Der Volltreffer

This movie has GOT to be the most underrated movie of the 80's if not of all time. When you consider the relatively young age of the actors, Daphne Zuniga was 22 and John Cusack was only 17, and it was only Rob Reiner's second film, it makes this film that much more of a milestone. Maybe the storyline is predictable, so what. The acting by Cusack and Zuniga is perfect. They make this movie seem real and honest.

What makes this movie so enjoyable and memorable is the feelings it provokes. Remember the rush of emotions when you first meet someone who makes your heart beat out of your chest and feel lightheaded? Acting like you really don't like someone when deep down inside you would give anything to be with them? Going to a party and flirting with other people hoping that they would see you and get jealous? That's what this movie does for me. It makes me realize just how much I miss the innocence, passion and emotion of those days. The acting is wonderful and you really get drawn in to their plight as they make their way across the country to be with the one they "think" is their own "sure thing". The great thing about this movie is that every time it looks like they are finally going to get together, something pulls them apart. While there are many funny lines and memorable scenes in this film, by far my favorite is at the end when Gib's essay is read aloud. Allison's facial expressions let you know just how painful it is for her to hear it. The final scene is wonderful. I tear-up whenever I see it, and I'm a guy.

Rating: ***1/2

Review: I know I've seen this more than 100 times, and chances are I'll see it a 1000 more times until I die. One of the most underrated films of the 1980s, this film not only marked the second directorial effort by Rob Reiner (THE PRINCESS BRIDE, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY...), but also the starring debut of John Cusack, one of my all-time favorite actors (even if he wasn't, I'd still feel the same way about this film). Even after 15 years, this film remains fresh, funny and wonderfully romantic, with a tenderness and innocence that's missing in so many teen films. It still offends me how so many teen films put it out today (with CAN'T HARDLY WAIT leading the pack) could become hits with their target audiences and films like this are left on the video shelf being forgotten. Their excuse may be simply that "it's old," but considering how cliched teen films are today, I can't believe they are smart enough to realize that. It's a shame that THE SURE THING hasn't recieved the DVD treatment, so that it could be re-discovered by today's audiences. THE SURE THING stars Cusack as Walter "Gib" Gibson a guy who loves junk food, beer, and life in general but feels lost for the first time in his life in terms of love when he completes high school. While having a beer with his best friend Lance (Anthony Edwards), he recalls all the women he's been with and how's he's changed. We now find out that they are about to depart to seperate colleges: Lance is going to California, and Gib is going to an Ivy League school up in the Northeast. Gib discovers that college is not all it's cracked up to be, and soon starts to flunk English. This is when we meet Alison Bradbury (Daphne Zuniga) a straight-A, education committed young woman who is too uptight, to say the least.

Gib tries, but fails, to win Allison and finds himself back to Square One when he gets a call from Lance. Since Christmas is coming soon, Lance invites Gib to travel cross country to spend the holidays with him. Gib declines, until Lance mentions that there is a "very special person...who loves sex" who would very much like to meet him. After seeing a picture of this "sure thing" that Lance sends him, he immediately makes plans to travel to California. He soon realizes that he's not travelling alone, but with Alison, who's also journeying to CA to see her boyfriend (calling him uptight would be much too kind). The majority of the films shows them on the road trying to get to California, though they soon learn not only tolerate but also respect each other, and soon their goals become dimmer, but not forgotten. There are so many wonderful moments on this little trip! Instead of using cliches, director Reiner likes to poke fun at them like in a near-rape scene where Gib becomes a real actor, or when Alison is learning to shotgun beer (one of Gib's favorite hobbies) and finally discovering the last thing you'd expect to be sticking out a car window while driving by. Finally, when they both arrive in California, Alison learns of Gib's reason for coming and the climactic scene is at a dorm party where unions are forged, words are passed and feelings are finally looked at by the two main characters. The film's final sequence is quite unusual and different, which is all the more reason for you to forget the film's only negative element. That element that THE SURE THING seems to get attacked by is predictablity, though most people shouldn't care, considering how charming and funny the film is. Sure, you know that Gib and Alison are going to end up together but the trip to that point is something to a grab a seat for. Writers Steven Bloom and Jonathan Roberts make every character real and believable and manage to give nearly every one of them an unforgettable line. Saying just one of those lines would spoil a lot for the person who hasn't watched this movie yet. All I'm saying is, if there is a film that shouldn't be missed it is this one, because like a lot of critics said "It's a genuinely special love story."

