- Title: Side Out
- IMDb: link
For Throwback Thursday we turn our attention to some Beach Volleyball. While not Olympic quality, Side Out manages to highlight the sport in its own way. Working his way to law school, and staying with his uncle (Terry Kiser) for the summer, Monroe Clark (C. Thomas Howell) is ill-prepared for the world he’s walking into. While attempting to evict people from their homes, Monroe runs across degenerate gambler and beach bum Zack Barnes (Peter Horton). Despite his uncle needing Barnes evicted for a lucrative land deal, Monroe strikes up a friendship with the former beach volleyball player and a pair of other locals (Courtney Thorne-Smith and Christopher Rydell) leading him to reassess what he wants out of his life.
Using a number of professional beach volleyball players to fill out the various volleyball matches, Side Out is part sports movie and part romantic comedy as Monroe attempts to start a romance with Samantha (Thorne-Smith) and Zach rekindles feelings with his old flame (Harley Jane Kozak) despite their complicated history.
With C. Thomas Howell and Courtney Thorne-Smith, and a title for a scoring system which would be abandoned by the end of the decade, Side Out feels very much the 1990 time capsule it is. We get plenty of volleyball, as Monroe goes from novice to champion with the right coaching (much of it, and the tournament games which close out the movie, condensed into multiple montages).
Sure, there’s a bit of schmaltz that could be pared down in the final act, a gambling angle that doesn’t feel like it’s ever properly paid off, and the legal bits of the film aren’t as well mixed into the volleyball and romance angles, but the film does have a bit of nostalgic guilty pleasure charm, along with beautiful locations and lovely leading ladies (also keep an eye out for Kathy Ireland in a small role as a legal assistant). Sadly, that wasn’t enough to save the film, which bombed spectacularly, or Aurora Productions (also responsible for The Secret of N.I.M.H. and Eddie and the Cruisers) which folded shortly thereafter.
Watch the trailer
