The Sure Thing (1985)

the audience applauded

Simply Perfect

Fantastic!

A Masterpiece!

Walter Gibson (John Cusack) and best friend Lance (Anthony Edwards) are graduating high school. He wonders if his best days are over. Gib is floundering in a northeastern college. Alison Bradbury (Daphne Zuniga) in his English class is told by the professor to loosen up. Gib lures her to tutor him but she is completely annoyed by him. Lance is in college in California and he sends him a picture of the Sure Thing (Nicollette Sheridan). Gib gets a ride share with Gary Cooper (Tim Robbins) and Mary Ann Webster (Lisa Jane Persky) but Alison is also in the car on her way to see her boyfriend. Gib and Alison keep fighting and Gary abandons them on the side of the road.This is a traditional rom-com. It's a bit slow at times but in general, the movie works because John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga have good chemistry together. It's not very original. Zuniga is uptight and Cusack is the wild one. They are fire and ice. Of course, they are going to end up together. Rob Reiner shows some skills but also some deficiencies. The movie needs to be quicker and snappier.

I just love this movie but not many people I know have heard of it. The ending is predictable but that is not the point. Getting there is so much fun. What I liked is the actors were not just shallow, stereotypes but there was more to them. Everything just felt natural and unpretentious and there was good chemistry between the two leads. John Cusack is especially great in the film he is just so funny without trying too hard. Another thing that's special about this is that, although the premise is about some dude tryna get laid, it's not raunchy at all nor is there an F-bomb in every sentence, like many other films geared towards teens( I love those kinds as well but it's nice to see something different).Check this movie out on YouTube; it's not on DVD,sadly. It's great, funny feel-good film to watch with friends or on your own or even with your parents.

John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga spend their time together hitchhiking across country to California in director Rob Reiner's romantic, teen comedy "The Sure Thing," a quasi-"It Happened One Night." Walter 'Gib' Gibson (John Cusack of "Sixteen Candles") and his best friend Lance (Anthony Edwards of "Top Gun") graduate from high school and head off to opposite ends of the nation to attend college. Eventually, Lance sets Walter up with a hot babe (Nicollette Sheridan) but he has no means of transportation. At the same time, Alison Bradbury (Daphne Zuniga) needs a ride to California during the Christmas break to visit her bespectacled boyfriend Jason (Boyd Gaines) who is in for a surprise. Inevitably, the two wind up together in the same car, a Volkswagon station wagon driven by Gary Cooper (Tim Robbins) and his girlfriend. Our hero and heroine don't last long with Gary and his girlfriend after she bares her breasts during the ride and flaunts them to another vehicle whose occupants had mooned them. After the cops cite Gary for her promiscuous behavior, he leaves Gib and the girl on the roadside and they have to thumb a ride to get to the land of sun and fun. Harmless fun from start to finish with nothing heavy in between and dreamy Nicollette Sheridan as the eponymous babe in her cinematic debut, "The Sure Thing" qualifies as a sure thing. Nobody—at least guys—will forget Nicollette's first scene when she sprawls out on the beach and oils up her lithe body as the waves crash behind her. According to Reiner, he was so nervous that he didn't show up for this scene and let his director of photography lense it. Lots of hit music tunes enliven this sweet little comedy that Rob Reiner directs. For the record, Henry Wrinkler produced "The Sure Thing."

I love this movie, I was shocked by its relatively mediocre rating. I first came across "The Sure Thing" in the 1980s, and still enjoy catching it on TV. It's about young love, it's funny and the acting is perfect. Rob Reiner had a sure touch as a director in those days. The two leads John Cusack (Gib) and Daphne Zuniga (Alison) are terrific.Gib attends a small college in New England, and is considered cute by some of the girls. Unfortunately his awful chat up lines sabotage his chances of getting laid. Zuniga's character seems repressed, takes life too seriously and seems to have no sense of humor. Gib tells his best friend Lance (Anthony Edwards)about his problems with women. Lance takes pity and organizes a tryst with the "The Sure Thing" (Nicollette Sheridan of Desperate Housewives fame). Alison's boyfriend is a nerdy law student and coincidentally attends Lance's college in California. Gib and Alison take a road trip to the West Coast together. The film has plot similarities to "It Happened One Night" as it involves an incompatible couple, who fall in and out of love. Reiner later directed "When Harry Met Sally". In Harry he explores what would happen if the couple still hated each other after the road trip, but fall in love years later. Although Harry was more commercially successful, I prefer The Sure Thing. The acting is better and it's hard to believe that Meg Ryan would have problems finding a date or even be interested in Billy Crystal. The Sure Thing is a formulaic romantic comedy, but it's the energy of the cast and the writing that make it fun and touching.