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Summer Rental

Summer Rental

Comedy · 1985

Jack Chester, an overworked air traffic controller, takes his family on vacation to the beach. Things immediately start to go wrong for the Chesters, and steadily get worse. Jack ends up in a feud with a local yachtsman, and has to race him to regain his pride and family's respect.

Movie details

Summer Rental

“Life is a beach.”

1985 Comedy 1h 27m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.1 / 10

Community rating

Jack Chester, an overworked air traffic controller, takes his family on vacation to the beach. Things immediately start to go wrong for the Chesters, and steadily get worse. Jack ends up in a feud with a local yachtsman, and has to race him to regain his pride and family's respect.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Summer Rental?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Comedy · 1994

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Carl Reiner

Written by

Mark Reisman · Jeremy Stevens

John Candy

John Candy

Jack Chester

Richard Crenna

Richard Crenna

Al Pellet

Rip Torn

Rip Torn

Scully

Karen Austin

Karen Austin

Sandy Chester

Kerri Green

Kerri Green

Jennifer Chester

John Larroquette

John Larroquette

Don Moore

Joey Lawrence

Joey Lawrence

Bobby Chester

Court is in session

Put Summer Rental on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Popcorn Loyalist

“It owes the canon nothing.”

The movie pursues immediacy and audience pleasure without begging institutions to certify its worth.

The prosecution The Big-Idea Head

“Easy pleasure, short half-life.”

It moves efficiently through the moment but offers little reason to keep arguing once the credits end.