User Reviews

This is a fairly routine teen comedy, with precious few laughs and lots of guys with sex on the brain. I will, however, give this film high marks for actually "feeling" like summer. Perhaps it's just me, but I can't identify at all with a California or Florida summer...there are no palm trees around my city. So for all of the flaws in this movie, I think that I'll remember the lovely Canadian summer scenery for some time...the only part worth remembering in an otherwise forgettable film.

PICK-UP SUMMER (Pinball Summer) was shown as part of the Grindhouse Film Festival at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles March 9-10, 2007. This film among others was chosen by Quentin Tarantino as a favorite from his personal 35mm collection. I saw him briefly in the lobby of the theater and he said that he saw this in 1982 when it was first released. On Friday night when I saw it in a packed house, the mainly young audience got the jokes (lots of laughter) and had fun with the film. Obviously inspired by other teen films like THE VAN and THE POM-POM GIRLS, this film revolves around a Pinball Machine (remember them?) tournament. Not too shabby...

I review every movie I watch on IMDB, as a way to keep track. I watch a lot of garbage, particularly '80s boob comedies like this, and slashers. It can be hard to know what to say about these flicks; they're usually bad in a boring way.

"Pick up Summer" is an example of that. It's not really about anything, and doesn't really have any characters or memorable moments. It just shows the usual teen hijinks, mostly performed by people clearly out of their teens.

The movie doesn't even really have a protagonist. There are two obnoxious idiots - one who looks to be well into his thirties - who are in perhaps more scenes than any of the other characters. I guess they're the protagonists. They make no impression, other than vague annoyance.

Then there's a gang of biker toughs, and a fat guy who wants to join the gang, so he has to lose his virginity, and they get him a hooker while they watch the action from the windows. Not that the movie has any sex.

It does have some nudity, including some from a woman whose nipples and areolae are markedly the same colour as her breasts, and so are almost invisible.

There's also a scene where a guy rides a motorbike into water, for some reason.

Quite clearly filmed under the title, PINBALL SUMMER, PICKUP is a truly bizarre Canadian version of USA teen flicks. The film tries to pass off Canada as the USA, but that is hardly the largest of its credibility problems. This is one of those films where you are led to believe that a group of teens is going to spend all summer chasing down a trophy for a pinball tournament as the be all and end all of existence! Even supposedly rough and tumble biker gangs go gaga for the hunk of metal and faux wood.

But, between the hackneyed boyfriend-girlfriend storyline, the loser virgin clichés and the chase for the elusive trophy, PICKUP SUMMER gains momentum to become a truly indescribable bit of 80's nostalgia. Leering shots at the pretty leads are expected and break up the monotony, but when the film has over-the-top homo-erotic biker dudes chasing after not only the girls, but this trophy and, seemingly, each other, it truly goes off the rails - in it's own "good-bad" way.

The theme song "Pinball Summer" (they even did a custom Pinball Summer video game) is genuinely catchy in a pop 80's kind of way, and there is a quirky energy to the second half of the film.

Grindhouse fest

"Greg" (Michael Zelniker) and "Steve" (Carl Marotte) are two teenaged boys who have just finished another year in high school and plan on having a great summer vacation with two sisters named "Donna" (Karen Stephen) and "Suzy" (Helene Udy). In line with that, their two favorite places are a local pinball arcade and a burger joint-which also happens to attract a small-town biker gang led by a young man named "Bert" (Thomas Kovacs) who neither Greg nor Steve particularly like. And the feeling is mutual. But this rivalry gets even more heated when the owner of the pinball arcade announces a competition that Bert decides to win at all costs. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was one of the worst teen comedies I have seen in a long while. The main characters were not very likeable, the soundtrack was boring and the plot lacked humor. In short, it turned out to be an effort to get through and for that reason I have rated it accordingly.

Saw this one on a late French Network in Quebec and saw it again recently...

What Canadian filmmakers were thinking then ? Passing some parts of suburban Montreal as an American lakeside resort...

And the rest: bad photography, poor editing, null acting, sexist overtones and worst of all, a too conventional storyline that is rather reminescent of the Archie Andrews/Reggie Mantle rivalries in Archie comics, which ended with a reward: a girl after a souped-up pinball tournament contest...Better read the comics.

For the rest, Mihalka learned for this failure and made better films later...

And the French dubbing ? Again in Paris, as the kids where treated to original Parisian suburb slang... And Carl Marotte is french-speaking and does not dub himself...

A movie to waste your time, and then forget it !

The original title "Pinball Summer" is more thematic, but there is a fair amount of picking up/pulling/scoring and mostly just making out in this juvenile offering. Generally, films with this type of cast fall into one of two categories: horror in particular slasher films in which even the gorgeous girls get killed, and half-baked scatological escapades in which testosterone-filled teens and young men chase girls who are often more than willing to get caught. There is usually a virgin of course, as well as a nerd and an alpha male/bully. Other characters include exasperated older people, and occasionally cops who are out to spoil the fun.

