TV Cream

Films: R is for...

Rites Of Summer

The first word of that title’s a strong clue as to what to expect here. Mikey off of The Goonies and two pals go on a wilderness weekend supervised by Kevin Bacon, and – hey! – find out as much about themselves as the do about canoeing, camping and queen snakes. A sort of rip-off amalgam of Stand by Me and, rather dodgily, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, in that the film was made in ’85 (so the Stand… rip-off charges can be dropped) but left on the shelf, then, in ’87, post-Bueller success, Mikey was called back to add scenes of sardonic to-camera narration, which just happened to mirror Ferris’s memorable fourth wall-breaking gambit exactly. We’re sure it was pure coincidence, of course. The soundtrack was first-rate, at least – The Cult! Journey! Cutting Crew! Bruce Hornsby and the Range!

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