After seeming to be overly stressed at work air traffic control worker Jack Chester is told to take a break from work and decided to take his family on a summer holiday to Florida. However, upon arrival, things slowly start to spiral out of control for Chester through a series of mishaps and a rivalry with a wealthy local resident....
Allegedly this is John Candy's first film in which he took the leading role and one can see shades of some of the goodness that he brought about in some of his later films where he was either in the lead role or a 'leading role.' Sadly what let's Summer Rental down is its largely aimless plotting and its weak script. In fact it was only at around the 1 hour plus mark before we're even given an indication of what the story is with this film. Prior to this incident, we see Candy crash and barge his way through the film which admittedly did provide some amusing moments, but the weak writing on offer here does nothing to support Candy meaning despite his best efforts he isn't really able to save the film. Aside from Candy, the only other people who bring this film to life are Richard Crenna and Rip Torn, but again neither are funny enough to make the film work; although naturally any scene involving any of these 3 actors are usually the best in the film.
Carl Reiner's direction is pretty woeful; he's far too reliant on Candy and his pratfalls and doesn't even seem interested in giving the film any sense of purpose or point until past the hour mark. We all know that this became Candy's trademark type of role in later films, but in most of his later films the material was better giving Candy's oafish charm that little bit more definition and helped shape his performances that little bit more further down the line.
If you're a fan of John Candy and/or are curious about watching his first leading role then he does bring a lot of what we saw in later films in Summer Rental; he's the lovable clumsy oaf who generally has good intentions. However, his performance and the script in this film certainly don't go hand in hand and what you're ultimately left with is a good and sometimes funny leading man held back by a weak script. Like I say, Summer Rental acts as a prototype for John Candy's future success, but it's fair to say that a lot better was to follow.
Allegedly this is John Candy's first film in which he took the leading role and one can see shades of some of the goodness that he brought about in some of his later films where he was either in the lead role or a 'leading role.' Sadly what let's Summer Rental down is its largely aimless plotting and its weak script. In fact it was only at around the 1 hour plus mark before we're even given an indication of what the story is with this film. Prior to this incident, we see Candy crash and barge his way through the film which admittedly did provide some amusing moments, but the weak writing on offer here does nothing to support Candy meaning despite his best efforts he isn't really able to save the film. Aside from Candy, the only other people who bring this film to life are Richard Crenna and Rip Torn, but again neither are funny enough to make the film work; although naturally any scene involving any of these 3 actors are usually the best in the film.
Carl Reiner's direction is pretty woeful; he's far too reliant on Candy and his pratfalls and doesn't even seem interested in giving the film any sense of purpose or point until past the hour mark. We all know that this became Candy's trademark type of role in later films, but in most of his later films the material was better giving Candy's oafish charm that little bit more definition and helped shape his performances that little bit more further down the line.
If you're a fan of John Candy and/or are curious about watching his first leading role then he does bring a lot of what we saw in later films in Summer Rental; he's the lovable clumsy oaf who generally has good intentions. However, his performance and the script in this film certainly don't go hand in hand and what you're ultimately left with is a good and sometimes funny leading man held back by a weak script. Like I say, Summer Rental acts as a prototype for John Candy's future success, but it's fair to say that a lot better was to follow.