Summer Rental (1985)

If we're going to be technical, the first movie with John Candy that I ever saw was the original Home Alone, but I saw that at such a young age that I had no way of knowing who he was or even caring, since he's barely in it. However, the movie that truly introduced me to him, and made me the big fan that am I today, was this one. Fittingly, I first saw it when I was on a similar vacation in Florida with my mom and dad. Throughout my childhood and on into my teens, it was a yearly tradition for the three of us to take a trip to Destin, Florida and spend a nice week at the beach. One year, we had literally just arrived there in the afternoon and were getting settled into our condo, when my dad happened to turn the TV onto TBS and this film had just started. From the minute I saw John Candy struggling to get out of his car through the window when someone parks too close to him, I was hooked and knew I was in for something funny. Little did I know that I was also in for something I could really relate to, given our many trips to basically the same place and the same sorts of trials and tribulations: sunburn, hot sand, long lines at the restaurants, etc. I don't think we watched it all the way to the end (I think we went out to eat) but I do remember liking and enjoying much of what I saw, and it was a movie that I enjoyed watching whenever it was reran, which was fairly often (it felt like one of those movies that was destined to become a staple on cable television). I still enjoy it to this day, so much so that I scooped up the DVD as soon as I found it, though I will admit that, now that I'm older, the seams have really started to show. There's still a lot of it that I think is genuinely funny and charming, but there are also parts of the story that I don't find that interesting and other parts that are so dry that you have to wonder if there wasn't more to them originally. In short, it's far from an absolute classic, but on the whole, it is an entertaining, fun little flick that the whole family can enjoy.

Jack Chester is an air traffic controller in Atlanta who, after being at it for thirteen years, desperately needs some rest. After a particularly rotten day that culminates in him nearly causing a midair collision and not being able to find a plane on the radar simply because a fly was covering the blip, he's given five weeks' vacation. With that, he and his family, consisting of his wife, Sandy, his teenage daughter, Jennifer, son, Bobby, young daughter, Laurie, and the lazy family dog, Archie, head off to lovely Citrus Cove, Florida. Once there, they arrive at what they think is their rental home: a very nice, well furnished house by the beach. However, what's meant to be a relaxing vacation for Jack starts to unravel as soon as they unpack, as he falls asleep in the sun and suffers an awful sunburn on his arms, legs, and face; after a long wait at an upscale restaurant, they're forced to allow Al Pellet, a local sailing champion, to go ahead with his party, and they end up taking the last of the fresh lobsters; and that night, the Chesters find out that they misread their rental house's address when the home's owners return, forcing them to leave in the middle of the night. As if that wasn't bad enough, their actual rental house is a rundown shack that happens to be right next to the path that leads to the public beach. Following a disastrous day at the beach where he ends up embarrassing his son when the two of them attempt to play volleyball with some other beach-goers, Jack decides to take Bobby sailing, something he used to be really good at. The two of them rent a boat from Scully, who runs the restaurant the family ended up going to that first awful night, but while out on the water, they collide with the Incisor, Pellet's boat, resulting in them putting a hole in it, while Jack badly injures his leg. His leg in a splint, Jack is now unable to spend time with his family, who meet Don Moore, a polite and fairly wealthy man, at the theater and start spending time with him. To make up for it, Jack starts spending more and more time with Scully, determined to learn how to sail again. Things are going well, until their landlord passes away and Pellet buys their rental cottage. Out for revenge for what happened on the ocean, Pellet tears up Jack's check for the last two weeks' rent and orders them to be out by that Saturday or he'll personally throw them out. Much to his surprise, Jack then challenges him to a race to the upcoming Citrus Cove Regatta, the stakes being the last two weeks of the vacation. Not having a boat to sail, Jack convinces Scully to make his floating restaurant, the Barnacle, seaworthy. But whether or not they can get it ready in time is as much up in the air as the question of whether they can win.

The film's director, Carl Reiner, is somebody who's had a long and successful career in comedy, as a director and writer, as well as an actor, work with talents like Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks, and Dick Van Dyke, having created what would become The Dick Van Dyke as an intended vehicle for himself. Following that show's ending, he began directing feature films in 1967 with Enter Laughing, which was based on his autobiography. He went on to do The Comic, also starring Van Dyke, Where's Poppa?, Oh, God!, and The One and Only, with Henry Winkler, before hitting it big with The Jerk. Reiner and Steve Martin proved to be a winning team, as they worked together again on Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, The Man with Two Brains, and All of Me; Summer Rental was the followup to that string of films with Martin. He and John Candy got along so well that they planned to make another movie together but that film, unfortunately, never came to be. Instead, Reiner went on to do 1987's Summer School, Bert Rigby, You're a Fool, Sibling Rivalry, Fatal Instinct, and That Old Feeling. While Summer Rental did fairly well, none of those subsequent movies were successful critically or commercially, and after That Old Feeling in 1997, Reiner bowed out of directing. He has continued to work as a writer and actor.

Though John Candy had been the star of 1983's Going Berserk, Summer Rental marked the first time he headlined a movie produced by a major American studio, after having had supporting roles in other popular films like Stripes, National Lampoon's Vacation, and Splash. As usual, he's the guy you can't help but just like. He plays Jack Chester as a severely overworked man who doesn't want to admit that he is overworked but, after a day that gets off on the wrong foot and never gets any better, with Jack being late, having to crawl through his car's window when someone parks too close to him, and him having a meltdown when a fly he doesn't see covers up a blip on his radar, he's forced to take a five-week vacation. Having never been on a family vacation before (he asks if they didn't just come back from Hawaii and Sandy tells him that was their honeymoon), Jack is really out of his depth, worrying about having forgotten something when they're about to leave (turns out it was Laurie needing to use the bathroom), being self-conscious about wearing a bathing suit to the beach, and is so exhausted that he falls asleep in the sun, receiving a really bad sunburn. Things don't get any better when, after waiting a long time for a table at an upscale restaurant, they're pushed aside by Al Pellet and his party, despite their being next, and they take the last of the lobsters. Irked at this, especially when the maitre d' intends on making them wait twenty more minutes for bothering Pellet, Jack and his family instead go to the Barnacle, where they meet Scully, and have a pretty nice meal, all things considered. Late that night, Jack's sunburn has gotten so bad that Sandy has to slather him in Noxzema and then, if that weren't bad enough, he learns that he and his family are at the wrong house when the place's owners come home after a day out. They relocate to their actual rental home, which is a pretty crappy shack that's full of flies and is right by a public beach, and have to deal with a constant parade of beach-goers walking by their dining room window. His mind is no more at ease with the knowledge that they're next door to a bunch of lifeguards and Jennifer is going to the beach in a rather revealing swimsuit. Speaking of the beach, he makes a complete fool of himself by accidentally stepping on sunbathers and pouring water on them from his cooler as he tries to find Sandy's spot, ends up losing the Frisbee he and Bobby play with, and brings down the net when the two of them try to play volleyball with some other beach-goers.

