 | |
List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 6559
Released: August 5, 2003 |
| Our Price: $3.86 |
| Used Price: $2.55 |
|
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
|
Editorial Review:
John Cusack (Grosse Pointe Blank, High Fidelity), Daphne Zuniga (Spaceballs) and Nicollette Sheridan ("Desperate Housewives") star in this charming tale of true love that's at once "intelligent, fun, a bit devilish [and] delightful, frisky and perceptively funny" (The Hollywood Reporter)! College freshman Walter "Gib" Gibson (Cusack) has a "sure thing" goinga date with a very hot and very sex-craved blonde (Sheridan) across the country in LA. Crossed by fateand the ride-share bulletin boardGib makes the trip with a studious and abrasive coed (Zuniga). But as they mount every obstacle from show tune-singing simpletons and bad weather to leering truck drivers and worse luck, their temperaments change and Gib realizes that the only sure thing isthat losing the real thing would be the worst thing of all!
Description of The Sure Thing (Special Edition):
Two mismatched college students (John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga) find themselves trapped together during a cross-country road trip, trying to make it home for the holidays. She can't stand him, and he just wants to get to L.A., where a sexy "sure thing" is waiting to greet him with open arms. It's not hard to predict where this sweetly old-fashioned romantic comedy is going to end up, but along the way there are many pleasures to be had. Director Rob Reiner, in his second feature (after This Is Spinal Tap), has a nice eye for the kitschy flotsam found along the American highway, and his identification with the college kids doesn't condescend to them one bit. The movie helped make a star of John Cusack, who gives a delightfully spritzy performance--kind of a precursor to his similarly energetic, likable turn in Say Anything. Given the usual crass tenor of Hollywood college movies, The Sure Thing is something to treasure. --Robert Horton
The Sure Thing (Special Edition) Reviews:
Sweet and amusing road trip 
2009-11-21 - This movie from 1985 already seems like a time capsule from a distant era. No cellphones, no iPods -- the characters use artifcacts like "Filofaxes" -- and the teens who make up most of the cast seem oddly naive and sweet compared to their counterparts today. But in its sentiments, the movie hasn't aged that much.
The absurdly young John Cusack plays Gib, a faily typical young male who finds himself as a freshman on an east Coast campus struggling to keep up with some of his peers. He's creative -- but lacks basic grammar and spelling. He tries to latch on to brainy, culturally sophisticated Allison (Daphne Zuniga), a preppy, overscheduled uptight type. But Cusack's clumsy approaches earn only her scorn.
The two are thrust together on a cross-country Christmas vacation trip when Gib is lured to California with the promise of a "sure thing" -- a beautiful woman waiting only to have brainless, guilt-free sex with him. Allison is going to visit her boyfriend -- an absurd type even more uptight than she is. They find themselves sharing a ride with a young couple with a penchant for show tunes - until they are kicked out on the open road and forced to hitchhike.
Naturally Gib and Allison fall in love during the trip during which they endure various amusing adventures.
Within its genre, this ranks as a pretty decent romantic comedy. It launched Cusack's career and there are amusing riffs also by Anthony Edwards who went to to star in "ER" and a young Tim Robbins giving a very funny cameo. Whatever happened to Zuniga anyway? She seems to have made her subsequent career mostly in soaps. Pity, she was cute in this movie.
Who did invent liquid soap and why? 
