Does a film count as a guilty pleasure if one doesn’t feel terribly guilty about their affection for it? I don’t know, but I suppose 1987’s Summer School falls into that category. I loved the movie back in the late Eighties, and while I now see more of its flaws, it remains a reasonably fun and amusing piece.

At the start of the film, long-time teacher Dearadorian (director Carl Reiner) wins the lottery. This means he no longer needs to teach summer school, so Vice Principal Phil Gills (Robin Thomas) scrambles to find someone to teach remedial English. A batch of high school students flunked the English Skills Test, so they need to retake it after this class ends.

Slacker gym teacher Freddy Shoop (Mark Harmon) intends to go to Hawaii with his girlfriend Kim (Amy Stock), but Gills snares him for the teaching assignment. Shoop tries to refuse, but Gills threatens Shoop with a lack of tenure if he doesn’t take the job. Kim goes to Hawaii without Shoop, but he soon meets history teacher Robin Bishop (Kirstie Alley) and falls in love again. He spends the rest of the movie trying to endear himself to her, something that becomes complicated since she just started to see Gills.

Shoop’s class includes a motley mix. We meet football player Kevin (Patrick Labyorteaux), sleepy Larry (Ken Olandt), horror flick obsessed Chainsaw (Dean Cameron) and his buddy Dave (Gary Riley), surfer girl Pam (Courtney Thorne-Smith), nerdy Alan Eakian (Richard Steven Horvitz), pregnant Rhonda (Shawnee Smith), sassy Denise (Kelly Minter), and exchange student Anna-Maria (Fabiana Udenio). Initially the kids walk all over him, and he doesn’t even bother to try to teach them; they just take a series of field trips to places like the beach and an amusement park.

When Gills finds out about this, he plans to suspend Shoop until the school’s principal can return and officially fire him. However, Shoop offers a challenge: if he can get all the kids to pass the test, he retains his job. Gills agrees, and Shoop negotiates with the students to get them to work. He needs to exchange favors to convince them to learn. He also asks for help from Robin. The rest of the flick follows the wackiness that ensues on all fronts.

Summer School is one of those films I can’t judge objectively. As I noted already, I loved it in the Eighties and although I’d not seen it in years prior to the arrival of this DVD, I still remembered it very well. Actually, this screening finally solved an ongoing confusion. I occasionally use the phrase “dumb dildo” but for the life of me, I couldn’t recall where I got it. Summer School is the answer - I was so relieved when I heard it here!

Plenty of other lines and gags stayed in my head, so at times, I couldn’t quite establish if I felt amused because the material was actually funny or simply because of my fond memories. To be sure, School hasn’t aged terribly well. The movie came across as a product of its era, with the usual broad wackiness and Eighties attitude on full display.

The movie also suffers from some notable plot holes. We see lots of students early in the film who vanish mysteriously after a while, though some of them occasionally pop up when the story decides it needs them. This makes no sense and becomes a real concern, especially when the flick goes over the test at the end; we see and hear nothing about the other kids and the flick doesn’t care at all.

Ultimately, the movie overcomes these flaws pretty well just because it tosses in too much fun and vivacity to entertain. The cast certainly helps. We find no master thespians in the crew, and they don’t get much to work with from their thinly-drawn characters, but they create fun personalities for the most part.

Some fare better than others, of course. Dave and Rhonda exist in almost an Afterschool Special world of unusual love, and they don’t fit terribly well with the others. When Kim falls for Shoop, though, this blends pretty well and doesn’t become quite so mawkish.

The film’s heart lies with the wackiness exhibited by Chainsaw and Dave. Clearly they exist as the flick’s prime supporting characters, and it uses them for good comic effect whenever possible. This means the movie departs from reality to allow them to shine, but that seems acceptable. This isn’t meant to be a documentary, so I can forgive the flick’s digressions for comedic effect.

Mostly, Summer School moves briskly and seems like a tight and fun film. Will it offer much amusement for folks who didn’t see it within its Eighties context? I don’t know, but 17 years after its first release, I continue to enjoy it despite a mix of weaknesses.

Summer School appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. An erratic presentation, the movie varied from scene to scene but generally looked good.

Sharpness usually seemed acceptable. A little softness interfered on occasion, but those moments were reasonably rare. Most of the movie presented a fairly accurate and distinct image. Jagged edges and moiré effects caused no concerns, but some light edge enhancement periodically marred the presentation.

Shockingly, virtually no print flaws appeared, though you’d not expect such a clean presentation based on the movies opening moments. The credits presented intense grain, and parts of the flick offered heavier than usual grain as well. However, most seemed free of that issue, and otherwise, I noticed almost no instances of specks, marks or other defects. It’d look clean for a recent movie, so the absence of problems for one from 17 years ago was especially pleasing.

Colors seemed erratic. They displayed the usual Eighties murkiness at times, but they also often looked nicely vibrant and distinct. For the most part, the hues came across as solid, though, especially during the many daytime exterior shots. Black levels tended to appear somewhat inky, while shadow detail was a little too dense at times. Interiors occasionally seemed flat and muddy. Really, the interiors caused the majority of the transfer’s concerns, as the outside images consistently looked much stronger. Most of Summer School actually looked very strong, but the various concerns seemed prominent enough to drop my grade to a “B“.

The film’s remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack added a little life to the original monaural material. Unsurprisingly, the mix featured a heavy emphasis on the forward channels. Music showed minor stereo separation, while effects displayed light breadth and delineation at times. All of this remained fairly vague, as not much about the placement or imaging seemed distinctive; the track stayed with general atmosphere and little else. The surrounds seemed virtually silent throughout the flick and never played an active role.

Audio quality came across as decent. Speech appeared fairly distinct and natural, with no issues related to edginess or intelligibility. Effects sounded clean and accurate, but they usually lacked much in the way of dynamics. Music was somewhat thin and lackluster as well, as the flick’s score and Eighties source tunes seemed concise but not much better. I didn’t expect much from the audio of Summer School and I got what I anticipated from this fairly average mix.

Unfortunately, Summer School came without any supplements. No commentary, no documentary, no deleted scenes - not even a trailer!

While definitely a product of its era, Summer School nonetheless offers enough goofy fun to be a kick. The movie presents light and wacky fun to become a reasonably amusing piece. The DVD offers generally good picture with fairly average audio and no supplements. Fans of Eighties comedies should give Summer School a look.