Deciding that the best thing he could do is take his son sailing, since it's something he was once good at, Jack rents a boat from Scully but makes the mistake of insisting he knows what he's doing, despite not having sailed since he was a kid. Eventually, he crashes into the side of Pellet's boat, putting a large hole in it, and injuring his bad knee in the process. Following that, his leg is stuck in a rubber, air-filled sling, forcing him to stay behind for a few days while his family goes out and has fun without him. He's stuck at the house with a TV that gets bad reception, ends up locked outside in the rain, finds himself invited over to the home of the very sexy Vicki Sanders, only to get flustered when she asks his opinion on her recently enlarged breasts, and finds that while he was gone, a bunch of people made themselves at home at his house, prompting him to throw them out. Bummed about his situation, Jack spends more and more time at the Barnacle, first in order to drown his sorrows but then to improve his sailing skills, with Scully's help. It's rough-going at first, and his family starts to get annoyed with his neglecting them, but Jack's skills start to improve, only for a bombshell to be dropped when Pellet becomes their new landlord and intends to throw them out when their first two weeks are up. Initially despondent like everyone else, Jack decides to get back at Pellet by challenging him in the upcoming regatta, betting that if he wins, they stay the final two weeks rent free. Though it seems like a crackpot plan, especially when Jack intends to sail the far from seaworthy Barnacle, everyone, from the rest of the Chesters to Scully and his crew and even the Sanders, pitches in to help make it so. Come the day of the race, they get a late start because of how long it takes to find a suitable sail, and even when they enter the race, it seems as though they're no match for Pellet and the other sailors. But, thanks to some good luck, Jack's knowledge of air funnels, and the use of his large pants as an extra bit of sail, they manage to go right past Pellet, win the race, and spend the rest of the month there.

As a whole, the Chesters are a pretty typical family. Sandy (Karen Austin), Jack's wife, is a supportive, loving spouse and mother who has a really close, warm relationship with her husband, often worrying about his stress, whether or not he's having a good time on the trip, and also becomes concerned when he starts spending a lot of time with Scully. Like the kids, she's initially not so sure about Jack's plan to race Al Pellet, but she's willing to help him get the Barnacle fixed up for it, as are the kids. I have to say, she's also quite sexy, especially for someone who's had three children. Jennifer (Kerri Green), the oldest daughter, is your average teenage girl: she sometimes argues with her younger siblings, is boy-crazy (but the boys reciprocate, as she herself turns a number of heads herself at the beach), especially over Greg Moore, and has her headphones on most of the time. She and her dad have a nice moment on the beach at sunset when he's trying to get the Barnacle ready and he admits that things aren't going that well with it. He says, "Hey, can't win 'em all," but then, she says, "But you'd like to win one, wouldn't you?", to which he answers, "One would be nice." The next day, when they all chip in to help, Jennifer tells him, "This could be the one," giving him a thumbs up as well. Bobby (Joey Lawrence; yes, that Joey Lawrence) doesn't have as much to him, other than being the middle child who sometimes gets on his older sister's nerves and looks up to his dad, despite Jack's disastrous attempts at playing Frisbee, volleyball, and teaching him how to sail. Like everyone else, he's incredulous about Jack challenging Pellet to a race, particularly when he says he's going to use the Barnacle, asking him, "Dad, you're going to sail a fish restaurant?" But, like the others, he pitches in to help get it ready. Little Laurie (Aubrey Jene), the youngest of the kids, has the habit of annoying Jennifer by often repeating what she says; other than that, there's nothing to her, which is understandable, given how little she is. There's one instance at the beginning of the boat race where she's dubbed for some reason (according to IMDB, it's Kerri Green's voice) and it's very a jarring and horrendous dub job. Finally, there's Archie, the family dog, who is extremely lazy, often doesn't listen to his owners' commands, and at one point, appears to purposefully lock Jack out in the rain so he can take his chair and get into his popcorn. As if that wasn't enough of a kick in the head, the TV, which had been grainy and staticy all day long when Jack was watching it, clears up for him!

Richard Crenna was often cast as the nice guy but he shows in this film that he could play a douchebag just as well. While he may be a very capable sailor, Al Pellet is shown to also be a snobbish, arrogant asshole from the moment he's first introduced, when he forces the Chesters to get out of the way of him and his party, despite the fact that they're next; on top of that, they take the last of the lobsters, which the family had decided to have themselves. His attitude is absolutely insufferable, with how he clearly doesn't want to waste time with small-talk with the maitre d', sticks his friend with the bill in a very sneaky manner, saying, "No arguments. This dinner... is on you," and laughs obnoxiously afterward, and shoves his wife in a way that's meant to be friendly but comes as a sign of her being very put upon. In any case, he and Jack are immediately at each other's throats, with Pellet making his view on vacationers like him very clear: "I've been in town for thirty years, thirty years, and every summer, you goddamn renters come down here and think you can take over the whole town and you can't!" After Jack and his family storm out, Pellet tells his party, "I apologize. The man was obviously a slob." The next day, Jack has another run-in with Pellet when he's out trying to teach Bobby how to sail. Each of them thinking they have the right-of-way, they run into each other, Jack putting a hole in the hull of his boat, the Incisor. Pellet is furious about this, becoming doubly so when he sees that it's him again, and swears revenge on him. That revenge comes when he takes over as the owner of the Chesters' rental home when the previous one dies. Jack gives him a check for $1,000 for the next two weeks' rent but Pellet tears the check up, growling, "I wouldn't take this check from you if my children were starving in the streets. Now, I want you and your entire family out of there by Saturday midnight, or I'm going to toss you out personally, hmm? I told you I'd get you." In this same scene, which takes place at the funeral home where the original landlord's body is, Pellet also proves to have no respect for the dead or the grieving loved ones, pretending to think highly of the deceased to his brother, asking the widow to give him some room so he can sign the papers, and ultimately closing the casket so he can have something to write on. Once he's torn up the check in front of Jack, he opens the lid again and tells the corpse, "I would have given you any amount you wanted for that house," before turning back to Jack and telling him, "And that's the best money I ever spent."

Pellet is anything but shaken when Jack challenges him to a race over the rental's last two weeks. When Jack storms into the bar and calls him from behind, Pellet says to the person he's talking to, "Oh, that's amazing. I thought they were extinct. I could swear that that's the call of the red-beaked, sear-suckered, summer renter," before turning around and saying, "And it is." He absolutely scoffs at the challenge, telling him, "You couldn't beat my dinghy," but he takes the bet anyway, saying, "You know something, Dumbo? You're even stupider than you look." Come the day of the race, Pellet thinks he's already won when the Barnacle is late showing up, and when it does, he, of course, mocks them, calling them, "Captain Blackhawk, and the S.S. Moveable Feast." He remains overconfident, arrogant, and bossy towards his crew for most of the race, thinking he's got it in the bag. But, when the Barnacle starts to catch them, he's completely incredulous, and that incredulous turns to panicked disbelief, as he wonders if they're dragging something and even goes as far as to blow on the sail in order to give it an extra little boost. He throws a complete temper tantrum when they win, putting his fingers in his ears and shouting, "I didn't hear that horn!", referring to the horn that signaled the end of the race.

