Totally Rad 1980's!

PING PONG SUMMER (2014)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

There has been a stunning retro need of late for any and everything related to the 1980's - a decade I would soon like to forget. I was a teenager then and, despite some occasional fun times during the summers, there is precious little I cling to from that decade aside from pop culture. "Ping Pong Summer" is yet another coming-of-age film about those awkward teen years in the 1980's, only the setting here is Ocean City, Maryland. The film itself only feels like half the story is being told.

Marcello Conte is Rad Miracle, the awkward teen who loves hip-hop, ping-pong and breakdancing. He and his family travel to Ocean City for the summer but all the kid can do is play ping pong inside of an arcade. His best new friend (actually Rad's only friend) is the Jericurled Teddy (Myles Massey) whom he plays ping pong with. There is also the object of some mere affection for Rad, Stacy (Emmi Shockley), who is slowly OD'ing on Funk Punch, an extremely sugary, non-alcoholic concoction that provides the euphoric brain freeze. Lyle (Joseph McCaughtry) is Stacy's rich ex-boyfriend who taunts and ridicules Rad, claiming to be the superior ping pong player. Rad loses one game with Lyle and insists on a big rematch, under the tutelage of the town pariah, Randi Jammer (Susan Sarandon).

For 1980's references galore, "Ping Pong Summer" is chock full of them but it has too little story and too many sidelined characters with fascinating eccentricities. John Hannah is the patriarch of the Miracle family, a State Police officer whose main character trait is that he is terminally annoyed by his daughter, a Goth Chick of sorts who could use an infusion of Vitamin D. Lea Thompson is the mother who mistakes her son's hip-hop mimicking in the shower for...masturbation! I would have loved to learn more about them or even Susan Sarandon's beer swilling Randi, easily the most interesting character in the whole film. There is also Rad's offbeat aunt and uncle (played by the energetic Amy Sedaris and Robert Longstreet) who sleep out in the beach, but they are also given minimum exposure.

Ultimately the film revisits "The Karate Kid" for its climax (and final freeze frame) but "Ping Pong Summer" is not nearly as involving or as entertaining as that 1984 sleeper. In fact, it is not half as colorful or as fun as 2013's "The Way Way Back," a similar coming-of-age that dealt with teenage awkwardness during a summer vacation getaway. Still, "Ping Pong Summer" has its heart in the right place and contains sincere performances. It only leaves us wanting more.