Pinball Summer
Pinball Summer
R | 03 March 1981 (USA)
Pinball Summer Trailers

It's a summer of fun for two teenaged boys who spend their time chasing two sisters, annoying a biker gang, and basically getting into typical sophomoric hijinks whenever they can.

Reviews
Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.
Tacticalin An absolute waste of money
ShangLuda Admirable film.
Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?
erisheali I first saw this movie on TV when I was about 12 or 13 and liked it. Then I purchased the movie on DVD in 2004 and have watched it several times since then. Although I find it cheesy and pretty much plot less, I think it shows quite well what summers were like for teenagers back in the late 70's early 80's. There is always stuff going on from beginning to end and the music is awesome! The bikers are funny and there's a bunch of nice girls and nice cars! Also interesting to see La Ronde amusement park as well as what seems to be Lachine or Beaconsfield as some of the shooting locations. A good movie from yesterdays!
ghoule-582-207091 When I first took this tape out of my surprise retro-box, full of yet-to-watch 70s and 80s movies, I was looking for a fun moral-less comedy.What I found is a mildly amusing comedy, yet one also fully draped in a dubious moral message.In short, "Pinball Summer" tells the story of four teens - two guys and two girls - looking to have some summer fun after their last day of school. Sounds cool? Sadly, the main characters are hot-headed, egoistical and spoilt children, who will attack (verbally and sometimes physically) anything and everything to get their fun : biker gangs, rich people, old ladies, fat people, policemen and firemen, disco dancers, etc.As long as you can prove you look average and wear standard clothes and 80s hair, you have the right to make fun of everyone else, and no one can get back at you without incurring your rightful wrath.Property destruction is also of their domain. Throwing things on the road, stealing, ruining and drowning vehicles, damaging properties : no one will ever get back at "the normals" for the 100,000$ loss they caused.Making "normality" crush everything else is not fun, and it felt like being shoved in the following message : be like us or die with our laughing ringing in your ears.These "Pinball Summer" people would have been "villains" in many other films.An OK addition for any 80s comedy collectors. Otherwise, stay away from this ideological drivel.
lazarillo This movie alternately called "Pinball Summer" or "Pick-up Summer" (since the pinball craze had long since ended by the time it hit American drive-ins) is basically a Canadian version of the 1970's American teen exploitation (or "sexploitation") drive-in flicks, which means that despite the thick Canadian accents it is virtually indistinguishable from contemporary American teen comedies like "The Pom-Pom Girls", "The Van", "Malibu Beach" and so forth. There is no real plot, for instance, just a lot pranks and zany hijinks revolving around a pinball tournament and a trophy that keeps getting lost or stolen. The male protagonists are two over-aged high school students who are much more obnoxious and somewhat less funny than actual teenagers. Their enemies are a sorry motorcycle gang who look like north-of-the border rejects from "Grease" or the Frankie and Annette beach movies, and a snooty rich couple who the protagonists seem to torment for no other reason than because they're rich and snooty.Of course, the main reason to see any of these movies is the girls. The two protagonists are chasing around two sisters played by a couple of very attractive actresses (Karin Stephens and Helene Udy). The two wear various outfits that are never more than ridiculously skimpy, but have only very brief nude scenes. Most of the nudity is provided by the voluptuous Joy Boushel, who later became a minor Canadian scream queen appearing in "Humongous" and "The Fly". She leaves an indelible impression of boobs and freckles here, especially in the big "strip pinball" scene. Unfortunately, her character "Sally" also has her own theme song ("Sally Joy/you ain't no boy. . ."). Which brings me to the music: imagine the worst kind of sappy music from the late 1970's--now imagine something much, much worse and you're starting to get an idea of the godawful soundtrack to this movie.So all things considered would I recommend this? Well, it could have used a little more nudity and a LOT less music, but it's really no worse than the American teen movies of the time, so if you like those. . . And the director, George Mihalka, would go on to make one of the better Canadian "slash-for-cash" horror movies "My Bloody Valentine" (if only some psycho in a miner's helmet would have put all the male hosers in THIS movie out of my misery, but oh well. . .).
poopville This movie ended up making me feel like I'd been sucking helium or something. Fun, silly and kind of surreal. Similar feeling to watching Dazed & Confused... except in D&C at least there were somewhat realistic characters with somewhat believable lines. The characters in this movie are all cartoons with silly lines and over-the-top acting. Total drive-in movie fare. It's perfect for a bunch of friends to hang out and watch while drinking a bunch of beer. You don't have to follow the plot too closely to understand what's happening. It's got everything. Cool vans, pinball, bikers, hot chicks, disco dancing and a happy 70s soundtrack.I actually had a kinda hard time placing the year when I first saw it. I thought for sure 80s but in the arcade scenes not one video game was visible and instead pinball machines seemed to be the big craze.I have to say I liked this movie a lot and could see myself going back and watching it a few more times. I've tried to watch Meatballs again recently and found to my disappointment that I no longer enjoyed it but somehow this film has the perfect knucklehead teen comedy vibe. I only heard of this movie because the band Fu Manchu mentioned it as an inspiration... I was unable to find a copy anywhere until one showed up on e-bay.