After Jack Chester and Al Pellet, the character who has the most to him is Scully (Rip Torn), the runner of the Barnacle who has a pirate motif about him that is apparently not just part of his restaurant's theme, as he actually has a hook for a hand and never stops talking like a pirate or speaking in pirate lingo. Initially, he seems like he's going to be just another one of quirky characters the Chesters run into during their stay at Citrus Cove but he soon proves to be quite significant, as he rents a boat out to Jack and proves to be somebody for him to spend time with during the stretch of the movie where his leg is injured. They get drunk together, debate whether or not James Cagney could beat Sylvester Stallone in a fight, and play darts, before discovering the two of them are sort of kindred spirits, with Scully admitting that, like Jack, he peaked in life at a young age as well. Because of that, he offers to teach Jack how to sail. Despite the setbacks they run into, like Jack getting seasick and accidentally knocking Scully into the water with the mast, Scully never gives up on him, determined to whip him into shape, and Jack soon gets good enough to where he earns an honorary hook in his cap. After Pellet takes over as the Chesters' landlord and forces them to leave two weeks early, Scully reveals he has no love for the man either, telling Jack, "You shouldn't have rammed him, you should have sunk the bastard," and then reveals that Pellet tried to buy him out once, adding that when he refused, he tried to force him by throwing his weight around. Because of this and his genuine affection for Jack, Scully is onboard with the plan to race Pellet with the Barnacle from the get-go, never giving up on it, despite the reservations his friend, Angus, has about the ship's seaworthiness. They manage to fix it up, get the appropriate sail, and Scully guides Jack in the captaining department during the race. Despite some good luck, it initially seems like the Barnacle simply can't keep up with the Incisor, but when Scully learns that they're still carrying all the food and the freezer for the restaurant, he has them toss it all overboard, the less weight allowing them to catch up with Pellet. It may have ruined his chances at continuing to run his restaurant but it seems like Scully is just happy to beat Pellet when the use of Jack's pants as an extra bit of sail puts them over the edge.

Along with Scully, the Barnacle is also run by Cortez (Santos Morales), the Hispanic cook who switches back and forth between Spanish and English, and whom you learn Pellet tried to deport when Scully refused his offer for the restaurant, and Yorku (Harry Yorku), an elderly, Asian man who acts as a musician for the Barnacle, playing a little keyboard. Other than that little function, Yorku is basically useless, with Jack often having to literally pick him up and move him out of the way while they're fixing up the Barnacle, and he spends the entire race down in the hold, playing with Laurie. And then, there's Angus MacLachlan (Richard Herd), a Scottish friend of Scully's (though Scully often calls him a "dumb Swede") whom he has inspect the Barnacle after they decide to use it in the race. Angus is very blunt about the bad shape the ship is in, calling it a "total pig," saying that it'll take a lot of work to get it ready and a lot of luck to find the appropriate sail for it. While everyone else gets the Barnacle into shipshape, Angus looks for a sail anywhere he can, going as far as Tampa and Savanna, and he finally does find one, though he cuts it very close, getting back with it the very morning of the race and almost causing them to be too late to enter. He becomes part of the crew during the race and is just as anxious to beat Pellet as the rest of them, getting frustrated and bummed when it looks like they don't have that extra little bit of sail in order to bypass him... until they use Jack's large pants for that very purpose.

One person whose role feels like it should be a lot bigger than it is, or at least you would expect that to be the case, given the actor, is John Larroquette as Don Moore, the good samaritan who pays for their theater tickets when Sandy realizes she forgot her wallet. After making friends with them there, and Jennifer becoming infatuated with his teenage son, Gregg (Tom Blackwell), Don invites them to spend the next day with the two of them, though Jack begs off joining his family because of his injured leg. Now, you would expect Don to go on to be a very significant character but that's far from the case, as his introduction at the theater is the most screentime he and Gregg get; in fact, other than some shots of the two of them having fun with the Chesters and watching the regatta, as well as Jennifer not wanting to leave because she has an upcoming date with Gregg, it's easy to completely forget about them. Even if it weren't Laroquette, I'd still be wondering why they would introduce this guy, imply that Jack is feeling bummed that he's showing his family the good time he wished he could, and then do nothing with him, but the fact that it is a well-known actor like him, and that the film was made around the time Night Court was getting close to finishing its first season, makes me wonder even more if there was other material that was cut from the final film. They mention that Don is recently divorced, a fact that seems to concern Jack even more, and while Don comes off as too nice of a guy to actually try anything with Sandy, it feels like there should be more stuff with Jack worrying if this guy is going to take his family away or maybe have a scene where Sandy confides with Don that she's worrying that Jack may be thinking she's having an affair, as well as about how he doesn't seem to be having fun. For that matter, why not have Don actually meet Jack so he could put his mind at ease by telling him that he's just being nice and isn't trying to steal his family? So much more could have been done with this guy but, as it stands, he's so superfluous that you'll find yourself wondering what the point of introducing him was.

While at the house by himself when his family is spending the day with Don and Gregg, Jack gets the surprise of his life when Vicki Sanders (Lois Hamilton), a bikini-clad beauty who happens to be their neighbor, introduces herself and invites him over for some fresh lemonade. Despite some hesitation, Jack accepts and while over there, the two of them make small-talk, talking about what they wanted to do with their lives and how things turned out... and then, Vicki asks Jack for his opinion about her breasts, which she recently had enlarged. To that end, she actually lifts up her top and has him look at them, asking if they look real, if they're the right size, etc. Flabbergasted, Jack compliments her all the way, when Vicki's husband, Ed (Carmine Caridi), comes downstairs after waking up from a nap. Normally, the husband would beat the snot of Jack, but as it turns out, Ed's irritation about what's going on is for Jack, as he's the latest in a long line of people whose opinion she's asked (according to Ed, she did the same thing to a clerk at a 7-Eleven the night before). In fact, he's so desperate to get her to stop this that he actually begs Jack to touch them and tell her that they feel real, which he does. Ed is really happy about this and wishes Jack well as he leaves, saying he'll give him the number of the doctor who did the surgery in case Sandy wishes to have the same done for her. Later, when they're fixing up the Barnacle, Jack has Ed, who's handy with power tools, help out; while there, Vicki, predictably, asks Scully for his opinion on her breasts. She does it yet again while they're in the audience for the regatta, this time to a judge, telling the very annoyed Ed that she values his opinion.

One of the reasons why I enjoy Summer Rental as much as I do is because, being someone who's taken so many trips to Florida during the summer, I can relate to a lot of it. In fact, the Chesters' driving from Georgia to Florida is relatable in and of itself, since I live in Tennessee near the border between the two states and have gone through Atlanta before. The small, rural neighborhood they live in reminds me a little bit of the towns near where I live, and the scene where they pack up in the morning in order to hit the road makes me think of all the times we started our trips to Florida, with me being very eager to get there as soon as possible. Destin, the place where we went to more often than not, is a resort town not unlike Citrus Cove (which is not a real place, by the way; the movie was actually filmed at St. Pete Beach, near St. Petersburg) and watching this movie reminds me of why I loved going there and why I love going to the beach in general: the white sand, the salty air, the sunshine, and the ocean. I love shots like the one they see of the sun shining on the water when they first arrive there, those scenes that take place at sunset that are bathed in a deep orange, and the film's cinematography, while criticized by some as not being that good, to me gives off the feeling of heat from Florida in the summertime, with the bright sunlight often filling the screen and the flared edges you sometimes see. That shot of a plane trailing a banner that advertises the regatta is something that we often saw down in Destin. I haven't been to Destin in quite a while, so I don't know if they still do it, but I can remember seeing so many of those planes carrying banners with local advertising. And I've been to some oddly-themed seafood restaurants like the Barnacle. We never actually ate on an old boat that was manned by a guy who took a pirate theme really hardcore but, trust me, the Barnacle is tame compared to some of the restaurants I've actually seen along the Florida coast.

