Ping Pong Summer

This film is about a teenager who takes up ping pong ball by chance during a family summer holiday in a seaside town.

I guess this film is more about the story than the acting, but I still think "Ping Pong Summer" can be better in this aspect. The teenage actors are not very convincing, only the Gothic sister is good. The plot is probably supposed to be inspiring, but it turns out to be very flat and not very engaging. Maybe it's because there's no ups then downs, or maybe there's not enough intensive training, or the psychological motivation to win is not presented to be strong enough. The plot fails to interest me. I wonder why Susan Sarandon got involved with this project. And the film could have cast all unknowns to save on budget.

It's 1985. Rad Miracle (Marcello Conte) is an awkward teen loner. He loves ping pong and hip hop. His sister Michelle (Helena Seabrook) is a bitter sarcastic teen. His parents state trooper Brendan (John Hannah) and Crandall (Lea Thompson) are cheapskates. They got a deal on their Ocean City annual summer vacation. He's infatuated with Stacy Summers. Rich kids Lyle Ace and Dale Lyons are picking on him. His new friend Teddy Fryy tells him that his next door neighbor Randi Jammer (Susan Sarandon) is a weirdo but she turns out to be a great mentor.

I really want to root for these kids. I kinda like them in their shy dorky ways. Their story is sweet and a little cliché. I like the popular girl who has a problem. The main drawback are the teen actors. I don't want to say bad things about them but they're mostly amateurs. It shows. Their dialog, their interactions and their general acting abilities are all a bit deficient. Writer/director Michael Tully needs to give Rad another dimension. He needs an awkward sense of humor or something more than just being shy. The adults are fine and I love Hannah and Thompson. Sarandon has some nice moments. Amy Sedaris has a nice fun short section. The kids need a bit more charisma.

This film is weird: deeply original under many respects and unbelievably ordinary under others.

It's the story of a young boy who is initiated to tennis table (and to love) during a summer vacation with his family. The estranging atmosphere of the 80s is depicted very well and the everyday life of a boy from a family with no means is also rendered in a surprisingly realistic way for a comedy.

Everything is nice and funny until you realize that you are watching the most predictable and clichéd plot you can imagine. This will not completely spoil the thing for you but will leave you at least surprised: so many ideas (starting from the head titles in three different styles) and such a poor ending.

Visual stuff, characters and dialogues, however, are too good to shoot this film down.

The latest in a long line of 80s nostalgia films, 'Ping Pong Summer' differs a bit from the rest due to its indie film roots. The production is less polished and the story and characters more quirky. The results are a bit mixed, with its indie trappings being both a blessing and a curse.

The adult cast is quite good, with veterans like Susan Sarandon, John Hannah and Leah Thomson making the most of rather thankless roles. But the weight of the movie falls on the shoulders of its young first time actors, and it's here that 'Ping Pong Summer' both soars and sinks. At times there's a real charm to their performances and at others they lack the experience to lift the material to the level that it needs to work.

This is a feel good movie with a lot of heart, and though a bit uneven at times, it does reward you for sticking with it. Anyone who loves the 80s should definitely check it out. For everyone else, your mileage may vary.

Let's be honest, this is a terrible movie. What an odd mix of veteran actors (Susan Sarandon, Leah Thompson etc.) quite literally smashing up against terrible novices like the lead character's sidekick, Myles Massey. I continue to be amazed that people are actually paid to cast movies and they come up with bad actors all the time. The sidekick role is crucial here, yet they choose a kid who can't act. Go figure. Watching Sarandon, John Hannah and Leah Thompson attempt to add some flow to the movie while working with terrible actors reminds me of Natalie Portman struggling with Robot Hayden Christensen in the Star Wars prequels. I guess it has something to do with movie budget; perhaps they ran out of money after paying Sarandon, Hannah and Thompson.

Every once it awhile we see some promise, as when Rad and his family visit his Aunt and her husband. Amy Sedaris and Robert Longstreet show how it's done and provide a hint of what the movie might have been. Also Rad's sister was more than adequate in her role.

All this aside, the movie does well with costumes and general 1980s era eastern shore vibe, that's about it. The pacing is excruciating as we wait for lead character Rad to meet up with Susan Sarandon and when he finally does, it's almost a throwaway scene and before you know it we're (mercifully) at the finish line.

If the director was attempting some sort of filmmaking homage, I missed it completely. So much more could have been done for the eastern shore/Ocean City in a movie like this. I'm being brutally honest when I say that all during the movie I kept thinking how I could have rounded up some buddies and a mini HD camera and done a much better job. I kid you not. It's that bad.