Summer Job

Ghastly 80's t & a comedy. There's nothing about this movie that's remotely entertaining. I hated it when I was a teen and I still hate it today. Boring film about some punk kids (who are too old to be young adults) who have a summer job whining one minute and trying to fool around the next. Save your time and don't waste it on mindless bunk like this. TEASE! Not worthy of anything. F

My review was written in May 1989 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

Unbelievably in theatrical release Stateside, "Summer Job" represents the nadir of the teen sex-comedy genre, an amateur-night film deficient on all levels.

Plotless wonder, with seven producers credited, including underachieving scripter Ralph Wilson, runs through tired sight gags and stupid dialog that is so badly acted and mechanically executed one can only marvel at the cynicism of its makers.

Sherrie Rose is the young supervisor of college kids working at a Florida resort for the summer. There's some practical joking, fraternizing with grotesque guests and boring partying. None of it works or is the least bit diverting.

Paul Madden's minimalist direction repeats camera setups in the manner of early D. W. Griffith, avoids camera movement and omits any hint of action footage. Apparently some pretty girls dropping their tops for a second or two is supposed to justify the rest.

Flat line readings are par for the course, while the token nerd is overplayed embarrassingly by thesp billed as simply Geoge O.

Cannes Market audience laughed only once, when a foppish waiter ineptly took a stab at reciting French dialog.

I gave SUMMER JOB a 5 out of 10. An explanation is surely in order, because I happen to think this is a bad movie: a comedy without many jokes, written and directed on a level that would need more work to pass muster in a high-school film studies class.

Yet a 5 it gets. Why? Because SUMMER JOB was one of the first T&A comedies I ever rented at Blockbuster (I didn't rent all of the other ones, just some of them) and even though it was stupid, it was also harmless, had the "good people" winning out at the end over the jackasses and witches, and didn't have pretensions of being more than it was. In fact, the movie's stupidity made it more, not less, fun.

This video probably won't be available--to the extent it's really widely available--once video stores start following Blockbuster's lead and replacing VCR tapes with DVDs, so I wanted to say my peace on it before it disappears, for a movie that is bad yet not easy to forget, try as one might.

I don't understand why people are trashing this movie so bad... I mean meatballs or spaceballs didn't have the best acting but they are great movies....this is a funny feel good type of movie with a lot of young nudity....i love some of the 80 teen movies because it brings back memories of when we were young and acted crazy and this movie def put a smile on mine and my girlfriends faces..so yea please stop trashing the movie....it wasn't made to win Oscars or academy awards...and if you don't like this type of movie then don't watch it....I personally don't watch movies in genres that I know I won't like then write bad reviews bout them....for an 80's screwball comedy with no name actors this movie does the job... Puts smiles on your faces!!

"Summer Job" is billed as a sex comedy, I suppose, but it fails on both counts: it's tame and unerotic and, at the same time, thoroughly unfunny. The characters are stereotypical, the acting is poor, the humor level low and nobody would accuse the film of intelligence. However, all this imbecility seemed inoffensive to me, maybe because it never gets downright sleazy, and the film is certainly a lot less boring than several "high-profile" motion pictures.