Summer School (1987)

(Second Viewing, In French, On TV, July 2019) I could have sworn that I had never seen Summer School before, but as the film unfolded the gory pranks played by two horror-loving characters seemed familiar. No matter; much of the rest of the film felt brand new, even as it showed a very familiar kind of comedy. The premise feels pure-1980s (even though a lot of it was reused in later movies such as 2018’s Night School) as a below-average gym teacher is asked to handle a remedial English summer program. The assorted characters found in his class are custom-designed to provide comic subplots, from the proud dyslexic black woman to the Italian exchange student to the teenage mom to the football guy to … and it goes on. Can they will all band together and outperform expectations? Yes! And that’s the movie for you. Highlights include a gory masterclass in makeup effects, Mark Harmon playing a Steve Gutenberg role, Kirstie Alley looking wonderful and … not much else. Formulaic and forgettable at once, likable yet empty, Summer School comfortably represents some kind of typical 1980s movies (surprisingly not too far away from Police Academy) but I really wouldn’t go as far as saying that it needs to be seen.