As with most children of the 80s I will always fondly look back on the output of such studios as Cannon Films and New World Pictures but it was when I popped Weekend Pass into my DVD player (it's part of the instantly buyable 12 movie Too Cool for School collection from Mill Creek) that I realized Crown International Pictures probably deserves some love too. Sure, they may not have put out as many landmarks of my youth as the aforementioned companies, but they were responsible for sating my young, hormonal needs for female skin with such fare as Cavegirl, Tomboy and My Tutor.

Cue up the pretty terrible and quite 80s theme song as we're introduced to the four new Navy recruits we're going to be spending the next 89 minutes with. There's the wannabe comedian Paul (D.W. Brown), the wisecracking joker Webster (Patrick Houser), our token black guy Bunker (Chip McAllister), and the nerdy virgin Lester (Peter Ellenstein) who's been brought along out of pity. These guys are out on a weekend pass and heading into the big city for two days of partying and trying to get laid - along the way they might just get into various forms of mischief.

Writer-director Lawrence Bassoff (Hunk) proceeds to get our hopes up in the first fifteen minutes as we're treated to a visit to a strip club with lots of lovingly done close-ups of bare asses and scenes of our "seamen" (a joke I personally would have used A LOT in the flick) generally acting goofy. From here this basically becomes a tour of Los Angeles through its various neighbourhoods as the guys end up in Venice Beach, stumble into the ghetto and have a run in with a Black Panther-like gang, go for a massage from "Chop Suzi" that has lots of bone cracking jokes, attend a few parties, end up at a comedy club where Paul tries to get his big break, and learn some (mild) life lessons on the way to returning to duty Monday morning.

The surprising thing about Weekend Pass is Bassoff's attempts to throw in some characterization. This could've been another run-of-the-mill T&A comedy, and in a lot of ways it is, but our horny heroes do get a bit more fleshed out than expected - even if it's still thinly done. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of the skin and juvenile humour you're watching this for with me being astonished by Bunker pulling off a "Captain Morgan" to try and pick up an aerobics instructor, lots of padding with breakdance inspired sequences containing bad synth tunes, a whole lot of eventually tiresome scenes at a club with stand-up comedians ("Saturday Night Live" alumni Dan Hartman appears as the show emcee Joe Chicago), and a finale where our guys, who wanted sex, end up with girlfriends.

With sex comedies you can pile on as much naked skin and tasteless jokes as you want but having a decent ensemble cast does help and our four leads here actually aren't too bad and play decently off each other. Brown does his shyster bit well and would also appear in the fun teen flicks Joy of Sex and Mischief around the same time. Houser, who would show some charm in the same year's Hot Dog... The Movie, makes for an amusing delusional "stud" while Ellenstein perfectly plays the typical stereotype geek character lots of these flicks contain. Probably the most likeable guy here is McAllister who not only gets to do that amazing aforementioned one leg up pick-up move but also gets to face off with badass gang leader Bertram (the recognizable Grand L. Bush who had small roles in cult classics Night Shift and Streets of Fire) - he also was in one of my favourite lesser known 80s comedies with Hamburger: The Motion Picture as well as winning the fifth season of reality show "The Amazing Race" in 2004.

Like most Crown International fare, Weekend Pass isn't anything special but it gets by with some unserious charm and you can't help and poke fun at the badly dated soundtrack and horrible fashions. And, really, any sex comedy that throws in an aerobics session and gratuitous bathtub scene can't be all that bad. (Chris Hartley, 9/22/14)

Directed By: Lawrence Bassoff.
Written By: Lawrence Bassoff.

Starring: D.W. Brown, Peter Ellenstein, Patrick Houser, Chip McAllister.