Unfortunately, as the movie shows, vacations aren't always all fun and games and I can relate to some of the trials and tribulations the Chesters go through. They don't really dwell on it but the long car rides to your destination are something nobody, especially an energetic, impatient kid, which I was, enjoys. It would take us eight or so hours to drive from our home to Destin and I can remember often being antsy and wishing we could get there much faster. It was often just my parents and I, and my only sibling was born fourteen years before me, so I didn't have to deal with anyone else in the car getting on my nerves, but it was a drag to be stuck in the car for that long (I deal with them better now but I still don't like long trips in the car). Then, once you get to where you're going, there's the task of finding where you're staying. Other than the Chesters eventually learning that they're at the wrong house, this is another thing they don't dwell on, but it can sometimes be a very tiring and frustrating experience to try to find the place you're meant to be staying at. Oh, but now, we get into one of the absolute nightmares that comes with a trip to the beach and one that I know all too well: sunburn. I got roasted so many times when I was a kid, sometimes about as bad as Jack does when he falls asleep in the sun (I once got burnt so bad, I got really sick and was upchucking everything that went into my stomach that night), that it left me traumatized. Whenever I see the scenes where Jack first gets burnt and later when he's moaning in pain from his sunburn in the middle of the night, I cringe because I know exactly how he feels (so much so that I either make sure to lather on that sunscreen when I'm planning on swimming or wait until late in the day), as I'm sure anyone who's gotten a bad burn does. In a similar vein, there's the hazard of really hot sand combined with the annoyance of crowded beaches. Fortunately, I've never been to a beach that was crowded as the one in Citrus Cove is but I've experienced hot sand before. Whew.

When I was a kid, I hated going to eat at any place other than a fast food restaurant because I knew that, more than likely, we would have to wait a long time to get a table. I can remember numerous times where I groaned as soon as we got to the place where we had intended to eat and, like the Chesters here, saw a line that extends all the way out the front door. It was made even worse when it was hot and humid outside, as I'm sure it was there, and you knew you had a long while to wait. By the way, going back to the sunburn, I can't imagine the discomfort Jack is probably feeling in that scene. That's a major nightmare situation for me: to be sunburned and uncomfortable and then, have to go out in public and wait (because it's kind of a rule that, when you're on vacation, you eat out, isn't?). Finally, there's the sheer boredom of being stuck inside when it's raining, unable to go anywhere or do anything. That sucks no matter where you are, but when you're on vacation, it's even more of a bummer. Just imagine that happening to you back before there was internet, where all there was to do was watch TV, and like Jack, you can't get a clear picture. Fortunately, I can't recall having to deal with that much on vacations but when I did, it sucked big time.

Where I start to kind of lose interest in the film, however, is when the notion of sailing slowly but surely creeps in and eventually takes over. I don't mind it in the scene where Jack first takes Bobby out on a boat they rent from Scully and he tells him about how he learned to sail when he was a kid at camp, but then, we get into Jack getting private sailing lessons from Scully, which culminates into him challenging Al Pellet in the Regatta for their right to stay another two weeks. While I like the character of Scully, it feels like the story gets hijacked about halfway in and then, with the third act focusing entirely on the sailboat race, becomes something else completely. It's like the screenwriters realized they had a movie that was made up of a series of comical vignettes rather than an actual plot and decided to come up with a solid hook to hang the final third of the movie on. I can understand the dilemma they must have been in, figuring that they needed a concrete ending, other than the family simply spending the remaining two weeks at Citrus Cove and then going home, and that they also had to construct a payoff for the subplot with Pellet. But, when you have the movie ending with this Regatta, the payoff of which will determine whether or not they can stay for the rest of their vacation, I find myself wishing I had the option to see the rest of their time down there instead. You know that more stuff had to happen after they won that we never got to see, and the ending credits playing over someone putting together the photos taken during the trip makes it feel like they're trying to show you glimpses of stuff you missed.

Going back to the notion that it feels like there was originally a lot more to this movie, I can remember some scenes that were shown on television but weren't in the theatrical version and can't be seen when you buy the movie on DVD. The one that I was disappointed wasn't in the theatrical version was this moment where, on the way to Florida, they make the mistake of giving Archie some fast-food that they pick up. They figure it won't hurt him, then one of the kids exclaims, "Ohh, but it might kill us!", as Archie then farts and they have to roll down the windows to keep from suffocating. Also, during their time at the wrong house, there were snippets of Archie gnawing on one of the legs on the couch, which, after the Chesters leave, culminates in the real owners, who are sitting on said couch, getting thrown backwards when the leg he gnawed finally gives way. There were some other little things here and there but those were the two moments I remembered the most and I don't know why they didn't just keep them in the theatrical version, seeing as how the movie is only 86 minutes long as it stands.

John Candy was in a number of different types of comedies throughout his career, from those that could get really adult and raunchy, like Armed and Dangerous and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, to much more family-friendly ones that had moments of still being a bit edgy, such as Uncle Buck, and full-on kid-friendly flicks like The Rescuers Down Under and Cool Runnings. Summer Rental is among his safest films, as there's no really strong language (there's one F-bomb but, other than that, it's all really mild profanity) or overly sexual or adult-oriented content. Other than a shot of a clothesline with a bunch of jockstraps hanging from it, the raunchiest the film ever gets is with the running gag of Vicki Sanders showing everybody her new boobs and even then, you see absolutely nothing, as it's all shot either from directly behind her or at face-level. There is a moment where, when Sandy is putting Noxzema on Jack's sunburn, you hear this exchange: "Put some over here," "You're not burnt there," "I know," and it's followed by the two of them laughing, so it suggests that there's something kinky going on that you're not seeing, but that's as far as it goes, as you're looking at a shot of the shore while hearing that. Other than that, some of the slight innuendo between Jack and Sandy, the abundance of lovely female beach-goers, and the instances of drunkenness at the Barnacle, there's absolutely nothing in this movie that should give anyone second thoughts of showing it to their family. I watched it with my mom and grandmother, the latter of whom doesn't take kindly to anything crass or rauncy, on a vacation and they had no objections to it at all.

When the movie starts, you can hear Jack Chester having to deal with Jennifer asking him if he ever cut class and following that up by asking him to sign something for school. Running late, he asks her to have Sandy sign it, and while he's initially going to skip breakfast, Bobby tells him that he's making breakfast as part of a class project: spaghetti and a hard-boiled egg. He asks him to forget the spaghetti, add another egg, and he'll eat in the car. He's almost out of the driveway, when Sandy comes out and stops him, knowing that he's got a cup of coffee, which gives him heartburn, in the car with him. Forcing him to take something else, she then lets him speed off. Driving down the highway, he tries to crack the hard-boiled egg but it doesn't crack all the way, forcing him to break the shell off with his fingers, as he complains about them not teaching kids to put the eggs in hot water after boiling them. Eating what he can, and getting a bit of shell in his mouth, he has to admit that it's not so bad. He then turns on the radio, taking a sip of his drink, but finds that no matter what station he goes to, he gets nothing but religious sermons. He goes to crack the other egg, only for it to smash open and get egg yolk all over the dashboard. Annoyed, he admits, "My fault. It was my fault. My fault. I should have told him to boil the other egg." As if that wasn't enough, a car next to him cuts right in front of him, prompting him to roll down the window and yell, "You son of a bitch! Why don't you come back and try that again?! You moron!" He finally gets to work and pulls into a parking space, only for another car to swerve into the space beside him and get right up on him, making him unable to open his door. He yells at the man but the man responds, "Sorry, pal, I'm late!", to which Jack answers, "What am I supposed to do?! Wait here all day?!" With no other options, he's forced to crawl through the window and squeeze himself between the vehicles, grumbling, "Oh, God! I'm not built for this!" Finally inside the building, and really late by this point, he tries to put his name-tag on but the thing won't stick. Deciding to heck with it, he puts it in his breast pocket, grumbling, "Been working here ten years. They don't know who I am by now?"

