Pinball, des filles et des flippers

PICK-UP SUMMER (Pinball Summer) was shown as part of the Grindhouse Film Festival at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles March 9-10, 2007. This film among others was chosen by Quentin Tarantino as a favorite from his personal 35mm collection. I saw him briefly in the lobby of the theater and he said that he saw this in 1982 when it was first released. On Friday night when I saw it in a packed house, the mainly young audience got the jokes (lots of laughter) and had fun with the film. Obviously inspired by other teen films like THE VAN and THE POM-POM GIRLS, this film revolves around a Pinball Machine (remember them?) tournament. Not too shabby...

Quite clearly filmed under the title, PINBALL SUMMER, PICKUP is a truly bizarre Canadian version of USA teen flicks. The film tries to pass off Canada as the USA, but that is hardly the largest of its credibility problems. This is one of those films where you are led to believe that a group of teens is going to spend all summer chasing down a trophy for a pinball tournament as the be all and end all of existence! Even supposedly rough and tumble biker gangs go gaga for the hunk of metal and faux wood.

But, between the hackneyed boyfriend-girlfriend storyline, the loser virgin clichés and the chase for the elusive trophy, PICKUP SUMMER gains momentum to become a truly indescribable bit of 80's nostalgia. Leering shots at the pretty leads are expected and break up the monotony, but when the film has over-the-top homo-erotic biker dudes chasing after not only the girls, but this trophy and, seemingly, each other, it truly goes off the rails - in it's own "good-bad" way.

The theme song "Pinball Summer" (they even did a custom Pinball Summer video game) is genuinely catchy in a pop 80's kind of way, and there is a quirky energy to the second half of the film.

Grindhouse fest

I review every movie I watch on IMDB, as a way to keep track. I watch a lot of garbage, particularly '80s boob comedies like this, and slashers. It can be hard to know what to say about these flicks; they're usually bad in a boring way.

"Pick up Summer" is an example of that. It's not really about anything, and doesn't really have any characters or memorable moments. It just shows the usual teen hijinks, mostly performed by people clearly out of their teens.

The movie doesn't even really have a protagonist. There are two obnoxious idiots - one who looks to be well into his thirties - who are in perhaps more scenes than any of the other characters. I guess they're the protagonists. They make no impression, other than vague annoyance.

Then there's a gang of biker toughs, and a fat guy who wants to join the gang, so he has to lose his virginity, and they get him a hooker while they watch the action from the windows. Not that the movie has any sex.

It does have some nudity, including some from a woman whose nipples and areolae are markedly the same colour as her breasts, and so are almost invisible.

There's also a scene where a guy rides a motorbike into water, for some reason.

This movie ended up making me feel like I'd been sucking helium or something. Fun, silly and kind of surreal. Similar feeling to watching Dazed & Confused... except in D&C at least there were somewhat realistic characters with somewhat believable lines. The characters in this movie are all cartoons with silly lines and over-the-top acting. Total drive-in movie fare. It's perfect for a bunch of friends to hang out and watch while drinking a bunch of beer. You don't have to follow the plot too closely to understand what's happening. It's got everything. Cool vans, pinball, bikers, hot chicks, disco dancing and a happy 70s soundtrack.

I actually had a kinda hard time placing the year when I first saw it. I thought for sure 80s but in the arcade scenes not one video game was visible and instead pinball machines seemed to be the big craze.

I have to say I liked this movie a lot and could see myself going back and watching it a few more times. I've tried to watch Meatballs again recently and found to my disappointment that I no longer enjoyed it but somehow this film has the perfect knucklehead teen comedy vibe. I only heard of this movie because the band Fu Manchu mentioned it as an inspiration... I was unable to find a copy anywhere until one showed up on e-bay.

This was one of my favorite movies growing up in the 80's, although back then, it was called "Pinball Summer", not "Pick-Up Summer." Being 12 years old, I thought it was hilariously brilliant when the two guys decided to stuff hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, and popcorn into the exhaust pipe of a car in the drive-in movie so when it started up, the car behind it got a blast of greasy food! Anyone going into a movie like this expecting anything more than pure hedonistic fun, stupidity, and laughs, will be sorely disappointed. However, if you want a break from your week to just chill and relive the carefree days of the early 80's then sit back and enjoy the ride!