Jack is an air traffic controller. After he temporarily loses one plane on the radar because it was covered by a fly on his monitor, he gets four weeks off and decides to spend his summer vacation in a small town in Florida, together with his wife Sandy and their three kids. However, Jack encounters even more stress there: he gets a sunburn; he realizes his family settled in a rented house on the wrong address; he worries his teenage daughter might date a suspicious lifeguard... After he accidentally rubbed a local tycoon, Al, the wrong way, Al becomes the new landlord and orders Jack's family to leave the apartment. However, thanks to a local, Scully, Jack wins against Al in a bet when he wins in a sailing competition, and thus gets an extension to stay.
Movies about summer vacation or camping turned out uninspired and arbitrary more often than not, and this film by Carl Reiner is not an exception, either. It is assembled in an episodic fashion, with light vignettes about the ironic misadventures revolving around the hero who takes a vacation, but rarely any one of them is funny or memorable. In fact, it seems they were making all these scenes on the spot, as they went along, which makes them feel as if anybody could have come up with them, and not a true master of comedy who took some effort to craft a good storyline beforehand. While it is ironic that the protagonist takes a vacation to escape from stress, only to find out his vacation just offers even more stress, John Candy (in only his 2nd leading role on film) cannot save this thin film by himself, despite his comic talent. One of the rare examples of some true humor is only found sparsely, such as the moment where Jack asks a whole line of people why they are all passing through the yard of his rented house, only for one man to open his mouth only to burp and point at the sign that says "Beach access route" or when Jack is reluctant to wear any bathing suit because he is embarrassed to show his weight in front of all the people in the open. Unfortunately, "Summer Rental" simply lacks highlights or reasons to watch it, and thus it is indeed much more fun to go on a vacation yourself than to try to search for funny moments in this storyline.
Grade:+
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