Things don't get any easier for Jack when he finally gets to work. When he tells one flight to descend to 15,000 feet and turn right to 2-5-0, the pilot answers that there's a jumbo jet in that airspace, adding, "What are you trying to do? Mate us?" Jack then gives the pilot new directions and turns around to see his boss, Al, watching him. Later, while giving other flights instructions, he gets to a point where he's unable to find one flight and panics, exclaiming, "Where are you? Where the hell are you? Come in! Where are you? I sa- acknowledge, please! Acknowledge, please! Where are you?!" Al pats him on the shoulder and tells him that it's fine but Jack is still panicking over not knowing where the plane is. That's when Al points out that a fly is on his radar screen, covering up the blip representing the plane he can't find. Realizing, Jack responds, "I hate flies! I hate them. Filthy things, they do that! That's what they do." Al then suggests Jack take his break and then, at the end of the day, he learns that he's being given five weeks off to recover from this burnout, to which he responds, "I can't believe they're doing this, just because of a stinkin' fly!" Next, the family is loading up for the trip, and things are still unraveling: Jack whacks his ankle on the trailer hitch, Bobby is bouncing a basketball off the back of the driver's seat, aggravating Jennifer, and high-strung Jack is worried that he's forgotten something. After some prompting from his wife and daughter, he finally heads out of the driveway... only to get about ten or so feet away from the house before Laurie says that she has to pee, and that's when Jack goes, "Now, I know what I forgot!"

After a whole day of driving, they arrive in Florida, immediately find Citrus Cove, and, with no difficulty, find 415 Beach Lane, which is a lovely, two-story house on the beach. Seeing that the place is just as nice on the inside, they begin to bring their luggage inside, when Archie, the dog, stands up in front of the fence next to the house and starts barking at an elderly couple on the other side. Jack assures them that he's not going to bite and yells at Archie to come on. However, Archie doesn't listen and continues barking, forcing Jack to yell, "Archie, get your ass up here right now!" Once Jack has all of his bags in the main bedroom, he makes a comment that he "forgot" to bring his bathing suit but Sandy tells him that she's going to pick one up for him. He says he's not going to wear it until he loses a few pounds, but then, Sandy says she loves the way he looks in a bathing suit. He looks at her and responds, "My mother was right. You're twisted." Her answer is a simple, "Mm-hmm." Once he and the kids are out on the beach, Jack can't help but notice a very lovely woman who's out for a job... and neither can Bobby, who's standing next to him. Jack begs off going for a swim with his kids, telling Jennifer, "I don't want to get too wet on my first day," opting instead to just stay up there and watch. Jennifer tosses him her headphones, which pick up radio stations, and he walks back to the house's patio, trying to figure out how to turn them off. He unintentionally annoys a couple who's trying to have lunch next door, trying to make small-talk when he turns the headphones off, but when it becomes clear they're not too keen on him or his sense of humor, he stops talking and lies down. Time passes, and a much redder Jack wakes up and screams in surprise when Bobby puts a crab in his face. Laurie, however, tells him that it's dead, and that's when Jennifer notices how red he is. Jack says he wanted to get a little bit of color and, looking at his arms, says, "That's a good base! That's a good base. You gotta do these things in stages."

On their way to dinner, Sandy tries to put Noxzema on Jack's arms as he drives, as the slightest touch causes him pain, but he says he's alright, as long as he doesn't have to make any turns. In the next scene, he's looking at a tank full of fresh lobster, as someone pulls one out of the water and puts it on a waiter's tray. Despite standing at the head of the line, his party is far from next, as he has to make way for some people behind him. Grabbing a couple of handfuls of mints, he walks outside, where his family is waiting at the end of the line, and gives them the mints. Once inside, Bobby notices that there are a bunch of trophies lined up in a large case, all of them having been won by Captain Al Pellet, whose picture he sees. Some time later, they learn that there's is the next table, when Pellet comes in with his party, moves past them, and, after talking with the maitre d', makes them part the way for his people. Irked by this, Jack speaks to the maitre d', who says that Pellet had a reservation. Jack says, "I thought you don't take reservations," and he answers, "We don't... except for Mr. Pellet." The maitre d' then tries to diffuse the situation, saying they should have a table very soon, but Jack is now more irritated than he was before and is only happy that they're next. But, while they may be next, the last of the lobsters they were hoping for are taken by Pellet and his group. Seeing this, Jack storms after the waiter and catches him just as he arrives at Pellet's table. He grabs the tray, telling the waiter not to serve them, and says they're his lobsters, adding, "You got my table, but you're not getting my lobsters." Pellet is incredulous at Jack saying that it's his table and Jack then pounds it with his fists, repeating, "My table!" Pellet then says, "Oh, I see. This is," slaps the table himself, "your table, and there are..." pushing the tray with the lobsters, "your lobsters!" Pellet then actually shoves his wife, asking Jack if she's also his wife, and standing up, goes, "Is this your tie? Is this your shirt? Is this your belt? Are these your shorts?" On the last one, he actually starts to unzip his fly, and when his wife about to say something, he cuts her off with, "Tut-tut-tut-tut-tut!" Jack admonishes him for taking their table and Pellet, in turn, informs him about how much he hates renters like them. He then tells the waiter to boil the lobsters and, just to add to more of an insult, the maitre d' comes in and tells Jack they're now going to wait another twenty minutes for a table. Having had enough, Jack and his family storm out, Jack loudly exclaiming that he found a nest of rats in the back of the place. Following that, they eat at the Barnacle, meeting Scully, and have five orders of his "catch of the day," fresh grouper, which are actually just some TV dinners they have down below in the freezer.

That night, Jack's sunburn is hurting him so badly that Sandy has to rub Noxzema all over him, to the point where he's covered in the stuff that he looks like a creepy-looking clown (seriously, does he not look like a heavyset version of Heath Ledger's Joker?) Later, he wakes up to the sound of some rustling downstairs. Unable to wake up Sandy, he puts on a robe and heads downstairs, thinking that Archie's up to something. Walking downstairs, he finds Archie lying on the floor, next to the stairs, and he walks over him into the hallway. He hears the sound again and it turns out to be someone fiddling with the front door from outside. He tries to make Archie go check it out but Archie, of course, doesn't budge, and he grabs a sculpture on a table to use as a weapon, telling Archie to back him up (again, Archie doesn't move). Running up to the door, he leans up against the wall next to it, and when they finally get the door open, he moves out in front of them, yelling, "Freeze, asshole!" He's surprised when he finds that it's an African-American family, with the father begging him not to harm his children, and he says he won't. Sandy and Jennifer come downstairs to find out what's going on but Jack says he'll handle it. The man asks who they are and Jack says, "Who the hell are we? We're the three bears! Who the hell are you?!" The man identifies himself as Dan Gardner, the owner of the house, but Jack, not buying it, tells him that they rented the house. He shows them the receipt, saying that they rented 415 Beach Road for $2,000, and Gardner growls, "This house... is 415 Beach Lane." Jack stands there, as it sinks in that they've made a huge mistake, and, glancing at the sculpture he's still holding, hands it over, realizing it's theirs. In the next scene, the Chesters are moving out, while the Gardner family waits downstairs. As they take their luggage out the front door, they're unable to get Archie to move when they tell him to come on. With that, the Gardner kids head upstairs, as Jack walks in from the kitchen carrying a big bag of dogfood, but he trips and ends up spilling the kibble all over the floor. This gets Archie's attention and runs in, starting to eat it, as Jack tries to scoop it back into the bag. Gardner tells him to just leave and Jack lures Archie out the door with a bowl of the stuff. Before leaving, he has to head back upstairs, as he forgot his Noxzema, and he comes back down with it, as well as Laurie. While they leave, Laurie tells him she wet her bed but Jack says, "No, sweetheart, you didn't wet your bed. You wet their bed," much to Gardner's further aggravation.

