Features: DVD, Sensormatic
Editor's Note
THE SURE THING: When free-spirited but juvenile Walter "Gib" Gibson (John Cusack) meets studious, uptight Alison Bradbury (Daphne Zuniga) at an unnamed Ivy League college, sparks fly; unfortunately, they are mostly of the disastrous variety as all of Gib's attempts at courtship fall painfully apart. Inevitably, the duo is tossed together when they both answer the same ad for a ride to California. While Alison is traveling to reunite with her tidy law school boyfriend, Gib is on the road to meet a beautiful girl his best friend promises him is "a sure thing." Before too long, Gib and Alison's bickering inflames the driver, who promptly deposits the two with their suitcases on the side of a lonely highway thousands of miles from their destination. As the misadventures pile up, the initially contentious pair begin to take a liking to one another--but do these two dare fall in love?Rob Reiner's initial attempt at romantic comedy pays subtle homage, with gentle lyricism, to the classic screwballs of early Hollywood. The film is buoyed by the stellar performances of the two leads, Cusack (in one of his first significant roles) and Zuniga, who are reminiscent of the great studio pairings of the past. VALLEY GIRL: It's a "totally tubular" scene as a "grody-to-the-max" punk from the wrong side of the Hollywood Hills, Randy (Nicolas Cage), falls for Julie (Deborah Foreman), a mall-dwelling Valley Girl, in this time capsule of 1980s teen vernacular. Julie and Randy become passionately involved; yet, despite her feelings for Randy, Julie succumbs to the peer pressure of her mall-obsessed friends and gets back together with her Valley dude boyfriend, Tommy (Michael Bowen), who whisks Julie off to the Senior Prom. Randy doesn't give up so easily, however, and chases Julie to the prom, with the help of his faithful friend, Fred (Cameron Dye), in an attempt to wrest her back. The sound track features the music of Men at Work, the Clash, and Josie Cotton in this 1980s teen comedy--an era, and topic, that director Coolidge, like her contemporary John Hughes, was fond of chronicling.
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