Weekend Pass

It beats Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone With The Wind and The Wizard of Oz as the world's finest example of cinematic craftwork. And if you believe that, I have a voting machine from South Florida I'd like to sell you. P.T. Barnum was right.

There is a scene in "Citizen Kane" where Joseph Cottens character Jedediah Leland is attending an opera. On the stage singing, or at least trying to sing is Kanes mistress Susan Alexander. Leland is so bored with her talentless performance he begins making paperdolls out of his program . If you watch this movie you may also find yourself becoming a master in the art of paperdoll making. A bunch of Navy recruits fresh out of bootcamp on the town for 72 hours. Their weekend comes to an end sooner for them than this picture does for the viewer. Recommendation: The second part of the title "PASS"

Four sailors just out of boot camp head out to Los Angeles on a free weekend. They all end up meeting various women with differing results.

Weekend Pass was made in an era when the sex comedy was at its commercial peak. There seemed to be loads of them back in the 80's or so it seemed anyway. To be honest, the majority of these films have been very much forgotten and don't even command a minor cult following now. I would say that this one does qualify as a sex comedy, as it has some nudity sprinkled throughout and its central characters and their motivations certainly fit the genre. But it's a very restrained example of this kind of film it has to be said. And while it's not exactly funny, most of its peers aren't either. I have to say, however, that while this is hardly a very good film I found it to be somewhat likable. I think this was primarily down to its quite decent cast who put in engaging performances, while on the other hand its episodic structure meant it never got too boring either and ensured that there was a reasonable amount of variety to its events. There are encounters in various places such as a strip joint, a comedy club and an aerobics disco. I thought the various couplings towards the end were handled fairly well also, with even some worthwhile dramatic acting in places. By the end of the flick you would never say it's a lost classic but, at the same time, I thought it did a number of things reasonably well and wasn't as knuckle-headed as this type of fayre normally is.

"Weekend Pass" did pretty well at the box office for a low budget youth comedy with no big stars in its cast. However, it's all but forgotten today. Watching it, it's pretty easy to figure out why it hasn't built even a minor cult. There's no real story here - it's just a bunch of vignettes that have little to no relationship with each other. There are a number of attempts at humor, but they all fall completely flat. The musical score is pretty bad - I'm sure even audiences in 1984 thought the music was sub par. And while there is some T & A, none of the characters actually gets lucky, at least on screen.

Still, I have to admit that the movie is not COMPLETELY terrible. The production values are pretty good for a low budget movie, taking us to a number of places that include some L.A. locations you don't usually see in a B movie. The four main characters come across as pretty likable guys, supporting each other and having warm personalities. And the final sequence has a surprising amount of emotion. I'm not saying this stuff saves the movie, but it helps to make the viewing experience less painful than you may be expecting.

1st watched 2/4/2021 - (Dir-Lawrence Bassoff): Mostly boring, unfunny, supposed comedy about a group of Navy younguns getting a weekend pass after their initial training. A geek, a funny guy, a cool black guy, and a "good looker" - pack up their backpacks and head out to Los Angeles for a weekend of freedom. Of course, the first place they go is a strip club and the "good looker" reaches out to a stripper and bets he can get her number and of course, doesn't. Than, of course, they try to get a sure thing for the geek by ordering a masseuse - and this turns out to be another klunker as she walks on him with heels and twists him in numerous ways, but no happy ending. The cool black one gets a crush on a fitness instructor and eventually gets her attention. The funny one has a gig at a comedy club that falls flat but he, of course, meets a woman. Despite the intent to add raunchy scenes the movie actually tries to have a heart as the "good looker" actually says no to sex from an old college friend - primarily because she is more interested in others than him. There is a final Sunday night party where the geek has a setup date with the niece of an officer where everything works itself out for a full-on happy ending with every Navy dude having a partner. Besides the slight heart of this movie - it is not funny, not interesting, and pretty boring. Another miss for Crown International.