Rennie's Landing

so remember like 4 years ago when we heard that they made a movie called Rennie's Landing and it was about a group of college friends that shared special times at Rennie's while going to school at UofO? and of course we couldn't wait to check it out because hellooo we shared special times at Rennie's when we went to UofO so omg we have to see it asap! and for months we surfed the 'net waiting for the news of its release which sadly never occured... why are those corporate fat cats always ruining our fun? so imagine my delight and surprise when cruising IMDB a couple days ago i stumbled upon Rennie's Landing which had been released under another title: Stealing Time! 2 seconds later it was at the top of my netflix queue. let the fun times begin!

i know at this point a handful of you are about ready to move it to the top of your own netflix queue and i'm here to tell you: don't do it. for reals. don't do it. i suffered through the entire thing and in order to feel like it was somehow worth it i'm going to recap for all of you that have endured years of curiosity. so here it goes.

so the movie opens up with some fun shots of campus: the library, the pioneer statue, hippies sitting on the lawn... yeah! this movie rules! 4 close friends are packing up after graduation... reminiscing about good times... selling books back at the bookstore when they decide to spend one last night at their favorite watering hole: Rennie's.... loving these guys! thats what we did in college too! well thats about where the film started to spiral downhill - fast. they're walking up the stairs heading inside and you're getting totally stoked they are going to roll up to Dan the guy that always wore a visor and order a Rennie's Lemonade when ooops - the inside isn't really Rennie's. but they did have these coin-like tokens that i'm guessing you could redeem for free drinks?

so we're about 15 mins in and i'm thinking about turning it off but my OCD tendencies make that difficult and plus what if they go back to campus? road trip maybe? i can't miss more eugene screen shots. not to mention i totally heart scott foley.

anywho - movie fast forwards to a year after graduation... one's an aspiring actor in LA, one is an aspiring movie producer also in LA, scott foley is a kids soccer coach in Salt Lake City (what?!?) and the girl is an aspiring social worker of sorts living with her lame non-supportive boyfriend. so scott decides to cruise to LA to visit his old buddies and look up an old girlfriend from high school and ends up picking the girl up along the way because she's sooo over her boyfriend that doesn't care that she got accepted to a really rad social work program in mexico.

so the kids are reunited in LA and are loving life now that they are back together and at nights they sit around and talk about the carefree days at Rennie's before life got super real and intense. during the days the aspiring actor goes to auditions that just fill him with rejection, the aspiring producer works as the personal assistant to this uber gnarly talent scout, the girl works for next to nothing as some sort of social worker and scott foley dials every listing in the phone book with his high school sweetheart's last name.

well what the group of friends don't know and what we the audience just found out is the aspiring producer went to the doctor complaining of headaches and uh-oh... he just got some bad news: he has an inoperable brain tumor and doesn't have long to live. sweet! they'll for sure roadtrip to eugene now for one last hurrah at Rennie's! wrong. instead the aspiring producer starts acting out and his stress levels aren't helped at all by the fact that his gnarly boss just stole his amazing screenplay. life blows! anywho - his friends are definitely worried about his strange behavior. here's scott foley looking concerned:

go ducks

meanwhile in scott foley world... he has tracked down the old girlfriend! YEAH! all that hard work crank calling has finally paid off! so he goes to meet her and imagine my horror when i saw who it was:

ewww! G-ross!

well the mystery of why he wanted to see her was finally revealed when we learn that they had a kid together... and apparently he really got in tune with his paternal instincts while coaching that soccer team in Utah and realized he was finally ready to be a dad. uh-oh... there's a little problem:

meeting his son for the first time... at his grave!

and poor scott foley is truely shaken up by it:

i know. i'd be bummed too if i'd fathered a child with jennifer garner.

well back at casa brain-tumor... the aspiring producer has come up with a plan: lets rob a bank. yep - he doesn't tell his bff's that he has a brain tumor so they'll take him on a trip to Rennie's... instead he uses his charm and charisma to convince his friends that they will be rich if they just follow his simple plan. imagine! no more devastating auditions! the girl will finally have money to help the immigrants she's befriended! scott foley will finally feel like his life has meaning! hurrah!

so they rob a bank. here's scott foley in disguise:

so charming. he has a fake british accent too.

well they were totally going to get away with it... but the LAPD stumbled upon a clue... a small coin that was accidentally left behind... from Rennie's Landing:

should have used it for a free drink when you had the chance

so they get busted and the aspiring actor gets shot and killed. and then there were a lot of artsy slow motion shots while the guy with the brain tumor voices over various deep thoughts. and then... it turns out it was all a dream. no joke. the whole second half of the movie was what the brain tumor guy had flash before his eyes right as he was dying.

and...

scene.