User Reviews

An above average 80's comedy genre mashup with a breezy pace and some memorable moments.

"The Sure Thing" is one of Rob Reiner's most underrated movies that displays a deft touch in balancing the real-life world of today's college students with the fairy tale quality of the script by Steven L. Bloom and Jonathan Roberts and great performances from John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga.

This movie, for some reason, has never been in the regular rotation of 80s movies that show on cable, but with the untimely death of Rob Reiner, I decided to finally seek this one out. What a disappointment. The problem starts with John Cusack, an actor I generally like. His character is insufferable -- immature, loud, annoying, hyper, thinks he's clever -- I could go on. And I'm supposed to believe an absolute sweetheart babe like Daphne Zuniga would be interested in him? He **** constantly and is so argumentative. I get he's supposed to be an immature college freshman, but that doesn't mean I want to spend 90 minutes of movie time with him, let alone a cross-country road trip. Beyond the leads, the editing is weird (some scenes abruptly end, like they couldn't think of a line or a look to end it) and pacing is off. Also, the tone is a mess -- it's supposed to be a romantic comedy, but there is an attempted **** scene played for laughs (in which Cusack saves the girl), which didn't even work considering its the 80s. Character development was also slip shod - Zuniga's charcter supposedly learns the benefits of loosening up from Cusack. Why would she learn that? His idiocy just leads to them having a hellacious cross-country trip. It does get a bit better as it goes on, as Cusack calms down and everyone starts acting more like actual people, but too little, too late. This movie seems like a dry run, in some ways, as When Harry Meets Sally but it is far below that.