I just watched Summer Rental, the John Candy film where his character takes his family away for a summer by the beach and they end up competing in the annual regatta. Its a pretty old film now (1985!) but I still love it. It’s a silly film – the kind of thing you can sit and watch on a damp Saturday afternoon. Much like today really.
Being an older film, there’s subtle differences you tend to notice, comparing it to contemporary films. The one I picked up on mainly was the fact that a lot of older films liked to throw in sound effects in very odd places, and quite often over do them. The one that gets me the most is the notion that dogs seem to bark almost constantly. Just having the dog in frame isn’t enough – it has to bark randomly, usually as the main characters are expressing some emotion, almost as if the dog was speaking with them. It’s a nice idea, but damn annoying. There’s a few shots in Summer Rental where you can see the dog walking toward the camera supposedly barking, but the dog is obviously not.
Similarly, there’s so many films featuring computers that bleep and boop their way through EVERY operation. Most computers I know don’t make that much noise. A good sound editor will sneak these things in, to just bolster the action, or underline something. If you notice it, they’ve obviously done something wrong in my mind.
Still, it’s a good film all the same.
Uncle Buck – BEST JOHN CANDY FILM EVER!!!