Summer Rental

Summer Rental casts John Candy as Jack Chester, an overworked air-traffic controller who embarks on a vacation to Florida with his wife (Karen Austin’s Sandy), children (Kerri Green’s Jennifer, Joey Lawrence’s Bobby, and Aubrey Jene’s Laurie), and dog – with the episodic narrative detailing the various problems and frustrations that inevitably arise (including an ongoing rivalry with a local snob, Richard Crenna’s Al Pellet). There’s ultimately not much in Summer Rental that wholeheartedly works, and yet the movie remains impressively watchable for the duration of its mercifully brief running time – with the relatively entertaining atmosphere due almost entirely to Candy’s predictably compelling work as the beleaguered central character. The film’s proliferation of comedic set pieces that are simultaneously too silly and aggressively unfunny certainly doesn’t help alleviate the erratic vibe, while the ineffective third act, which is devoted almost entirely to Jack’s efforts at besting Al at an annual regatta, ensures that the whole thing concludes on as anticlimactic a note as one could envision – with the end result an entirely forgettable endeavor that’d hardly be worth mentioning were it not for Candy’s energetic performance.

**1/2 out of ****