415 Beach Road turns out to be a really rundown shack of a house, with a neighbor who's constantly using his handsaw and flies inside, Jack saying they followed him from Atlanta, as he swats one. Apparently, the pipes don't work, as Jack mentions having called a plumber, who might show up that afternoon. He sits down at the table with his family to have breakfast, and it looks like the sawing has stopped, but it then fires back up immediately. Another irritation appears when a red-haired kid looks through their window, while picking his nose. Jack smacks the window with the flyswatter to get him to leave but then, more people walk by the window, peering in at them. Jack tries to close the curtains but the cord breaks, and as more people walk by, he storms outside to see what's going on. He stops one guy and asks him why they're all going through there. The guy points ahead, letting out a belch as he does, and when Jack looks, he sees a sign that says, "PUBLIC BEACH ACCESS." Having no choice, he grumbles to them, "Come on through. I'm Joe Public. Welcome to my beach." After that, Jack prepares to take Laurie to nursery school, when Jennifer, dressed in a bikini, runs down to get something out of the car. Jack is taken aback by the way she looks, saying, "Where do you think you're going? This isn't a nude beach!... Who do you think you are? Lolita?" At that moment, a hunky lifeguard named Russ comes down, holding a life-sized CPR doll, and introduces himself, saying he's known as "Mr. Mouth-to-Mouth" for teaching CPR. Horrified at this, Jack tries to get Jennifer to come with him and Laurie but Jennifer isn't doing it. Jack tells Sandy that all lifeguards are sex maniacs, that, "Right now, each of his gonads is screaming, 'Me first!'", but she tells him not to worry, as she'll be around. As Sandy walks to the beach, revealing her own lovely bikini, Jack sees that the house next to the right of theirs is nothing but lifeguards, as well as that their clothesline has a dozen or so jockstraps hanging from it!

Once they're back from nursery school, Jack and Laurie head out to the beach and soon regret not wearing shoes, as the sand is really hot. Jack has Laure get up on his shoulders and he then tries to find where Sandy is, while carrying a cooler and a couple of bags. He unintentionally causes a lot of chaos for the people sunbathing and picnicking around him, as he steps on one guy's hand, his cooler starts leaking water and he spills it on numerous people as he walks by them, gets his foot snagged in the strap of a man's camera, steps on one person's lunch, a woman's hat, a tube of sunscreen and hits a man in the chest with it, and to top it off, pours ice-water on a small grill, causing a cloud of steam. Jack finally yells for Sandy, who waves him over to where she is, and once he gets there, he collapses on the mat after letting Laurie down. But, that's when Sandy asks him to finish blowing up Bobby inflatable raft and he figures, "Yeah. I'm breathing out anyway. What the heck?" After some blowing, he finishes it up when Bobby comes running over and tells him he doesn't want the raft now; he wants to play Frisbee. He tosses the Frisbee at Jack, who's not expecting it, and it hits him in the crotch. He promptly collapses, going, "Oh, say, can you see-e-e-e?!" Once he's recovered, they do play, with Jack going long when Bobby throws the Frisbee. However, it lands on the mat of a couple who's making out, and just as Jack reaches for it, they turn over, the woman's butt ending up on his hand. He tries to wrench his hand free but the man spots him and makes him leave. Jack immediately begs off, telling the man, "When you're done with it, I'm at 415 Beach Lane... Beach Road! Beach Road!" Next, Jack and Bobby decide to take part in a volleyball game. Despite Jack's confidence, the game goes south immediately, as Jack returns the serve and whacks Sandy, who's taking pictures nearby, on the head. In running to catch another serve, Jack trips and brings the entire net down, him landing face-first in the sand. Cut to the next scene, where a despondent Jack is buried in the sand, lamenting how he embarrassed Bobby, while Sandy tells him he's being too hard on himself. Jack then looks up and spots a sailboat offshore, sparking the idea for him to take Bobby sailing.

With Scully's being the only place where no boats have been rented yet, Jack and Bobby take out a twelve-foot boat, Jack passing up the offer for a free lesson because he feels he knows how to sail. They get out there, and Jack's trying to show Bobby the ropes, when their boat nearly hits one that's moored ahead of them, though Jack is able to make a sharp turn to avoid it. Far out on the water, they spot the Incisor, Pellet's boat, and decide to take a closer look. As they lament the fact that someone like Pellet owns a lovely ship like the Incisor, Pellet figures he has the right of way and decides to wait for Jack to move. However, Jack and Bobby are having the same conversation and by the time both parties realize that the other isn't going to move, it's too late. Jack's bow rams into Pellet's hull, the sudden impact causing both men pain, especially Jack, whose bad knee takes the brunt of it. Pellet angrily yells at Jack for what he's done, and becomes even more angry when he sees and recognizes him. He screams about him putting a hole in his boat, is taken aback when he thinks Jack is trying to tell him how to sail, and as they sail away, Pellet swears revenge, yelling, "I'm gonna get you for this, renter! I'm gonna get you for this! You're finished!" He goes on about the hole, asking for his crew to help him. Cut back to shore and Jack's leg is now in an aired sling. He's also more depressed than he was before, initially turning down some pity sex from Sandy but deciding to take it before she rescinds the offer.

The next day, which is a rainy, crappy one, Jack is stuck at the house while his family is out at the movies. He's trying to watch a golf game but the TV's reception is horrendous, making it virtually unwatchable. After some time, he falls asleep in the chair, only to be woken up when he hears Archie barking and scratching the door outside, wanting in. Getting up and limping to the door, he lets in Archie, who, of course, shakes off right next to him. The dog then looks out the door and whines and barks. Jack sees that he left his bone out on the walk leading to the door and he tells him to get it himself. Archie, however, just barks and doesn't budge, and Jack gives up and walks outside to get the bone. But, before he can get back in, Archie deliberately jumps up and pushes the door closed, locking Jack out. He then helps himself to Jack's chair and bowl of popcorn, and when Jack looks through the window, he sees that the TV has now cleared up. Now that he can see it, he gets so into the game that he laments a ball missing a hole and puts the end of the bone into his mouth. He immediately realizes what he did and spits, warning Archie that he's going to make him into a rug if he manages to get back inside. The next morning, Jack is looking forward to having breakfast with his family, only for them to desert him in order to go spend the day with Don and Gregg Moore, whom they met at the theater the day before. Jack decides not to go with them because of his leg and he's left sitting on the outside table by himself, so desperate for companionship that he offers a passing beach-goer an orange and some juice. Later that day, as the heat climbs to a record high, and his family has fun with Don and Gregg out on their speedboat, Jack is shown trying to stay cool by lounging in a kiddy pool while drinking some lemon water straight from a pitcher.

