Synopsis:
The sizzling sands of Malibu set the scene as Monroe meets a beautiful marine biologist and is recruited to play California’s hottest new sport, professional volleyball. Soon he’s competing against the big boys (played by pro-circuit stars Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos). But it’s only when Monroe teams up with Zack Barnes (TV’s “Thirtysometing’s” Peter Horton), the original “King of the Beach,” that he learns just how much fun success – and teamwork – can truly be.
What We Thought:
The latest in Mill Creek Entertainment‘s Retro VHS Slipcover Edition releases is Side Out. I absolutely love these releases which take Blu-ray movies and give them retro VHS-inspired slipcovers. I grew up going to video rental stores and it was the coverart of those VHS films that sold you on renting the movie. It might be my favorite Mill Creek product line they currently have.
As for the movie itself, I had never actually seen it before. It’s from 1990, but 100% feels like a 1980s flick. It has a generic fish-out-of-water plot with hot babes and beautiful scenery. C. Thomas Howell plays Monroe, a student from Milwaukee who moves to California to work at his uncle’s law firm. He wants to be a lawyer, but soon realizes there is a lot of shadiness working for his uncle. He is forced to give “pay or quit” notices to either vacate the premises or pay past rent due and meets Zack Barnes (Peter Horton), a once big beach volleyball star. He starts to play volleyball with a limo driver he first met at LAX and they are eventually coached by Barnes. An accident makes Barnes his teammate and they enter the big volleyball tournament.
That is totally an 80s story idea. Replace volleyball with skiing or skateboarding or surfing or bicycle racing and we’ve definitely seen this movie before. Plus you need the love interest here played by Courtney Thorne-Smith of course. And you know it will have a happy ending after some type of obstacle or headbutting.
Is Side Out any good? Of course not, but I guarantee you it has a cult following because all of these movies did. But besides the cult following you’re buying it for that sweet slipcover. Again I love these releases because it reminds me of my childhood and how things were way cooler back then.
The Nerds Templar 