The Sure Thing

One of the great things about growing up in the suburbs in the 1980’s was the introduction to cable. Because with cable came tity movies. I have to admit that as a young man I watched H.O.T.S. and Porky’s over and over until I could quote every line. I would always check the cable guide to find movies with young girls naked because, well I was fifteen and like any young male at that age my hormones were raging.

So, one night as I lay in my bed flipping the channels on the cable box I strolled onto a movie called The Sure Thing. With that title, it sounded like typical soft porn mid 1980’s skin flick. So, with baby oil in one hand and my remote in the other I put it on. What I got with that movie was much more than some masturbatory inducing cinema.

For those who have not seen the movie it stars John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga. Cusack starts as a freshman in a small Northeastern college who isn’t have much luck with the ladies. His friend invites him out west with the purpose of hooking him up with a girl who is a “sure thing.” Along the way he is stuck taking a road trip with Zuniga’s character.

Now, I am not a fan of the whole romantic comedy genre. As a matter of fact I find them to be predictable and boring. However, this movie is different. It’s comedic moments were actually funny and the interaction between the characters felt genuine. Sure it had the whole opposite’s attract thing going on but there was more to this story. In the end when they wind up together you actually believe it as opposed to most bad movies of this genre, where other than saying so in the script you wonder why the two characters are together.

In any good relationship that I’ve had you take something from the other person and adopt that as your own. In this movie Zungia’s character, learns to not take life so seriously and to enjoy her freedom and youth. Cusack’s character learns what it is to actually love another person.

As I sat back watching this story unfold, my hormones stopped raging and suddenly I was engrossed in the flick. I realized that this was not a teen comedy but instead was a movie in which I saw people I could relate to falling in love. I mean to get a fifteen year old with a boner to stop, sit down and actually watch a movie it had to be pretty good.

So, as the movie kept going I put down the baby oil and started concentrating on the flick. I learned a little something along the way and maybe I grew up a little. I realized that women were not just there to drool over. They were real people with real feelings. I can honestly say that, and this is rare, that this movie changed me. Which was a very good thing.