Who payed the critics

Simply Perfect

hyped garbage

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Plot; A young pre-law student from the Midwest (C. Thomas Howell) spends the Summer in L.A. working for his Uncle's firm.While serving an eviction notice, he meets a washed up beach volleyball player (Peter Horton), forming an unlikely friendship that eventually leads to the two of them entering a high stakes beach volleyball tournament.'Side Out' is insultingly contrived--even for the genre--and beyond stupid. Its limited appeal lies in the trappings of its era (released in 1990, but a total 80s movie through and through) and whatever charm its game cast can scrape from the bottom of its barrel.

Law student Monroe Clark (C. Thomas Howell) from Milwaukee moves to L.A. to work for his rich real estate lawyer Uncle Max. He's given a job to serve eviction notices. One of the tenants is beach volleyball player Zack Barnes (Peter Horton). He was the original local king of volleyball but he has been spiraling downwards. His business partner Kate Jacobs (Harley Jane Kozak) is tired of him but there's more to their relationship. The new king is Rollo Vincent. Monroe befriends local Wiley Hunter and falls for Samantha (Courtney Thorne-Smith). Monroe and Wiley play in a tournament and Zack comes in to coach them.C. Thomas Howell is not a believable volleyball stud. On top of that, his character is not appealing at all. I think he's trying to be Tom Cruise but he's no Tom Cruise. His kissing scene with CTS made me involuntarily laugh. Peter Horton does have that washed-up beach bum vibe. This is all terribly cheesy and it's not the fun type of cheese. This is bad.

Seriously, if you want to learn the meaning of life, one man holds the answers - C. Thomas Howell.His embodiment of Monroe Clark is Christ-like without ever being obvious - we see his divinity in the way he sympathizes with Zach Barnes' financial plight, giving him communion through his generous offer to play volleyball with him. No other living actor could have captured the holiness and generosity of this basketball player turned lawyer turned volleyball pro from Milwaukee with such nuance and yet, such gusto. Holding hands high with Barnes at the end he evoked that incredible sense of pride, pity, and ultimately, hilarity that one gets when one sees a retard so proud of his Special Olympics participation ribbon.This movie is an absolute delight. Deserving of its place in the canon of all-time great works of art.

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.