All those elements are present here, but the film doesn't succeed. The plot, such as it is, is about a pinball competition with a long run-up into it. On the plus side, nobody gets killed, and as the bad guys are more idiots than thugs, there are no villains with a capital V either, so no real triumph, certainly not over evil. There is a soundtrack, but even that is half-hearted. Watch a slasher flick next time.

This was one of my favorite movies growing up in the 80's, although back then, it was called "Pinball Summer", not "Pick-Up Summer." Being 12 years old, I thought it was hilariously brilliant when the two guys decided to stuff hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, and popcorn into the exhaust pipe of a car in the drive-in movie so when it started up, the car behind it got a blast of greasy food! Anyone going into a movie like this expecting anything more than pure hedonistic fun, stupidity, and laughs, will be sorely disappointed. However, if you want a break from your week to just chill and relive the carefree days of the early 80's then sit back and enjoy the ride!

This movie is a golden feast bursting with the delicious flavours of a grade A hamburger cooked to perfection and shoved into an exhaust pipe during some well executed tomfoolery. Few directors have burst on the scene with as much promise as a young George Mihalka in 1979, truly a time which we all remember as the Pinball Summer. With the ballsy grit of a Canadian Martin Scorcese who was half circus clown and half inbred madman, Mihalka was the name on the tip of many film industry tongues that year. This homo-erotic masterpiece - scored to perfection by songwriting team Jay Boivin & Germaine Gauthier A.K.A. The Rock'n'Roll Genius Twin Set - had people expecting great things from the young maverick. Stars Michael Zelniker and Tom Kovacs became overnight sensation heartthrob superstars in the gay sections of Montreal ghettos. The plot, following the exploits of two fun loving idiots who constantly screw over other people for no reason, was of immeasurable influence to some of the biggest comedy hits of the next decade. Films such as Police Academy and Snowboard Academy took the patented Pinball Summer formula of mixing a wacky, mischievous protagonist with the occasional naked boobies and added their own elements like 'funny black guy' or 'short nerd who is also dumb' or in some cases 'poop snowman.'

This influence can not be accurately gauged by the film's commercial success, as it failed to ignite at the box office during a year which the a short lived 'Pinball Craze of 79/80' was sucking the disposable income from an estimated 90% of America's illiterate youth. (The original tagline of "Pinball Was their Vietnam" didn't seem to help much either) Fortunately, several discarded prints of the film found their way into the right hands and began making the rounds at some of Hollywood's most lavish coke parties. Before long Pinball Summer was not only the hippest movie to feature at coke parties across America, it became an in-joke which served as a passkey into the cocaine culture that ruled the 80's. Those who didn't know the right references from Pinball Summer simply weren't allowed access to the back rooms of the presidential suites or anywhere on Roberts Evans' property, and in some cases were badly beaten out of paranoid suspicion.

While most of the cast shunned the poison apple of Hollywood and went back to working as happy garbagemen in various townships across Quebec, a hungry George Mihalka kept at it. And while his career never reached the heights that his mother had predicted after such an astonishing debut, there are many critics who feel that 14 projects and 16 years later Mihalka finally bested himself with the straight to video favorite 'Deceptions 2: Edge of Deception.' D2 transplanted many of the dominant themes of his early work into the thriving genre of the erotic thriller, and opened the doors for the radical visionary to bring the his message to a new generation with a new set of problems. In 1995 D2 was unleashed on VHS to a world far more complex and less fun loving than that of 1979. A world where Pinball is sadly no longer the answer. Thank God naked boobies can still make a difference.

I really enjoyed this cheaply madcap, low-brow Canadian teen sex comedy… as I found it hard not be smitten by its passionate shenanigans. Not much goes on… well actually, yes there's a lot going (schools out and summer awaits with teens running wild and getting in all sorts of trouble), but its something like a senseless parade lynch together than anything that really resembles a story. It's basically plot-less (although the film does feature two guys trying to impress two sisters and there's a pinball competition which could be seen as the backbone to all of this fooling about), instead it's made up of spontaneously breezy episodes where it just wants to break out a song interlude every five minutes. In which case it does, as someone was definitely popping coins in the jukebox hooking up those bouncy, if unbelievably cheesy tracks. So why think about it though, it promises fun with its constant raunchiness, carefree slapstick and crass jokes. Dialogues are crude, but comically cheeky ("Come on Steve, at least he got the measurements right"). The girls are voluptuous in their skimpy outfits, the guys are rowdily juvenile and the grown-ups are just clueless. It's all stereotypical, but that's the charm. Michael Zelniker and Carl Marotte are amusing as the goofball lads, while the beautiful Karen Stephen and Helen Ude (sister of Claudia) give typically sweet performances as their girlfriends. Thomas Kovacs is picture-perfect in his role as the snake-like Bert, a biker who gets around with three buddies. Also having memorable parts are the curvy Joy Boushel (just wait for strip pinball), Joey McNamara, J Robert Maze and Matthew Steven as a spoiled rich kid. Director George Mihalka ("My Bloody Valentine") plays it in a farcical manner, by teasing with the camera and frenetically letting it unfold.

"Well isn't it Tarzan and his three apes."

