One Crazy Summer Reviews

Hip, kinetic teen comedy from the director of the hilarious BETTER OFF DEAD. After graduating from high school, aspiring animator Hoops McCann (John Cusack) joins his friend George (Joel Murray, younger brother of Bill Murray) on a vacation to Nantucket. On the way, Hoops meets Cassandra (Demi Moore), a beautiful young woman who aspires to be a rock 'n' roll star. Cassandra is on her way to Nantucket to attend the funeral of her grandfather. Once there, she learns that she must raise $2,000 to prevent the retirement home her grandfather owned from being turned into a lobster restaurant by nasty real estate developer Aguilla Beckersted (Mark Metcalf). But Hoops comes up with a plan to humiliate Beckersted and his preppy son, Teddy (Matt Mulhern), and to save the retirement home. Director Savage Steve Holland fills this film with so many throwaway gags that it is impossible to communicate the outright zaniness. Every scene contains dozens of jokes, some that work and some that don't, but they keep coming so fast and furious that the duds are easily forgotten. Strung together on the flimsiest of plots, Holland's film works as well as it does because he stocks it with several likably eccentric characters. While certainly not for all tastes, it's refreshing teenage fare, and underlying its cartoony insouciance is a welcome touch of innocence.