Later, Jack hobbles out of the house carrying a tray with a pitcher full of ice-tea, only to get an unexpected surprise when a very lovely, bikini bombshell walks up and says hi. Jack stops dead at the sight of her and the ice-tea slips right off the tray. The woman immediately apologizes for that and picks up the pitcher and the cup, placing them back on the tray. She introduces herself as Vicki Sanders, their neighbor, and says that she'd been waiting for an opportunity to introduce herself as such. She then invites Jack over to her house for some freshly-made lemonade and he, despite his better judgement, goes along with her. Later, in her living room, Jack tells her that he actually wanted to be a pilot but settled for an air traffic controller because of the responsibility of having a family; Vicki tells him she's in the same boat, that she wanted to be a stewardess but, because her husband, Ed, didn't want her away, so she does electrolysis (that's laser hair removal, if you didn't know; when she says that, Jack gives her a confused look). Back at the house, Jack made the mistake of leaving the front door open, and a woman and her daughter come by, as the daughter needs to use the restroom. Though it's clear that no one's there, she lets her daughter go in anyway, and when a guy comes up, saying that he needs some water, she lets him in, since it's not her house. All this time, Archie is lying across some chairs on the porch that are scooted next to each other and does nothing but make some whining sounds. The woman says, "Hello," to him and he actually responds to her with a whine that sounds like a "hello." Meanwhile, Vicki decides that Jack has good vision, is observant, and asks for his opinion on something: she lifts up her bikini top and asks him what she thinks of her breasts. Flustered, Jack doesn't know what she means, and when she clarifies that she wants to know if they look good, as she just got them (Jack asks, "Who had 'em before you?") and they cost $2,000, adding that it was either them or a chainsaw for Ed. Jack insists she made the right choice and tells her what she wants to hear about them... when he hears the sound of a man yawning loudly upstairs. Finding out that it's Ed, who's waking up from a nap, Jack tries to run for it but his split blows out. He tries to hobble out but Ed comes down and admonishes Vicki for doing this to their neighbor, telling Jack she's aggravating everyone they meet with them. He even begs Jack to touch them and tell her that they feel right. Exhaling, Jack gives a quick touch and says that they're very lifelike. Ed tells Jack he owes him one and Jack scrambles to go back to the house, remarking on how those breasts are fun for the whole family and he's got to tell Sandy about them, with Ed saying he'll give him their doctor's number.

Heading back to his house, Jack finds that the front porch is swarming with people: sunbathers, kids playing, and people actually eating on the tables. Hobbling over, Jack starts yelling for them to get out, telling some of the kids to get off his kids' bicycle, but no one listens, and when he walks inside, he finds even more people in there, with one guy even cooking for some, as they're treating the kitchen counter like a bar. Seeing someone yapping on the phone, with a woman asking if they're going to be long, Jack finally blows his top and, taking his crutch, flings everything off the counter before smacking the refrigerator with it, yelling for everyone to get out. Everyone scrambles to get out as fast as they can, but then, Jack finds that they guy on the phone is completely oblivious. He yells at him to get off and he quickly hangs up and runs out the door, Jack banging the table the phone's on for emphasis. Heading upstairs, he finds another guy sitting on his bed, with Archie, watching TV. He tells him to get out but the guy tells him to get out, saying he's trying to watch The Smurfs. Agitated, Jack takes one of his crutches and says, "Did you see the one where Papa Smurf took a crutch and smacks the shit out of a guy with a red hat?! Did you see that one?! You wanna see that one?!" The guy takes the hint and runs out of there as fast as he can. With him gone, Jack looks at a very guilty Archie on the bed, next to a crumpled can of beer, beer stains on the sheets, and a small pile of cigarettes. Jack growls, "Archie, you stink. Traitor." Archie puts his head down and whines at this.

Burnt out, Jack hobbles down to the Barnacle and asks Scully to get him completely drunk, which he says he can definitely do, serving him a drink. After a cut, both of them are totally plastered, sitting at a table full of empty pitchers and cups, arguing about who's the better fighter: James Cagney or Sylvester Stallone. Finding out that he ate all the oyster crackers, Jack simply asks for another beer, saying they're pretty filling and, "Probably better for me." Next, they're playing darts, but are so drunk that they're hitting everything but the board. Jack tosses his last and manages to smash a compass, and as Scully counts the darts up, you see that one is sticking out of the blades of the ceiling fan. He also notices that one dart is sticking out of his fake arm and, as it turns out, he was the one who threw it! He declares himself the winner, which Jack has no problem with, and after he tells Scully that he loves him, which he insists isn't the booze talking, apologizes for wrecking his boat and offers to pay for it, but Scully says it gives the boat more character. Jack laments about not being able to sail like he used to and Scully, sympathizing with him, asks him if he'd like to learn how to sail. Jack, of course, says he would, and the next scene finds them out on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Scully tells him that he should always be gentle with boats to get them to respond "like a lady," when Jack leans over the side and throws up (this isn't the first time it's happened, as Scully says, "Oyster crackers. That should be the last of them). He asks if they can go back but Scully says they're going to stay out there until he becomes a sailor. Come nightfall, they're still out there, and by this point, Jack is starting to enjoy himself, with Scully singing a song his mother taught him: the Love Boat theme. The next morning, Sandy walks into the bedroom to find that Jack's still sleeping, and when she pulls back the cover, she sees that he has an earring. She then asks her barely awake husband if he's going to sleep all day and he grunts and pulls the cover back over his head, answering her question. She walks out and, when she and the kids head out for the day, Jack starts to get up. With the cover still over his head, he sleepily groans, "Ohh, it's still dark," and lays back down, hitting the headboard and moaning, "Oh, I'm gonna feel that in the morning."

Jack arrives at the Barnacle for his sailing lesson but, when they're out on the water, he ends up knocking Scully into the water with the sail when he jives a little too quickly for him. Jack asks, "What happened?! I said, 'Jive ho!'", and Scully answers, "You say, 'Jive ho,' and then, you jive!" Scully asks him to come pick him up but Jack thinks it would be better if he swam towards him, asking if he can tread water with the hook. Come nightfall, Scully has ice poured into his cap and puts it on, obviously suffering from a bad headache. Jack is down on himself again but Scully tells him that, once they're done, he'll be as good a sailor as he ever was... and when they both glance at his hook, he adds, "Maybe better." But first, he needs more ice. The next day, after Jack makes his excuses for not going out with his family, he meets up with Scully, who this time teaches him to give himself over to the sea rather than trying to control it. Following some more lessons, Scully puts a hook on Jack's cap as a graduation pin, telling him that he's now officially a sailor. Jack is grateful for this and puts his cap, albeit a little too hard, given the hook, and nicks his finger on it. That evening, at dinner, Jack is too busy trying to figure out how to tie a rope to lesson to his family's discussion about what to do next on their trip, when they get a phone-call. He then tells Sandy that he has to go into town and straighten out their rent, not telling her that their landlord is out of the hospital and now at the funeral home! Once there, he's introduced to their new landlord, Al Pellet, who tears up the check for the last two weeks' rent and orders them to be out by Saturday night or he'll personally toss them out. He tells the family that night and it casts a real sad pall over them. The next day, while at the Barnacle, after Scully tells him of his past troubles with Pellet, Jack comes up with the idea of getting the Barnacle seaworthy in order to race him. He then goes to the diner where Pellet hangs out and challenges him, betting their staying the last two weeks on the regatta's outcome. Incredulous at the idea that Jack could out-sail him, Pellet takes the bet, regardless. The scene then ends with a weird moment where Jack takes some of the popcorn Pellet is munching on and eats it himself, only to apparently get choked and start hocking on it as he walks out. Pellet laughs at him, only for the same thing to happen to him when he takes a mouthful of it, to the point where his friend has to knock him on the back and give him something to drink to make it stop. I don't know if there was something wrong with the popcorn or if Jack tricked him into laughing so he would get choked, but it's an odd gag.

