ONE CRAZY SUMMER (1986)
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: PG
Duration: 93 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Savage Steve Holland
Cast: John Cusack, Demi Moore, Curtis Armstrong, Bob Goldthwait, Joel Murray
Director Savage Steve Holland only directed three feature films, and one of them is Better Off Dead (1985) which is one of my favorite 80's comedies, it's a cartoonish teen comedy about a suicidal teen named Blaine (John Cusack, Grosse Pointe Blank) attempting to win over his ex by winning the high school downhill ski race, and falling on love with the French foreign exchange student along the way. In his follow-up film One Crazy Summer Cusack stars again this time as a recent high school graduate named Hoops McCann, who has disappointed his parent's by not carrying on a tradition of being a star basketball player and winning a sports scholarship to college. Hoops would rather use his drawing skills to earn an art-school scholarship, which he hopes to do my writing and illustrating an animated love story. However with no love of his own for inspiration he's a bit stuck, but fear not, his best pal George Calamari (Joel Murray, Mad Men) invites him to spend the summer with him and his family in Nantucket. It seems like a sure way to meet some young ladies and find inspiration for his drawings, so why not?
Along the way the rescue a travelling rocker named Cassandra (Demi Moore, The Seventh Sign) from a gang of bikers she's ripped off, and as luck would have it, she too is headed to Nantucket - to save the house of her house of her deceased grandmother from being foreclosed on by the bank. Like Better Off Dead this comedy is lousy with cartoonish, non-sequitur humor, sight-gags and fun, often violent animated sequences - the latter of which are brought forth from the mind and pencil of Hoops (but are actually animated by director Savage Steve Hollnad). The movie has a large cast of characters; we have the Stork twins, Egg (Bobcat Goldthwait, Police Academy) and Clay (Tom Villard, Popcorn), the obligatory blond 80s teen asshole Teddy Beckersted (Matt Mulhern, Biloxi Blues) and his evil land developer father (Mark Metcalf, Animal House), the extended Calamari family y way of grandma Billie Bird (Sixteen Candles) and chain-smoking radio contest obsessed uncle (Bruce Wagner, Shocker), plus SCTV alum Joe Flaherty as a militant Boy Scout troop leader and his teen son Ack-Ack (Curtis Armstrong, Revenge of the Nerds). As if that were not enough we also have national treasure William Hickey (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) as the Beckerstead patriarch, funnymen Taylor Negron (Better Off Dead) and Rich Hall (Not Necessarily the News) as goofy gas station attendants, and Jeremy Piven (Very Bad Things) doing what he does best, playing a smug asshole. The cast is a bit overstuffed as so to is the plot, this romantic comedy forays into saving grandma's house by entering a the annual regatta to win the prize money, which in a very Summer Rental (1985) fashion presents us with a montage of patchworking a dilapidated shipwreck and of course the boat race itself.
It's goofy stuff but it certainly tickles my funny bone, having grown up on stuff like SCTV, SNL, Kentucky Fried Movie and Amazon Women on the Moon this blend of non-sequiturs and sight-gags is my comedy sweet spot. I love gags like Goldthwait in a Godzilla costume crashing a party and stomping all over a miniature model of the town to the delight of a Japanese banker attending the party; a small animal trophy case mounted to Hoops cat's carrier commemorating his kills; that fact that the land developer Mr. Beckerstead is so moustache-twirling evil that he takes pleasure is using a stethoscope to hear the scream of a lobster being boiled alive - it's zany 80s comedy stuff, and while it might be a bit broad for all tastes I absolutely love this silly flick.
Audio/Video: One Crazy Summer (1986) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Warner Archive in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. There's no information about the scan but judging by the pleasing image I would guess a new 2K scan from the interpositive, just based in how WAC usually do things these days. The Nantucket locations look fantastic with bright colors and well-defined textures, skin tones are a mix of natural looking pasty whites and bronzed beach bods, and depth and clarity look great. The animated sequences that are peppered throughout also look fantastic, this blows away the standard definition image on my ancient snapper case DVD with way more depth, increased resolution, texture and vivid colors. It's a very organic looking image with a nice layer of fine film grain throughout that is sure to please.
Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono with optional English subtitles. This being a comedy it's mostly dialogue driven it's not an overly dynamic presentation but sounds authentic and the tunes from Honeymoon Suite, ZZ Top, Beach Boys and Twisted Sister among others sound great.
Warner Archive carry-over the hilarious group commentary track featuring Curtis Armstrong, Bobcat Goldthwait, and Writer/Director Savage Steve Holland where they poke fun at some of the gags that don't quite work, get into some fun production anecdotes, single out some of the cast and just generally seem to be having a great time reminiscing about the making of the movie. I would say this is a top 10 commentary for me, I could listen to it over and over again. We also get a vintage 2-minute trailer for the film hosted by Goldthwait. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original illustrated movie poster for the film, which is also excerpted on the Blu-ray disc.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Curtis Armstrong, Bobcat Goldthwait, and Writer/Director Savage Steve Holland
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD
One Crazy Summer (1986) has at long last received the HD presentation it deserves from the Warner Archive, who deliver their usual full-bodied transfer, this looks fantastic. Director Savage Steve Holland only made three feature films, none which were not received well upon their initial release, but they have gone on to be considered cult-classics; before moving on to a career in TV and animation. Here's hoping his final feature film How I Got Into College (1989) also get a Blu-ray in the near future, I know I'll be re-watching this one quite a bit now that we have it on a gorgeous looking Blu-ray.
Screenshots from the Warner Archive Blu-ray:
