey Lawrence, thereby satisfying the federal law that required a Lawrence brother in every movie and television show during this time period), adorable youngest daughter, and their hateful dog.  Things immediately go wrong (of course): the deluxe house they first settle in to turns out to be the wrong one so they end up in a decrepit rental next to a crowded public beach.  A rich guy steals their table and the last lobsters at a fancy seafood restaurant.  John (I’m just going to refer to him as John; his character’s name is meaningless) rams the same rich guy’s yacht and ends up in a cast.  Rich guy vows revenge against the horrible seasonal renters.  It’s 80s class warfare at its finest!

All of this ends in a big regatta race where John Candy must beat Evil Rich Man, who has become the owner of the summer rental just so he can kick him out of it.  If John wins the race his family gets to stay rent-free for two more weeks.  John ends up commandeering a dry-docked boat at Barnacle, the crappy seafood restaurant they dined at earlier in the film, which leads Evil Rich Guy to utter one of the movie’s best jokes, about it being the “S.S. Moveable Feast.”  The movie ends with Candy and his family and a crew of misfit pirate/seafood restaurant workers rallying together and winning the race.  And by end I mean it ENDS, abruptly.  It’s like they cross the finish line and the end credits start rolling.

The plot is obviously nothing special but the fun lies in some of the movie’s weirder moments.  Example: the family’s neighbors are a woman who flashes her fake boobs at every man who will look and her husband, a big bruiser of a guy, who is totally okay with it.  John Laroquette shows up as a sexy single dad who you presume will prove a flirtatious threat to John Candy’s marriage.  Laroquette rescues the wife character at the movies when she forgets her money and then takes the family out on his boat.  The kids even make a point of saying he’s divorced… and then he literally never speaks again.  He’s seen just one more time, in the stands (silently) cheering on the Candy family in the race.  I’m guessing there are some cut scenes but his random entrance and then total disappearance is an intriguing mystery.  His son makes an equally silent love interest for the teen daughter.  They exchange dialogue in the movie theatre scene and she mentions him later but he also never speaks and is barely seen again.

The most terrifying moment of the entire film is during the climatic yacht race.  The adorable little girl at one point looks up and asks a question in THE DEVIL’S VOICE.  It’s literally the worst dubbing I’ve ever heard.  Not only is it not the actress's voice, it’s not even a child’s voice.  I don’t even think it’s a HUMAN’s voice.  Luckily someone has preserved this moment for us on YouTube: 

The second half of the movie is consumed by the boring yachting stuff but the first half is more fun, focusing on beachy 80s summer goodness.  There’s a lot of male flesh, including the aforementioned lifeguards and their conspicuous jockstraps on the clothesline.  The teen daughter wears these awesome headphones that are literally just two radios on each ear and at one point says she’s listening to Wham!  When the family is in the movie theatre lobby you see amazing, painted posters for Footloose and some other films that remind you how incredible 80s movie posters were.

See It, Skip It, Own It?

I would say watch the first 40 minutes and then you can just leave it playing in the background while you fold laundry or something.  Unless you’re really into yachting.