Harrad
University is a progressive college that encourages its students to explore the
bounds of their sexual freedom. After
their first semester, four students return home to further explore their
sexuality. The two couples spend their
summer together meeting new people and hooking up. Naturally, their sexual freedom eventually
takes its toll on their relationships.
Harrad
Summer is broken up into the four vignettes which represents the journals of
the students. Because of that, it goes
without saying it’s more than a little uneven.
It’s more successful when the kids’ parents are being confronted with
their children’s promiscuity. There’s also
a funny dinner party scene where the town gossip circle partakes in the group’s
nude yoga routine. However, the film
stumbles whenever it tries to get too serious.
The scenes of the couples being torn apart by their own petty jealousy
are especially trite and predictable. The
final vignette in particular is overly melodramatic.
The
four youngsters in the cast are mostly forgettable. I never saw the first film in the series, The
Harrad Experiment, but I’d have to assume that Robert Reiser and Richard Doran were
poor substitutes for Don Johnson and Bruno Kirby. The supporting cast, which is filled with
comedians, fares much better. Bill “My
name is Jose Jimenez!” Dana is pretty good as Doran’s dad and Marty “Hello
there!” Allen is kind of funny as a drunk who is obsessed with streaking. A young Fred Willard also turns up briefly. None of their efforts are quite enough to
save this dated, albeit sporadically amusing hippie nonsense.
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