Rating (1 to 10) : 4
Summary: Lane Myers’s girlfriend Beth dumped him for the captain of the ski team and he goes from brooding to contemplating suicide to attempting to win her back.
Lane Myers (John Cusack) is trying to win back his ex-girlfriend Beth, played by Amanda Wyss, one of the “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” alumni in supporting roles (the other being Taylor Negron as the mailman). She dumped him for Roy Stalin, the arrogant, condescending captain of the ski team. Lane gets help from his sidekick Charles De Mar (Curtis Armstrong, Booger in “Revenge of the Nerds”) in trying to win her back. But in the end, he falls for another woman, a foreign exchange student, Monique (Diane Franklin) staying at his neighbor’s house.
This is supposed to be one of those movies that marked the 1980s. However, it cannot be considered in the same class of “80’s movies” like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” or “The Breakfast Club”. Save for the “Two dollars!” quote, it just isn’t memorable enough to make an impression. The movie isn’t quite somber enough to be a dark comedy. It has its funny moments but the humor is not outrageous but dated. The movie incorporates cartoon scenes where fictional events from Lane’s imagination come to life but unfortunately this aspect is distracting (as is the haphazard plot line). It makes the movie look silly without being all that funny.
Worth two dollars, which is about what most video stores charge for low-demand rentals like this.
Why you should or should not see this movie:
You shouldn’t see this movie because it’s not all that funny and not all that memorable save for that one line by the paper route boy.
Tree trimmer: “Tsk, man, now that’s a real shame when folks be throwin’ away a perfectly good white boy like that.”