"Monroe Clark" (C. Thomas Howell) is flying out to Los Angeles to work during the summer for his wealthy "Uncle Max" (Terry Kiser) who happens to be a real estate lawyer. Monroe's first job is to serve eviction notices to those who cannot pay their rent. In the process of serving a notice on a famous beach volleyball player named "Zack Barnes" (Peter Horton), he also meets an attractive cocktail waitress by the name of "Samantha" (Courtney Thorne-Smith). One thing leads to another and before he knows it another person named "Wiley Hunter" (Christopher Rydell) convinces him to team up with him in a beach volleyball competition. And then things begin to get interesting. Anyway, for a beach movie this wasn't too bad. Although the plot was somewhat routine and the acting was barely adequate, the thing that kept this movie entertaining was the fast-paced sports action and some nice looking ladies including Harley Jane Kozak (as "Kate Jacobs"), Kathy Ireland ("Marie") and the aforementioned Courtney Thorne-Smith. Again, it's a beach movie and so one shouldn't expect too much from it. I rate it as average.

I remembered liking this back in '90 when I was 11 or 12 years old. However when I decided to watch Side Out's showing on Showtime yesterday, I did so believing that it would be awful just like the vast majority of shows from that time period that I once enjoyed. This movie surprised me though... it was funny (in a good way) and pretty well shot and well acted. You actually WANT success for Horton and Howell's characters. The women in this movie are gorgeous as well. Courtney Thorne-Smith looked hotter than ever in this (before the god awful Melrose Place)and Kathy Ireland was a pleasant surprise as part of Max's legal team. If it weren't for the horrendous soundtrack (B-52's "Roam" during a friggin' bar brawl?) I'd have given it a 7.5. Only a small gripe so I give it a 7 instead.

If you lower your standards and go in there expecting a B-movie, this one is fabulous. First of all, the cast:Peter Horton, C. Thomas Howell (wow, he grew up), Terry Kiser (he's alive for this one!), lovely Courtney Thorne-Smith. Even Kathy Ireland shows up... This movie came out right around the time that I was getting serious about volleyball, so of course my gang and I simply LOVED it. Of course it is totally unrealistic: a guy from nowhere ends up playing in an AVP final in 2 weeks! I wish. Anyway, it's also great to see all the legends of the game: O'Bradovich, Sinjin, Randy, Hov, Dodd, many of whom I have since met in person, wow, it doesn't get better than this. Even if you don't like volleyball, there's a decent plot. If you're a B-movie fan, you can't skip this movie. If every movie must have a deep inner meaning and soul to it, or has to make a statement, by all means skip it.

Spoilers herein.Sometimes the only value or pleasure you can get out of a film is to speculate on how you can make it better.Here is the old saw about a washed up athlete coming back and winning the championship. Naturally a love interest also has role in the business. Naturally, there is youngster to coach.The discriminator this time around was, I suppose, buff male volleyball players. But everything is so uninspired it makes my head hurt.However, this could have been a really good film because of the nature of the game. Every interesting filmmaker gets around to a sports film sooner of later. The `large team' sports are all about masses of people moving about, so when Oliver Stone gets involved, you get an interesting cinematic experience that has little to do with the game and everything to do with the choreography of movement.Boxing is something else that has been explored well, starting with Chaplin 80 years ago and peaking (for now) with `Raging Bull' which explored many approaches to engaging us in sharing the ring. Stallone exploited that as well. In these films, the handling of the sport is the excuse for everything in these films, and a worthy reason for a visual outing.Beach volleyball is an interesting, untapped opportunity. It is highly dimensional; the movement of the game involves people moving as individuals and small groups and in a way unencumbered by equipment and costumes. It has confrontation and collaboration. It can be sexual, at least superficially so. (Athletics and sex are contradictory.) In filmmaking terms, volleyball is cheap; all you need is a talented visual eye, some `athletic' cameramen and corresponding equipment and a clued in editor.So why haven't we seen for volleyball something as exciting as `Blue Crush,' which was far more challenging logistically?How would you approach this? Supposing you kept exactly the same script and actors, you might try adding two types of shots:--As it is, the contest itself has no identity beyond showing the scoreboard. But remember how in `Hoosiers' and `Cool Runnings' the contest itself was developed as a character? Remember how in `Slap Shot' and the first `Rollerball' the contest was as much with this character as with the opponents? So we'd need some shots that do this by assembling visions of all the mechanisms which define the contest: the ads, the promoters, and (in sweet self-reference) the TeeVee industry. mise-en-scene.--Far more challenging is to solve the problem of the eye at least as well as Scorsese did with `Bull,' something he borrowed from `Red Shoes.' We'd need two perspectives: one placed in the court and shifting between points of view and moving shots of the dynamics of the two players' strategic placement. After all, the idea is high speed chess to get the other folks where they do not want to be and exploit it. Unless we see the space, we can't relate to the game. The other type of shot is the ball, similarly ranging from on the ball (as a player of sorts) to dynamically tracking its trajectory. After all, the ball is incredibly fickle in whose side it is on, and this can exploited visually. I think a lot of this can more cheaply be done with a computer. Lots of slow motion of differing speeds. Some `matrix-like' freezed rotations.A ripe opportunity. Who will try it after the box office success of `Blue Crush.'Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 4: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.