The Sure Thing (1985)

Director:

Rob Reiner

Writers:

Steve Bloom (writer)
Jonathan Roberts (writer)

Release Date:

1 March 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

He's onto a sure thing . . . but ends up on the funniest journey to romance you've ever seen.

Plot:

A college student plans a cross-country trip to get laid, but ends up traveling with a young woman. They hate each other, so naturally...

Plot Keywords:

Brat Pack | Swimming Pool | Sex | Rose | Electronic Music Score

Cast

John Cusack	...	Walter (Gib) Gibson
Daphne Zuniga	...	Alison Bradbury
Anthony Edwards	...	Lance
Boyd Gaines	...	Jason
Tim Robbins	...	Gary Cooper
Lisa Jane Persky	...	Mary Ann Webster
Viveca Lindfors	...	Professor Taub
Nicollette Sheridan	...	The Sure Thing
Marcia Christie	...	Julie
Robert Anthony Marcucci	...	Bobby
Sarah Buxton	...	Sharon
Lorrie Lightle	...	Lucy
Joshua Cadman	...	Jimbo
Krystal Richards	...	Girl in Photo
John Putch	...	Mastin

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:M | Finland:S | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

Company:

Embassy Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The scene where Gib teaches Alison to shotgun a beer was added to the script after John Cusack told Rob Reiner it was something he knew how to do.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: During the swimming pool scene, as the camera pans following Alison swim, the upper right hand window reveals the top of a palm tree. Very odd for the Midwest setting.

Quotes:

Alison: You didn't sleep with her?
Gib: Still seeing Jason?
Alison: Broke up.
Gib: That's too bad.
Alison: You didn't sleep with her.
Gib: Wasn't my type.

Movie Connections:

References E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Soundtrack:

CONCEALED WEAPONS

Stands up to time pretty well, actually...

Just for the heck of it, I pulled out my copy of The Sure Thing and watched it again. It's held up well since I first saw it on video in 1986. Yeah, the music is a little old, and Jason, Alison's boyfriend, still grates on me because I looked like him, but in all other respects it has held up well. What carries it is that it's the classic John Cusack Movie, where Cusack is just being... John Cusack. Totally real, totally unpretentious. You can see it in everything else he's done, even things of totally different style, like "Eight Men Out" and "The Grifters." He just rules the screen and the production ends up recalling pictures like "His Girl Friday" and "It Happened One Night." This has stood up to nearly fifteen years of viewing pretty well. Compare and contrast other stuff of that era, like "St. Elmo's Fire," and "Fast Times At Ridgemont High." Or any Tom Hanks movie of the period.

I've now come back five years after originally posting this review (it's now May, 2007) and I say, this film STILL stands as a classic Cusack, even after I have (in the interim) loved "Pushing Tin," "Being John Malkovich" and of course the amazing "High Fidelity." And to this day, I have been known to say, in bars, "BARKEEP! Bring this man...a TROUGH... of spritzer!"

And just remember...

"Credit cards work on a completely different kind of lock!"