Ping Pong Summer
2014
Comedy
An '80s nostalgic comedy that remains flat and drab with a story that fails to engage and hold the audience's attention, this film was, strangely enough, the talk of the town at the Sundance Festival back in 2014. Unfortunately, it must have sounded like a fluke because this movie lacks any enthusiasm, spontaneity and real vibrancy to make it truly worthwhile. Inspired by writer-director Michael Tully's real-life childhood summer vacations, it's a light drama that has little to offer and manages to be thoroughly insipid in its story that plays things far too straight for its own good where it mixes in The Karate Kid with ping pong/table tennis. A teenage boy, Rad is bullied but with the help of his best friend, as well as mentor, he prepares himself for his rematch with Kyle. Susan Sarandon plays the mentor, the bad guy characters aren't believable or convincing, & Lea Thompson phones in her usual and unremarkable performance. Characters, on the whole, are wafer-thin and underdeveloped with no one you can barely resonate with. This should have been a whole heap of fun and evoke that '80s fun and colourful cheer, but instead, it is overwhelmingly one-dimensional & wallows in blandness with virtually nothing to say, whatsoever. This film is straight up bland, a failed attempt at mimicking the Napoleon Dynomite plotline and not to mention it's a coming-of-age teen-based drama, minus any heart that is found in many other successfully commercial offerings.
Is It Worth Watching?
Hardly
Overall:
2014
Comedy
An '80s nostalgic comedy that remains flat and drab with a story that fails to engage and hold the audience's attention, this film was, strangely enough, the talk of the town at the Sundance Festival back in 2014. Unfortunately, it must have sounded like a fluke because this movie lacks any enthusiasm, spontaneity and real vibrancy to make it truly worthwhile. Inspired by writer-director Michael Tully's real-life childhood summer vacations, it's a light drama that has little to offer and manages to be thoroughly insipid in its story that plays things far too straight for its own good where it mixes in The Karate Kid with ping pong/table tennis. A teenage boy, Rad is bullied but with the help of his best friend, as well as mentor, he prepares himself for his rematch with Kyle. Susan Sarandon plays the mentor, the bad guy characters aren't believable or convincing, & Lea Thompson phones in her usual and unremarkable performance. Characters, on the whole, are wafer-thin and underdeveloped with no one you can barely resonate with. This should have been a whole heap of fun and evoke that '80s fun and colourful cheer, but instead, it is overwhelmingly one-dimensional & wallows in blandness with virtually nothing to say, whatsoever. This film is straight up bland, a failed attempt at mimicking the Napoleon Dynomite plotline and not to mention it's a coming-of-age teen-based drama, minus any heart that is found in many other successfully commercial offerings.
Is It Worth Watching?
Hardly
Overall:
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