Weekend Pass

Year releasted: 1984

by Keith Phipps
May 3rd, 2000

It's been said many times that the U.S. military's morale never recovered from Vietnam until the Gulf War. From the depths of its years of despair emerged Weekend Pass, a sailors-gone-amok sex comedy that's about as exuberant and joyful as Coming Home. A cross between On The Town and Fraternity Vacation, the film follows the adventures of four seamen who, upon completion of basic training, set off for a weekend in Los Angeles. Apparently filmed at a time in which the navy consisted largely of stereotypes from college T&A films, Weekend Pass' central characters include a stud (Patrick Houser), a nerd (Peter Ellenstein), an aspiring comedian (D.W. Brown), and a black guy (Chip McAllister). After an opening-credits montage sequence in which they pass the Hollywood sign, USC, Judy Garland's Walk Of Fame star, a Scientology center, an earring-clad punk, a vitamin store, and other Hollywood landmarks, the guys head off in search of what sailors from time eternal have craved: strippers. Following an extended sequence set in a club discreetly called "The G-String," they hit the beach, where McAllister falls for one of the many shore-side aerobics instructors who littered the city's beaches in the mid-'80s. Later, during a nighttime montage sequence, Brown rhapsodizes about his desire to have his name in "L.A. neon." "Everybody in L.A. has been bit by the neon bug," McAllister replies, and the next day's adventures explain his skeptical attitude toward wealth and fame. The product of South Central's mean streets, he reveals, upon a return visit, that he enlisted in the navy to escape a gang called the Mau Maus, who dress like extras from the "Beat It" video and tote boom boxes blasting African war-drum recordings. Later that night, Brown fails to wow audiences at the Phil Hartman-emceed Komedy Klub with his Naval-themed humor--"You know what you get when you cross an aircraft carrier with an IUD?"--while Houser's date with a college friend takes a disastrous turn when she introduces him to her vibrator. ("C'mon. Straight sex went out with bellbottoms.") Everyone's fortunes take a turn for the better the following night, when they attend a party at a health club filled with leotard-clad fitness enthusiasts and a handful of breakdancers. After the four bid farewell to their new loves and each other, McAllister solemnly pronounces, "This weekend pass has expired." Cue freeze frame. Cue seven more years of military ennui.