One Crazy Summer

Summary

“Hey, Cookie. How about we stop playing all these games?”

When I was growing up, like many young men, I felt like some of my interests did not aligned with the majority of the kids that went to school with me. I was interested in art, guitar, video games, computers, and film. I couldn’t catch a ball to save my life, and I simply did not grow taller until I was almost sixteen years old. Luckily, I was still friends with almost everyone in my grade, but I also had to understand that my interests were slightly different than theirs. Many of the family comedies that were made in the Nineties were centered on sports and I yearned to find comedies where I could connect with the lead character. One night, on Comedy Central, I watched the Savage Steve Holland comedy One Crazy Summer. I was struck by how similar I felt to John Cusack’s character Hoops and I loved the clever-dumb dynamic of Savage Steve Holland’s writing. I ended up renting the VHS from Premier Video countless times as a young man. I was excited to see that Warner Archive was bringing the film to Blu-ray so that I could revisit it for the first time in about twenty years.

Recent Generic High School graduate Hoops McCann (John Cusack) is asked by his friend George (Joel Murray) to go to Nantucket for a summer vacation. Hoops is a cartoonist and he only has two weeks to finish illustrating a love story in order to get a scholarship to a design college. He also is absolutely terrible at basketball despite his name. Hoops and George pick up George’s sister and her noticeably ugly dog on the way to the beach. In Wood’s Hoke they stop at a gas station and meet a good natured guitar carrying girl (Demi Moore) named Cassandra. Cassandra has made some motorcyclists furious by taking some money from them. When Hoops helps Cassandra escape from the bikers, she ends up coming along with them to Nantucket. She was heading to Nantucket to visit her grandparents who desperately need $2,000 to pay their back mortgage and save their restate. Arriving in Nantucket they meet up with George’s cousins the Stork twins – Egg and Clay (Bobcat Goldthwait and Tom Villard.) They also encounter the preppy bully Ted (Matt Mulhern) and his friend Ty (Jeremy Piven.) Ted’s girlfriend Cookie (Kimberly Foster) is riding in the car with him and when Hoops accidentally touches his car, Ted confronts him and hangs him from a fish hook at the pier. Cookie also lays eyes on Hoops and decides she likes what she sees. Hoops begins to navigate Cookie’s advances on him, while developing affection for Cassandra. Hoops is also befriended by the softhearted Ack Ack (Curtis Armstrong) whose father is a military surplus salesman and veteran (Joe Flaherty) Meanwhile, Ted’s dad (Michael Metcalf) warns Ted that he needs to win the regatta or grandpa (William Hickey) will take everything away from them. He also talks about how he plans to gain Cassandra’s grandparents’ house so he can demolish it and build a Lobster Log Restaurant.

Revisiting One Crazy Summer I was pleased to see that I still really enjoyed the humor in the film. The jokes are fast, good natured, and goofy with the occasional joke that falls flat. The film knows that it is ridiculous and expects the audience to be smart enough to go along with the script. In this way it is very similar to Savage Steve Holland’s debut film Better Off Dead. One Crazy Summer obviously is geared towards summer vacation whereas Better Off Dead tackled winter vacation. Both of those films pair well with one another as two sides of the same coin. Both films are also helped along by charismatic performances by John Cusack. Cusack would continue to build credibility with outsider audiences for the next fifteen years culminating in the great films Gross Pointe Blank and High Fidelity. Savage Steve Holland would next direct How I Got Into College before moving towards television work where he created the classic Eek! The Cat cartoon series which many kids from the Nineties remember fondly. 

Aside from the proven formula of Cusack working with Savage Steve, the film benefits from an absolutely loaded ensemble cast. I remember vividly falling in love with Demi Moore as I watched her in the film. She was the perfect dream girl for guys like me. She was great in the role. Bobcat Goldthwait and Tom Villard play well off of one another in the film. Curtis Armstrong is very funny as the softhearted son of a marine. Joe Flaherty is very funny in his small role and the same can be said for Michael Metcalf as the lobster demolishing elitist Aguila Beckersted. William Hickey has an amazing cameo as the electric wheelchair driving cigar chomping patriarch of the Beckersted family.  Matt Mulhern is memorable as an infantile preppy bully, and Jeremy Piven has a nice cameo as his sidekick. Kimberly Foster is extremely attractive in the film as Cookie. Joel Murray is also fun to watch in one of his first onscreen performances as the sidekick to Hoops.

For myself and many people like me, it was nice to have a film like One Crazy Summer to watch that gave us an inkling that there were more people out there like me. Rewatching the film, I was happy to see that it had not lost its charm, I had just gotten older. Fans of Better Off Dead and UHF should find themselves enamored by One Crazy Summer. I look forward to showing the movie to my two boys and am happy that Warner Archive has given the film a new release.

Video

Warner Archive has provided One Crazy Summer in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 in 1080p. I was happy overall with the natural looking image on display for the film. Fine detail and clarity are solid. The film looks very much of its time and grain is apparent at times, but I can’t imagine any fans being disappointed to see this film finally on the HD format.

Audio

One Crazy Summer features a pretty solid DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. Clarity is excellent and dialogue is easily understood. The only issue that I had with the track was in terms of how the music is handled versus dialogue in the film. I found that I needed to keep my remote near me for when some of the louder musical selections in the film appeared.

Supplements:

Audio Commentary with Savage Steve Holland, Curtis Armstrong, and Bobcat Goldthwait – this is an extremely enjoyable and frequently laugh out loud funny commentary track. Fans of the film will enjoy hearing them revel in some of the smaller jokes in the film and their discussions about working together on the film. I had a lot of fun listening to this.

Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video – 4/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 3/5

Overall – 4/5

One Crazy Summer is a lighthearted and breezy comedy with an offbeat sense of humor. As a child I adored this movie and I was happy to see that the film had aged well. While the film has some jokes that fall flat, many of the sight gags are still very funny. The performances are excellent across the board and the film features a wonderful ensemble cast. John Cusack and Demi Moore stand out, but they are backed up by Michael Metcalf, Joe Flaherty, Curtis Armstrong, Joel Murray, and more. I was happy to revisit the film and look forward to showing it to my two boys. The Warner Archive release features a solid transfer and clear audio. The commentary track is a lot of fun as well. Fans of the film will be pleased to add the film to their collections.