Weekend 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.

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"

The plot of WEEKEND PASS reminded me of those old musical comedies starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in which a trio of up-for-it sailors come on shore leave for the weekend and engage in all kind of escapades. Unfortunately this is the lame '80s comedy version of the story, put out by trash purveyors Crown International, and it's as dumb and stereotypical as you'd expect.

The problems are tenfold. For starters, the main characters are all jerks, and I mean real scumbags. When you see the way they treat women and find out the kind of humour they enjoy then you'll end up hating them too. Secondly, the adventures they embark on are dumb and designed to titillate than anything else. They end up at a sleazy strip club, allowing for ample nudity from the female extras, and also head to a comedy club and listen to various racist and offensive jokes.

To pad out the running time there are a few sub-plots here and there and some slapstick moments, although surprisingly for a Crown International film, no scene of a dog tearing off a woman's bikini top. Oh well - you can't have everything...

In what sounds like the perfect recipe for an 80s sex comedy, four naval recruits get a weekend pass and head to Los Angeles for 72 hours of fun. Unfortunately, 'fun' in this case consists largely of driving aimlessly around town in a jeep, getting in a scrap with a badly dressed street gang, visiting the world's worst comedy club, and busting some moves at an aerobics themed party (WARNING: this film contains scenes of gratuitous body popping and gaudy spandex outfits which may cause uncontrollable hysteria and/or feelings of nausea).

The weekend's more risqué activities are limited to a quick visit to a strip joint, hiring a topless masseuse (the only one in LA who doesn't offer extras!), and for one member of the group, almost getting jiggy with an ex-girlfriend (the fool chickens out when he realises that she is more experienced in the sack than he is). Not much to boast about when they get back to base, then.

By the end of their not very wild weekend, each guy has successfully hooked up with a 'nice' girl, meaning that they've had zero nookie, and that anyone unfortunate enough to have watched this wretched bilge has had zero fun.

"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.