This movie ended up making me feel like I'd been sucking helium or something. Fun, silly and kind of surreal. Similar feeling to watching Dazed & Confused... except in D&C at least there were somewhat realistic characters with somewhat believable lines. The characters in this movie are all cartoons with silly lines and over-the-top acting. Total drive-in movie fare. It's perfect for a bunch of friends to hang out and watch while drinking a bunch of beer. You don't have to follow the plot too closely to understand what's happening. It's got everything. Cool vans, pinball, bikers, hot chicks, disco dancing and a happy 70s soundtrack.

I actually had a kinda hard time placing the year when I first saw it. I thought for sure 80s but in the arcade scenes not one video game was visible and instead pinball machines seemed to be the big craze.

I have to say I liked this movie a lot and could see myself going back and watching it a few more times. I've tried to watch Meatballs again recently and found to my disappointment that I no longer enjoyed it but somehow this film has the perfect knucklehead teen comedy vibe. I only heard of this movie because the band Fu Manchu mentioned it as an inspiration... I was unable to find a copy anywhere until one showed up on e-bay.

I first saw this movie on TV when I was about 12 or 13 and liked it. Then I purchased the movie on DVD in 2004 and have watched it several times since then. Although I find it cheesy and pretty much plot less, I think it shows quite well what summers were like for teenagers back in the late 70's early 80's. There is always stuff going on from beginning to end and the music is awesome! The bikers are funny and there's a bunch of nice girls and nice cars! Also interesting to see La Ronde amusement park as well as what seems to be Lachine or Beaconsfield as some of the shooting locations. A good movie from yesterdays!

This movie alternately called "Pinball Summer" or "Pick-up Summer" (since the pinball craze had long since ended by the time it hit American drive-ins) is basically a Canadian version of the 1970's American teen exploitation (or "sexploitation") drive-in flicks, which means that despite the thick Canadian accents it is virtually indistinguishable from contemporary American teen comedies like "The Pom-Pom Girls", "The Van", "Malibu Beach" and so forth. There is no real plot, for instance, just a lot pranks and zany hijinks revolving around a pinball tournament and a trophy that keeps getting lost or stolen. The male protagonists are two over-aged high school students who are much more obnoxious and somewhat less funny than actual teenagers. Their enemies are a sorry motorcycle gang who look like north-of-the border rejects from "Grease" or the Frankie and Annette beach movies, and a snooty rich couple who the protagonists seem to torment for no other reason than because they're rich and snooty.

Of course, the main reason to see any of these movies is the girls. The two protagonists are chasing around two sisters played by a couple of very attractive actresses (Karin Stephens and Helene Udy). The two wear various outfits that are never more than ridiculously skimpy, but have only very brief nude scenes. Most of the nudity is provided by the voluptuous Joy Boushel, who later became a minor Canadian scream queen appearing in "Humongous" and "The Fly". She leaves an indelible impression of boobs and freckles here, especially in the big "strip pinball" scene. Unfortunately, her character "Sally" also has her own theme song ("Sally Joy/you ain't no boy. . ."). Which brings me to the music: imagine the worst kind of sappy music from the late 1970's--now imagine something much, much worse and you're starting to get an idea of the godawful soundtrack to this movie.

So all things considered would I recommend this? Well, it could have used a little more nudity and a LOT less music, but it's really no worse than the American teen movies of the time, so if you like those. . . And the director, George Mihalka, would go on to make one of the better Canadian "slash-for-cash" horror movies "My Bloody Valentine" (if only some psycho in a miner's helmet would have put all the male hosers in THIS movie out of my misery, but oh well. . .).

The first time I saw this it was about 4 in the morning and I wasn't all there. It was insanely cheesy and funny at the same time. Bad acting, bad music equals CLASSIC MOVIE! I have been looking to buy a copy of this movie but it is IMPOSSIBLE to find. This movie captures summer perfectly. Steve and Greg have an unforgettable time throughout the movie and you get a good feeling after watching it! I find myself watching this movie alot because it is a CLASSIC!! The soundtrack is amazing also!

The one positive thing I can say about the Canadian film "Pinball Summer" (a.k.a. "Pick-Up Summer) is that it's more watchable than the typical crappy "high art" movies the Canadian government funds nowadays. Apart from that, and maybe the movie's okay production values, I am at a loss to think of anything else positive to say about this movie. First, the cast is too old. Although these guys are supposed to be teenagers, the actors all appear to be in their late 20s/early 30s. Also, there's barely a story here, just a loose subplot about a stolen trophy (a plot that gets forgotten about before the end the movie), and the pinball tournament at the end of the movie. Until then, we are bombarded by unfunny slapstick and pranks, which gets REAL tired REALLY quickly. Not recommended, unless you want to see a typical example of the tax-shelter product Canada was making in the late '70s to early '80s.

Recently obtained a DVD of "PickUp Summer", the purchase price was rock bottom and so is this picture. The producers had to put nudity throughout the film in order to keep it interesting. This film looked like it was made in the 1950's not 80's. It is not a comedy at all, it is just a big JOKE!