By Of all the 80s properties to remake, they had to pick an obscure favorite from my childhood with virtually no name recognition. Adam Sandler’s production company Happy Madison is going to redo Summer School, a 1987 Carl Reiner comedy that starred Mark Harmon and Kirstie Allie. Harmon plays Fred Shoop, a high school gym teacher forced to teach remedial English over the summer to a bunch of oddball students. There’s a lot in this movie that zips through my pre-adolescence into my late teens.
Three of the students were played by early on-screen crushes: Courtney Thorne-Smith of Melrose Place and Revenge of the Nerds II; Shawnee Smith of The Blob remake, Becker, and the Saw films; and Fabiana Udenio of Bride of Re-Animator and Austin Powers.
The nerdiest, most allergy-prone student was played by Richard Steven Horvitz, a prolific voice actor perhaps best known for doing Zim on Invader Zim. (You’re after my robot bee!)
Most importantly: Dave (Gary Riley) and Chainsaw (Dean Cameron), two gorehounds obsessed with the special effects of Rick Baker and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. (They jokingly refer to the film at one point as “the Toe-bay Hoo-pair classic.”) These guys and the title character from Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home have their enthusiastic fingerprints on my teenage love of gore movies and make-up effects.
After the cut, a music video from the film for the very 80s song “Mind Over Matter” by E.G. Daily.
[Via The Playlist]
