Theme Song:
“Pinball Summer” by Jay Boivin & Germain Gauthier. This song is really long. Like it just keeps going and going.
“Summer Magic” by Jay Biovin & Germain Gauthier.
I can’t find much more info on this duo, but there was an official soundtrack released featuring a bunch of songs by them.
Interesting Dated References: Joyfully jumping into a swimming pool with a woman on a hot sunny day.
Best Line: Teen boob comedies typically have a funny few lines, but nothing stood out.
Social Context: Boobs. Pinball.
Summary: When Arcade/Video game fever swept the nation in the early 80s, pinball saw a sharp decline in popularity and sales. It wasn’t until a few years later that the two technologies found a way to coexist.
In 1983, the Canadian makers of Pinball Summer were trying to market their 1979 pinball movie in America. They decided that since pinball had fallen out of favor, they should change the name of their movie to Pick-Up Summer, despite the fact that the main theme song still says “pinball summer” over and over.
Pinball Summer begins by introducing us to Greg and Steve, our main good guys. They are 30-year-old high school students who like to play pinball, harass townsfolk, and chase after Donna and Suzy. They also like to fight with Bert and his bike gang.
Doesn’t this all sound thrilling? Greg and Steve do have an awesome boogie van.
And that’s a pretty nice boogie van t-shirt. So, the owner of the arcade, Pete, decides to have a pinball competition. Bert and his bike gang steal the trophy, and then Greg and Steve steal it back.
There are lots of Canadian 1979 T&A being flashed about. In fact, every girl in this movie has her butt cheeks hanging out of her sheer short-shorts.
You know what method of murder is now almost totally obsolete? Strangling someone to death with a phone cord in your home. If you were gonna strangle someone with a phone cord, you would have to go to Radio Shack and try to track a phone cord down.
Greg & Steve keep stealing the pinball trophy back from Bert and his biker gang. This happens three or four times, over and over. Then Donna’s parents go out of town and there’s a beach party on the shores of Montreal.
Yes, I know this video is all fucked up. I also know that my pictures have been all blurry. I’m having some camera issues. Check out this awesome chopper poster on the wall in the background:
And I don’t mean chopper like, “I watch TLC and drink Jack Daniels and listen to bad music, therefore I know a lot about choppers.” I mean, like, original biker shit, back before pop culture got it’s hands on everything and ruined every single thing in this world that was ever genuine or had integrity.
I don’t like Ted Nugent, but that’s a Ted Nugent pinball machine in the background.
So after Greg and Steve battle some more with Bert and his biker gang, they finally have the pinball showdown. Bert tries to rig the game, but is found out. Then the movie ends with some whacky chase scene and everyone having a bunch of fun.
Poster and Box Art: The poster for Pick-up Summer is some type of disaster. It’s a photo of some chicks (none of which are in the movie) and it appears to be really sloppily altered with bad airbrushing to add bigger boobs and nipples.
Even though the film was originally called Pinball Summer, the makers still took time to do a nice original type treatment for the replacement title. It’s fucking great, unlike the weird poster.
The poster for Pinball Summer is fucking awesome, complete with cheerleaders and some type of awesome drawing. I couldn’t find any higher resolution version of the image.
Availability: DVD via Amazon.