Weekend Pass

Four sailors just out of boot camp head out to Los Angeles on a free weekend. They all end up meeting various women with differing results.

Weekend Pass was made in an era when the sex comedy was at its commercial peak. There seemed to be loads of them back in the 80's or so it seemed anyway. To be honest, the majority of these films have been very much forgotten and don't even command a minor cult following now. I would say that this one does qualify as a sex comedy, as it has some nudity sprinkled throughout and its central characters and their motivations certainly fit the genre. But it's a very restrained example of this kind of film it has to be said. And while it's not exactly funny, most of its peers aren't either. I have to say, however, that while this is hardly a very good film I found it to be somewhat likable. I think this was primarily down to its quite decent cast who put in engaging performances, while on the other hand its episodic structure meant it never got too boring either and ensured that there was a reasonable amount of variety to its events. There are encounters in various places such as a strip joint, a comedy club and an aerobics disco. I thought the various couplings towards the end were handled fairly well also, with even some worthwhile dramatic acting in places. By the end of the flick you would never say it's a lost classic but, at the same time, I thought it did a number of things reasonably well and wasn't as knuckle-headed as this type of fayre normally is.

Torture isn't pretty. It hurts, and frankly, I wouldn't recommend it. So, in the same thought, I wouldn't recommend WEEKEND PASS. Four young, nubile sailors set out on a (dare I say?) weekend pass. The aftermath: 88 minutes of sheer, mindless, pathetic, depressing boredom.

How this inescapably bad film ever received theatrical release, is beyond the wisdom of Solomon. Whoever was the studio exec that approved this, has probably moved on to a new line of work.

The acting is appalling. The script seems as if it were written by some fifteen year old students, who really thought they were being clever. I'd rather watch someone tripping on bad acid. Just AWFUL. Gentle viewer, you have been warned.

NOT RECOMMENDED.

The plot of WEEKEND PASS reminded me of those old musical comedies starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in which a trio of up-for-it sailors come on shore leave for the weekend and engage in all kind of escapades. Unfortunately this is the lame '80s comedy version of the story, put out by trash purveyors Crown International, and it's as dumb and stereotypical as you'd expect.

The problems are tenfold. For starters, the main characters are all jerks, and I mean real scumbags. When you see the way they treat women and find out the kind of humour they enjoy then you'll end up hating them too. Secondly, the adventures they embark on are dumb and designed to titillate than anything else. They end up at a sleazy strip club, allowing for ample nudity from the female extras, and also head to a comedy club and listen to various racist and offensive jokes.

To pad out the running time there are a few sub-plots here and there and some slapstick moments, although surprisingly for a Crown International film, no scene of a dog tearing off a woman's bikini top. Oh well - you can't have everything...

Though the adventures of the sailors in this caper unfold over the course of the weekend indicated in the title, this bare bones offering seems to have been written and produced in even less time than that. This quick and economical approach was precisely the driving force behind Crown International's massive roster of b-flicks, a library that encompasses minor classics to unwatchable duds and everything in between, but in the case of Weekend Pass less is definitely less.

The story is built more on a scenario than an actual plot, following a quartet of Navy lads fresh out of basic training as they trek to Los Angeles for one last splurge of hedonistic freedom before reporting for duty. The first half of the movie essentially doubles as a tour of 1980's LA as the group drives aimlessly from one site to the next, hitting Sunset Boulevard, then a strip club, then the beach, and just to make sure the flick packs in as many requisite decade cliches as possible, the squad also takes an aerobics class and spends some time in south central gang turf.

There is a vague attempt made to infuse this otherwise banal road trip with some sex comedy tropes, but the film falls well short there by failing to deliver any legitimately funny moments--an especially egregious oversight in this case, given that a healthy chunk of the movie actually takes place inside a comedy club where the late great Phil Hartman serves as MC; yet, sadly, nothing especially humorous happens there, either. There's also no sex, so aside from a few bursts of gratuitous nudity, much of the action plays out like a generic PG teen rom-com.

Still, while this result may frustrate viewers expecting a healthy dose of raunch, it does serve to present the four leads as likeable scamps rather than horny dirtbags. Likewise, the gals they end up paired with are a refreshing change of pace from the new-wave strippers, naked masseuses, and vapid showbiz predators they initially lust after. The result is four couples you end up sincerely rooting for, which is a surprising outcome in a film that is otherwise built on tedium rather than engagement.

That satisfying finale isn't enough, though. The cocktail napkin plot requires lots of padding to flesh out into a feature-length film, so the few noteworthy aspects here are swallowed in a sea of filler. Director Lawrence Bassoff (who would go on to helm the last, and worst, Crown International release, Hunk) may have been hamstrung by working from a script that was ostensibly only 15 pages long, but that doesn't excuse his lazy mismanagement of the run-time. The strip club scene, which is there merely to set up a semi-comical exchange with one of the dancers, eats up twenty minutes of the film and features three complete performances. Ditto with the afore-mentioned sequence in the comedy club, where one of the sailors finally gets a chance to achieve his dream of doing stand-up... but not until after we sit through 15 minutes of painfully unfunny material from a slew of performers who otherwise have nothing to do with the movie. Certainly, a flick of this caliber isn't likely to draw the next Scorcese, but given how much emphasis is placed upon the bond between our principal Navy brothers during the conclusion, Weekend Pass would have been far better served by allowing its leads more onscreen camaraderie instead of squandering so much time on the film's unmemorable ancillary players and dead-end diversions.

In more capable hands, this movie could have maximized the potential of its endearing cast by giving them some genuinely humorous material to work with. Unfortunately, most of what ultimately ended up on the screen here is a slog to get through. And, while this certainly isn't the the shoddiest entry in the Crown International catalog, it stands as a largely forgettable jaunt that is easily overshadowed by any number of like-minded flicks of its era. Even if you have a whole weekend to spare, there are a lot better ways to fill it than this.

"Weekend Pass" did pretty well at the box office for a low budget youth comedy with no big stars in its cast. However, it's all but forgotten today. Watching it, it's pretty easy to figure out why it hasn't built even a minor cult. There's no real story here - it's just a bunch of vignettes that have little to no relationship with each other. There are a number of attempts at humor, but they all fall completely flat. The musical score is pretty bad - I'm sure even audiences in 1984 thought the music was sub par. And while there is some T & A, none of the characters actually gets lucky, at least on screen.

Still, I have to admit that the movie is not COMPLETELY terrible. The production values are pretty good for a low budget movie, taking us to a number of places that include some L.A. locations you don't usually see in a B movie. The four main characters come across as pretty likable guys, supporting each other and having warm personalities. And the final sequence has a surprising amount of emotion. I'm not saying this stuff saves the movie, but it helps to make the viewing experience less painful than you may be expecting.