One Crazy Summer (1986)

Too much of everything

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Lonely cartoonist Hoops McCann (John Cusack) graduates from high school. His friend George invites him to spend the summer in Nantucket with George's weird little sister. He rescues Cassandra Eldridge (Demi Moore) from a motorcycle gang. They stay with George's grandma where uncle Frank is desperately waiting for a radio contest. They meet up with the idiot Stork twins (Bobcat Goldthwait, Tom Villard) and Ack Ack Raymond (Curtis Armstrong), the son of marine General Raymond (Joe Flaherty). The ragtag group helps Cassandra save her dead grandfather's house from the greedy Beckersteds for their development. She has one week to pay the mortgage.Cusack is in the throws of his boyish charms. Demi Moore is beautiful and bold girl next door. It's got Bobcat going Goldthwait insanity. Director/writer Savage Steve Holland has his wacky sense of humor similar to his first movie 'Better Off Dead...' It's fun but a bit uneven. The craziness never stops and it's very memorable. Watching it some 30 years later, the most crazy stuff like the Bobcat Godzilla is still unforgettable.

Savage Steve Holland wrote and directed his second film, One Crazy Summer, with John Cusack and Curtis Armstrong again in a supporting role. Cusack and Bobcat Goldthwait are recent graduates headed to Cape Cod in order to stay at Goldthwait's grandmother's for the summer. Along the way, they bump into Demi Moore being pursued by John Matuszak and a motorcycle gang. Soon the three are united in trying to save a house from being turned into another lobster restaurant by a conniving, spoiled family that considers "work" a dirty word. The film contains several funny vignettes like the millionaire dollar radio contest gags and the Godzilla skit.Like Holland's first film, Better Off Dead, John Cusack adds immeasurably to the film. Otherwise, this is a dud of a film filled with contrived situations and idiotic characters (as opposed to quirky). Moore even sings a few bars in a nightclub with some horrible synthesizers. Goldthwait's gags wear thin after awhile, and Armstrong never was an actor of any caliber to appear in anything except grade Z stuff. The tow truck twins are extremely annoying and obnoxious instead of the endearing underdogs they're obviously meant to be. This is more of a hit or miss, kitchen sink comedy which could have used a better script and direction. *1/2 of 4 stars.

i adore this film as much as any one adores viewing whatever it was they saw when they were young. it was one of those films that Home Box Office showed every other day throughout my youth. this film is forever lodged in my brain. For someone who didn't grow up around this film, you may have become spoiled by the ADD cycle we've been in since the mid-90's and may find it more difficult to appreciate this gem. cool this is, as my sis was doped up on "better off dead" before i saw this (of which i raped & loved)-and no one, NO ONE can deny the embrace of awkward teenage humor in American cinema in the 80's - this gave birth to everything we have found tiresome in teen comedies..because with all the overuse of slow-mo, the current soundtrack, the new tech. I wonder if cinema will go back to these roots... THIS IS the teen comedy...YES!

This is classic 80's humor. If you were a teen in the 80's this was a summer hit to go see. It was a early look at those now super stars. This and Better off Dead just are fun and silly movies to sit back and enjoy. Everyone can admit they had a crazy summer when they were a teenager. Even crazy family and friends like these characters. To be introduced to some of these characters was so much fun. The uncle who is crazy sitting every waking moment at a radio waiting to win a million dollars, the grandmother who only likes the granddaughter and handed a bill to the kids after dinner, the twin brothers who look nothing alike, and to meet hoopz was so much fun. This may not of won an award but it is just a fun movie to get lost in one afternoon.