Tag: Carl Reiner

A Cure for the Summertime Blues? (Summer Rental, 1985)

Summer_Rental_PosterSummer Rental follows the story of Air Traffic Controller Jack Chester who is forced by his boss to take a vacation. He and his family are set up with a beach side rental.  Jack quickly finds himself at odds with the rich and self important locals and strikes up a friendship with bar owner Scully. This friendship leads to the family and Scully entering a boating competition against the biggest rich jerk in town (played with proper arrogance by Richard Crenna).

Summer Rental is a fun film, but largely carried by the charm of John Candy.  He is a well meaning hapless guy here, finding himself bumbling through misadventures. The film’s most memorable running joke is Vicki, a young woman wanting opinions on her breast implants and how uncomfortable it makes Jack and other guys. And the gag does work okay.  While Candy carries the heavy load, it would be unfair to ignore the rest of the cast.  Rip Torn especially is entertaining in the role of Scully, the bar owner, ship captain who may have committed to the pirate captain role a bit too much.

Summer Rental is light but enjoyable fare, edged up a bit by the presence of Candy.

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Fun In the Summertime (Summer School, 1987)

Summer_School_PosterRob Reiner was a prolific funny man.  He gave us decades of laughter and joy before his passing this week.  In his memory, I am taking a look at an under-rated… well not classic…but one of those films of his I don’t hear much about.

Mark Harmon is slacker gym teacher Freddy Shoop is ready to run off to Hawaii for the summer with his girlfriend when he is forced to be the english teacher for the summer for kids who failed their remedial english test. His girlfriend runs off without him, leaving him with a class of goof offs and generally distracted students.

The Vice Principal hates Shoop and holds his tenure and job over his head if the entire class does not pass. This results in Shoop and the class making a bargain.  He helps each of them with one thing they need. And at first this seems to be working, until the kids start getting greedy when Shoop suggests they all put in some more time.

Summer School has a flimsy plot, but Reiner is really trying to entertain more than anything here, and it he uses his skill with comedy tropes to make even the thinnest of ideas work.

This film has an incredibly 80’s cast (certainly, most of them are still active, but this was their hey day).  Probably the most memorable characters are Chainsaw and Dave.  While falling into that stock dumb buddies, they feel very different from characters like Bill and Ted or the later Wayne and Garth.  Horror movie lovers and burgeoning make-up artists there are a couple funny set piece scenes that put their wild imaginations at the center. They also share an infatuation for exchange student Anna-Maria that somehow Reiner manages to keep fairly safe.  They are never in competition over her, they just both have an almost puppy dog devotion to both each other and her.  Yeah, her character is the very stock “Barely Speaks English Hottie”, but the film keeps everything so light that it works pretty well.

This is not a classic like the Jerk, but it is a really fun film and a good diversion on a Sunday afternoon.

 

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Oh. My. Gawd. (Oh God, 1977)

Oh-God-movie-posterThe last hurrah of films from the hard working comic George Burns, I had not seen the Oh God films since the first film was shown to me in Catholic school.

The first film introduces us to hardworking grocery store manager Jerry (John Denver) and his wife Bobbie (Teri Garr).  One day, Jerry gets a phone call to have a meeting.  Upon arriving at the address, he take the elevator that leads to a simple white office with a chair and a speaker.  The voice from the speaker claims to be God and He wants Jerry to be his messenger.

Jerry, certain he is being pranked, tries to find the voice.  After leaving, he discovers that the floor he was on does not exist.  Troubled, but still thinking it might be a joke who heads on out.  Then God starts speaking to him through the radio.  When Jerry tells Bobbie, she tries to convince herself he is not crazy-it’s not like he is seeing things.

And then God appears in Jerry’s bathroom and car.  So, Jerry asks for proof.  Prove he’s God.  Make it rain, Jerry says.  And so God makes it rain-inside the car.  “Why ruin other peoples’ day?” God reasons.  And so Jerry takes on the task of spreading God’s message.

It is a pretty simply Golden Rule style message about treating each other with love and respect.  People think Jerry is crazy, he becomes a public joke, God comes through in the end to provide his defense against a cadre of ministers and psychologists when Jerry is accused by a televangelist of slander.

I like these films.  There is a neat simplicity to the portrayal of God.  Burns plays him as kind, gentle, wise, mysterious, funny and playful and loving.  He is not a God of showy pomp and circumstance, he wears a baseball cap and a windbreaker…and he comes off as playing it by ear.  At one point, Jerry asks why God chose him, especially stumped because h was not a religious man.

God simply says, “why not you?”  Jerry is taken aback by this seemingly careless attitude God has… God asks if Jerry thought maybe he was chosen because he was better than others.  Sheepishly Jerry admits the thought has crossed his mind.  God points out the obvious… he is better than some, worse than others.

Jerry works specifically because he is kind of the hapless everyman who takes the message out to the powerful.   Certainly, there are things that would trouble believers…throughout the series God comments on mistakes he made, such as creating “shame” (don’t know why I ever thought it was needed, God says).  And some would be bothered that the message is generic, rather than specifically Christian.  God makes no mention of needing Jesus, which I suspect would be problematic to certain viewers.

But I find the film and Burn’s approach both endearing and kind of inspiring. God chooses Jerry, though admits he could have chosen anyone.  Jerry isn’t special… and that is kind of the point.  And the most powerful being in the universe takes on the appearance of a frail little man with bad fashion sense.

It also brings up something I have always found to be a bit odd.  If someone walks around and claims to be speaking to God-having honest to goodness actual conversations with God appearing visually and audibly… even Christians think that guy is flirting with insanity at best.  It’s one thing to “feel led” or to think God spoke to you through a song… but say you see God in a physical form and have conversations with him?  That is nutty!

Overall, I found the film to be a fun viewing, even after thirty years.  It’s a gentle, amusing film that can, at times, be challenging.

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