No one in the family is enthusiastic about Jack's chances at winning the race, nor is Scully's friend, Angus MacLachlan, when he inspects the Barnacle. Despite this, Jack, Scully, and the crew get to work fixing the ship up. They remove anything unnecessary from the ship and then, Jack and Scully saw some pieces of wood, while Angus scours the coast looking for a sail to fit the ship. Needing to go faster with the sawing, Jack has Ed Sanders do it (he admits to Ed that he has no clue what they're for), while down below, Vicki asks for Scully's opinion on her breasts. Scully promptly runs out of there as fast as he can, Ed getting irritated that Vicki did it again, and Scully, like Jack before him, admits that they're perfect. The next day, Jack gets a pleasant surprise when his family shows up to help him with the Barnacle. Scully, meanwhile, gets a not so pleasant surprise when, while scraping barnacles off the hull, Angus tells him he hasn't found a sail yet, saying that he may find one in Tampa and Scully tells him to go there, then. We then get a montage of everyone cleaning and painting the ship, set to the Jimmy Buffett song, Turning Around. Following a moment where Jack and Sandy admit that they've both literally painted themselves into corners, Sandy on the deck and Jack down in the hold, there's a moment where they raise a toast to the Barnacle and its crew, which now includes the Chesters. Despite their optimism, Scully says it'll be a hell of a victory if they can pull it off without a sail, as the last time he heard from Angus, he was in Savanna. Angus is looking everywhere he can but, with the race the next day, things are looking grim. Few of them can sleep, and Jack is shown to be waiting on the beach at dawn. At that moment, the other ships are arriving for the regatta, including the Incisor. Later, down at the Barnacle, everyone is waiting anxiously, when Angus arrives just in time with the sail and tosses it to those on the ship. As the ships gather in the cove for the start of the race, Pellet is thinking that Jack didn't show up and feels he already won, saying he's still going to cough up the $1,000. But, at that moment, the Barnacle arrives, making it in time for the race, much to Pellet's mocking amusement. Don and Gregg are shown to be watching in the audience, along with Archie, when a shot is fired, signifying the race's beginning.

Jack is already flustered, by both the size of the Barnacle and how the other boats are already far ahead of them; Scully, however, assures him that they'll catch up. Both they and the Incisor eddy up a bit more, and all of the boats round the first marker. The Barnacle, still lagging behind, comes around the marker, some dolphins playing in the water nearby, but then there's almost a disastrous moment when Sandy has Jack pose for a picture. He lets go of the helm and they nearly tip over, though Sandy manages to get the shot she wanted. Some time later, as they head for the second marker, the other boats are pulling ahead of the Barnacle, with the Incisor still leading at it rounds the marker. Right after that, the Barnacle jives as well, raising its sail completely, but it makes no difference, as they're still far behind. Jack tells Bobby that they're doing fine but he knows that they're not closing the distance and Scully tells him that the Barnacle is giving them everything it has. It seems hopeless, and Sandy, after snapping another picture, sits down next to her husband at the helm, the two of them kissing. But then, Cortez pops up from the hold, eating one of the catches of the day. When he tells him that he got it from the freezer, Scully realizes that Cortez misheard him earlier when he told him to remove all of the food and the freezer from the boat. Realizing they still have a chance, they start heaving off everything that's weighing them down, tossing it into the water, including the freezer. Now much lighter, the Barnacle quickly catches up on the other boats, easily moving between them and closing on the Incisor. Back onshore, after a moment, where Vicki has just finished making one of the judges inspect her "cargo," it's announced that the Barnacle is coming up fast. But then, the Incisor starts pulling away from the Barnacle, as Scully tells Jack that Pellet just took their wind.

A small plane enters the area and, seemingly having engine trouble, dips down towards the ocean before righting itself. Unexpectedly, Jack has them aim towards its path and explains to Scully that the plane got caught up in a low-altitude funnel, something he's seen before at the airport. They reach the funnel and their sail billows outward from the gust of air, allowing them to start gaining on Pellet again, who has no clue how they picked up so much speed. He starts to lose his cool, yelling at his crew to trim the mane, while the Barnacle comes close to passing the boat that's in second place. However, they don't have quite enough sail to pick up more speed, although Jack decides not to let that stop him. He has Scully take the wheel and, as the boats approach the finish line, the Barnacle suddenly does pick up speed. Not knowing how they're gaining on him, Pellet wonders if they're caught up in a funnel or if they're dragging something, and even starts blowing on his sail out of sheer desperation. The Barnacle cruises past the Incisor and that's when Pellet sees how they're going so fast: Jack's large pants are being used as an extra bit of sail. Jack mockingly waves at Pellet as they pass the finish line, the horn going off to signify the end of the race. Pellet is so dumbstruck at hearing that Jack has won that he rips off the wheel's handles and starts throwing a tantrum on deck, while onshore, the judges wonder if that's legal, with one of them saying, "I don't know if it's legal, but I like it." His fingers in his ears, Pellet yells that he didn't hear the horn, while on the Barnacle, the Chesters celebrate their win. Everybody in the audience cheers them as well, including their newfound friends and Archie, who barks happily. The film ends as they continue celebrating while bringing the Barnacle in.

Though it was courtesy of the great Alan Silvestri, the music score for Summer Rental is pretty sparse up until the third act and when you do hear music, 90% of the time it's a variation on this upbeat, calypso-like main theme that you first hear during the opening when Jack is driving to work. It's not a bad bit of music but it gets a little monotonous when you keep hearing it over and over. Like I said, though, during the third act, you get more of a variety in the music, with some more low-key, sweet-sounding, themes during the moments between Jack and his family, a kind of tense, waiting piece for when they're on pins and needles for Angus to deliver the sail in time, and adventurous music for the regatta, with lows when things don't look too good for them and big, celebratory bits when they cruise past Pellet and win. It's an okay score, as is the soundtrack, the main song on it being Jimmy Buffett's Turning Around, which plays when they're fixing up the Barnacle and during the ending credits. Not a great song by any means, and rather generic, but it does its job here and fits with the movie's upbeat vibe. Interestingly, when they're in the movie theater and you see a poster for Footloose on the wall (along with other movies, all of them Paramount releases), you can also hear Jennifer and Gregg Moore listening to the theme song on their respective headsets.

Summer Rental is a deeply-flawed but enjoyable film and is infinitely relatable for anyone who's taken a less than smooth trip to the beach at one time or another. John Candy is great, as is everyone else, especially Rip Torn and Richard Crenna; there are plenty of really funny scenes and gags; the location is used very well and is nicely photographed; and the music score, while not great or all that versatile, fits the movie well. But, as fun as it is, the film feels gutted, since you'd expect there to be way more stuff concerning the characters of Don and Gregg Moore than there is, and also, the sailing theme that comes in and takes over the third act makes it feel like you're suddenly watching another movie, one that may not be that interesting if, like me, you don't care about sailing at all. So, yes, it could have been more tightly-written and edited, but that doesn't change the fact that this is still a very fun and charming movie that you can easily watch with your family during the summer, especially if you love John Candy.