2009-11-16 - This is an excellent movie at a great price from amazon.Get it as a Xmas present or to watch with your loved ones.This is a college romance(why don't they make those anymore?) and thus has more depth than the high school romcoms that are either gross or immature.At a New England college we see 2 students in an English Lit. class.He is brash,irreverent,superficial,make-it-up-as-you-go-along guy.She is studious,prim,organised,focussed.You just know that they are made for each other,because each can save the other from their foolishness.The question is will they realise it?A series of disastrous encounters between the 2 reinforces the poor opinion each has of the other during the school term(and there are some great lines to remember).But each is going to L.A. for the Xmas holidays.Cusack to meet every guy's fantasy- a date with a gorgeous California girl,that his best buddy has set him up with and whom is guaranteed to be a "sure thing"!Zuniga is going out to L.A. to see her equally studious boyfriend whom she calls at 7.45pm each night.By accident they find themselves in the same car sharing the trip with 2 others(who are absolutely hilarious simpletons).The 2 spend the whole trip arguing,bickering and annoying each other to the point that they get abandoned in the roadway by the others.And so they decide to hitch/walk to L.A. Along the way they start to discover different facets of the other,that challenge their hitherto first impressions.She can be spontaneous and open minded.He can be gallant and caring.Watch for the scene in the truck driven by a wonderfully sleazy actor (who went on to play the drill sergeant in "full metal jacket")where Cusack basically saves Zuniga from a fate worse than death (as Jane Austen would say).But every time these 2 start to get closer,something prevents them from coming together.My wife shouted at the screen-"Kiss her now you idiot!" twice-once after the beer chugging scene and once after the waking up scene.Anyway,as the trip unfolds,we see Cusack's recurring fantasies about his blonde "sure thing" begin to wobble.Until finally,to his surprise and part horror,his recurring dream about the blonde morphs at the crucial moment into Zuniga which wakes him up with a start.His true feelings about Zuniga are beginning to surface and Reiner handles this beautifully.Watch how her suitcase plays a key role too.Throughout the trip she is lugging this big suitcase with everything you could need as any organised girl would.And he lets her do it.But at a key point,Cusack picks it up for her and says "that's ok I got it".And that's when you know he is hooked.But once more,just as you think they are going to be OK,he manages to screw up when he tells a truck driver who is giving them the final ride to LA that he is going there to meet his sure thing.Zuniga,who doesn't know why he is going to LA as it hasn't come up,wakes up in the back just as Cusack is boasting,and she gets totally upset,but doesn't say anything.
When they get to LA all hell breaks loose.They are totally confused about their feelings for each other,but neither knows how to break the cycle of closeness followed by distrust.She goes to her boyfriend and he goes to meet the blonde at a party.Once with her boyfriend Zuniga realises that she can't stop thinking about Cusack,and misses being with him.So,she talks her boyfriend(who is clearly destined to be ex-boyfriend)into going to the party.There she works hard to get Cusack jealous,and then watches Cusack as he returns the compliment.A big argument ensues with some great lines(from Zuniga-"he thinks love is something you can order out like a pizza!") .They both leave the party separately.She with boyfriend ,he with blonde.
Does she go to bed with her boyfriend?Does he go to bed with the blonde?
We don't know.But the next time we see them,they are in the same english class,where she won't talk to him.And then the English prof reads from the best essay that has been handed in after the xmas vacation.It's called the "sure thing" and it's by Cusack.Zuniga cringes in horror expecting the final humiliation-and a public one at that.But as the essay is read out by the prof to the class ,something happens in the essay that she did not foresee at all.It becomes clear that Cusack understood the difference between the "real thing" (with her)and a "sure thing" (with the gorgeous blonde) and that the "real thing" is what counts.
"You didn't sleep with her?" Zuniga asks filled with surprise/wonder.
Aaah..... see the rest for yourselves.My teenage kids loved it,and maybe they will remember it and focus on the "real thing" as they develop their relationships.
My review of the movie "The Sure Thing".
2009-09-08 - Although, the movie is set in the 1980's, the plot is universal and applies to any age: Boy meets girl, boy likes girl (but girl does not like boy at first), boy's schemes to get girl to like him, and finally boy wins girl). The college scene brought back memories: saving beer bottles and cans in your room (I eventually ended up throwing out my saved up cans and bottles).
It also confirms that women are more mature than men in their early teens and twenties (men catch up, maturiry-wise, in their late twenties and thirties).
This movie is hilarious and reminds me of what it was like to be young and in college (with all that testosterone running wild in your body). In the end, the relationship between 2 people prevail over blind testosterone driven sex!
2.5 stars out of 4 
2009-03-26 - The Bottom Line:
The Sure Thing's sweetness somewhat makes up for the fact that it embraces formula like it was a virtue: it's a likeable movie but not an accomplished one.
A few missed opportunities otherwise, good
2009-03-22 - Obviously this is a very well-liked 80s movie. There are large parts of this movie that are very fun to watch, but some parts seem a little out of place. I wish the beginning of the movie would have involved a little less interaction between the two characters at the beginning so as to make the eventual bonding a little more interesting. There are a lot of great ideas and moments in the movie and some good acting. It just seems like they missed the real payoff in a few spots. Still, if you like 80s movies, this is a good one that has a lot in common with other popular movies.
