Film review: One Crazy Summer
Mar. 25th, 2004 07:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerI watched this movie last night. I figured "Hey, it's a John Cusack film, directed one year later by the guy who did Better Off Dead. Mindless '80s teen comedy, sure; but Better Off Dead is, to my mind, hysterically funny.
I went in with fairly low expectations. Unfortunately, the movie exceeded them.
BOD worked because while the movie is populated with oddball characters, and the plot is a basic nerd-vs.-preppie revenge, it stayed in "quirky" territory. OCS goes over the top, and doesn't bother with much plot. Too many characters mean that they stay simple two-dimensional gags. Also, I didn't appreciate the casting. Bobcat Goldthwait is a huge part of the picture and I've never found him funny. Demi Moore is spectacularly miscast as the love interest / hippie rock guitarist (and she lip-synchs extremely badly).
The trademark Savage Steve Holland animation is funny, though. A lonely rhino is looking for love but keeps getting ambushed by tormenting fluffy bunnies. Beyond that, stick with Better Off Dead.
I went in with fairly low expectations. Unfortunately, the movie exceeded them.
BOD worked because while the movie is populated with oddball characters, and the plot is a basic nerd-vs.-preppie revenge, it stayed in "quirky" territory. OCS goes over the top, and doesn't bother with much plot. Too many characters mean that they stay simple two-dimensional gags. Also, I didn't appreciate the casting. Bobcat Goldthwait is a huge part of the picture and I've never found him funny. Demi Moore is spectacularly miscast as the love interest / hippie rock guitarist (and she lip-synchs extremely badly).
The trademark Savage Steve Holland animation is funny, though. A lonely rhino is looking for love but keeps getting ambushed by tormenting fluffy bunnies. Beyond that, stick with Better Off Dead.