I like this one. Having always been a fan of Daphne Z, I have to say its strange that her career hasn't taken off better than this promised. She has poise, presance, looks, ability. Cusack himself is still around, be it in 'Thin Red Line' or '8 Men Out' or whatever.

I like how sweet natured this is, and how these kids aren't all cock-sure sex-fiends, unlike in all those other Porky's type flix of the era.

The soundtrack is pretty good too-the Cars, Huey Lewis, Wang Chung, Rod Stewart too. Who would thought that Rob Reiner'd turn out to be such a good director? This was his first traditional movie Move, if you will-after the Psuedo-documentary 'Spinal Tap' from the previous year-and it's a good one.

Very 80s, but a Good 80s flick. You will like this if you get a chance to see it.

*** outta ****

Bearing in mind all the obvious issues with this film, it is a great surprise to me that it is one of my favourites. Firstly, it is a romantic comedy. I don't "do" romantic comedy. I am one of those males who the thought of softening to a rom-com reduces to a pre-teen "err, I wouldn't kiss a girl" state. I enjoyed 'Last of the Mohicans' but that was an adventure with a romantic element. This is definitely a rom-com, dead square and centre. Secondly, the whole film is so dated {to an era which was not the greatest of my life). Within five minutes of the start, with the music, clothes and 'Miami Vice' font, I would expect anyone born before 1975 to be able to date this film to within 1 year either side. Thirdly, despite the journey, not enough is made of location to describe this as a road movie. Lastly, the plot is entirely predictable within the rom-com formula. As soon as the male and female leads fall out you know what is going to happen by the end of the film... (whoops, is that a spoiler!?!).

Despite these problems, 'The Sure Thing' hits the mark. This era produced some now badly dated and still immensely enjoyable American films like 'Ferris Bueller', 'Weird Science', 'The Breakfast Club' and 'Flight of the Navigator'. Like those films, the script, acting and direction are first-rate: you can laugh at and laugh with the Cusack character and understand why he gets up the nose of the Zuniga character. There are many genuinely funny moments and an underlying humour through it all. The minor parts - the party animal, the geek, the irritating couple - are all stereotypes but sympathetically drawn. Campus life is fun but innocent fun. Yes, there is drinking and fooling round, but no drunkenness, fighting, drugs or pregnancy. This is the ultimate appeal of the film, and it is a nostalgic one. It is innocent and simple like you wish your teenage years had been. The way the central characters draw together and meet halfway, not one adapting to the other, sustains the film throughout. For all its obviousness, this is an enjoyable film to watch.

Just for the heck of it, I pulled out my copy of The Sure Thing and watched it again. It's held up well since I first saw it on video in 1986. Yeah, the music is a little old, and Jason, Alison's boyfriend, still grates on me because I looked like him, but in all other respects it has held up well. What carries it is that it's the classic John Cusack Movie, where Cusack is just being... John Cusack. Totally real, totally unpretentious. You can see it in everything else he's done, even things of totally different style, like "Eight Men Out" and "The Grifters." He just rules the screen and the production ends up recalling pictures like "His Girl Friday" and "It Happened One Night." This has stood up to nearly fifteen years of viewing pretty well. Compare and contrast other stuff of that era, like "St. Elmo's Fire," and "Fast Times At Ridgemont High." Or any Tom Hanks movie of the period.

I've now come back five years after originally posting this review (it's now May, 2007) and I say, this film STILL stands as a classic Cusack, even after I have (in the interim) loved "Pushing Tin," "Being John Malkovich" and of course the amazing "High Fidelity." And to this day, I have been known to say, in bars, "BARKEEP! Bring this man...a TROUGH... of spritzer!"

And just remember...

"Credit cards work on a completely different kind of lock!"