Odd Jobs (1986)

Director:

Mark Story

Writers:

Robert Conte (writer)
Peter Martin Wortmann (writer)

Release Date:

March 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

What Will It Take To Get This Bunch Of Bozos Through College?

Plot:

Four students who work on different jobs during their vacations in summer are tired of doing the same thing every year...

Plot Keywords:

Moving | Student | Vacation | Summer | Loan Shark

Cast

Paul Reiser	...	Max
Robert Townsend	...	Dwight
Scott McGinnis	...	Woody
Rick Overton	...	Roy
Paul Provenza	...	Byron
Leo Burmester	...	Wylie D. Daiken
Thomas Quinn	...	Frankie
Savannah Smith Boucher	...	Loretta & Lynette
Richard Dean Anderson	...	Spud
Richard Foronjy	...	Manny
Ken Olfson	...	Mayor Brady
Jake Steinfeld	...	Nick
Eleanor Mondale	...	Mandy
Charlie Dell	...	Earl
Starletta DuPois	...	Dwight's Mom

Also Known As:

Summer Jobs (USA) (alternative title)
This End Up (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:PG-13

Company:

Home Box Office (HBO)

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Roy skis down the stairs of his dorm and goes off the balcony, you can see part of the balcony break away before he actually touches it.

Soundtrack:

Prime Time

Taking what they givin' cause I'm working for a livin'!

I recommend watching Odd Jobs. It is one of the funniest stupid-humor comedies I've ever seen. Five college friends on summer break each try to find work. Max (Paul Resier) is the entrepeneurial type and has his eye for success on the moving business. Working for the 'Corelli Brothers', a mob owned and operated business, is certainly no picnic. In the meantime, Max's buddies all get fired or quit their thankless jobs--pretty boy Wood (Scott McGinnis) gets fired from a waiter job at his uncle's restaurant; Wylie (Leo Burmester) and Byron (Paul Provenza) get fired as golf caddies for insulting the players; and Roy (Rick Overton) quits his job selling evangelist backed nuclear vacuum cleaners.

Max, usually optimistic, also quits working for the Corelli Brothers after they stiff him in some dirty dealings, and decides that he and the gang should go into business. So, they start a moving company. Only problem is, the mob doesn't like the guys moving in on their business. For the Carelli Brothers, no competition is good competition. So, they try to hustle Max and his friends out of the business. But, Max isn't going down with a fight because he knows something about the Corelli Brothers, a secret that could either get he and his buddies killed mob style, or one that could bring down the Corelli Brothers for good.

It is a pretty funny comedy. A viewer somewhere wrote that the end lacked the pizazz that made the rest of the movie so funny (and probably so bizarre). Agreed, the climax is probably anti-climatic when compared to the rest of the movie, it still has a bit of the stupid-humor comedy going on. Nonetheless, the movie is just so damn wacky. It's definitely worth watching. My favorite parts are Byron trying to impress Wylie's family by acting black (stereotypically, of course) because Wylie's family is black. His father keeps getting this hilarious homicidal twitch in his eye every time Byron comes up with some new way to embarrass himself. And that big guy from the Corelli Brothers who was always giggling at everything, man that is one stupid guy. It's good times all around.