Savage Steve Holland brings back Better Off Dead (1985) alumni John Cusack and Curtis Armstrong from his cockeyed debut, but doesn't reproduce that film's sardonic wit in the goofy One Crazy Summer. Kind of like a vacation movie crossed with Revenge of the Nerds, Summer tries so hard for quirkiness that it gets a bad case of heat exhaustion. When Bobcat Goldthwait isn't even the weirdest character in a movie, that's saying something. On the other hand, the "loveable eccentrics vs. country club bullies" formula is so standard that the film feels downright conventional, despite repeated gestures toward the offbeat. That this summer of slaphappy events culminates in a boat race with the fate of a whole island on the line (or so it would seem) is about as surprising as who will emerge victorious. One Crazy Summer helped cement Cusack's status as an amiable underdog, and it certainly has enough giggles to keep things rolling. Nevertheless, it shows the limits of what Holland has to offer; he would give directing one more effort, with the similarly madcap How I Got Into College (1989), before calling it a career.