Ping Pong Summer
Gravitas Ventures | Release Date: June 6, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
9
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Slant MagazineGlenn Heath Jr.Jun 2, 2014
A heartfelt retro flashback littered with pop-culture iconography and much slang, it focuses on the importance of friendship and loyalty rather than social standing. Read full review
75
IndieWireKyle Burton Apr 25, 2014
An affectionate love letter to a bygone era of growing up, Ping Pong Summer brims with specific pop culture minutiae, making it easy to assume the movie has been intended as a farce, but it has more going on beneath the surface. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangJun 9, 2014
A sweetly amusing ode to the underdog sports movies that proliferated during that widely derided decade. Read full review
70
Village VoiceKatherine VuJun 3, 2014
It's a throwback film in both style and sentiment, and what it lacks in depth, it make up for with warmth. Read full review
67
The PlaylistDrew TaylorJun 12, 2014
What Ping Pong Summer lacks in conviction or ingenuity, it makes up for in heart. The nostalgia that the entire film is built upon doesn’t seem misplaced. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJun 4, 2014
The film coasts on its time-capsule fetishism and affable supporting turns from Susan Sarandon and Lea Thompson, but it never achieves the emotional punch of like-minded comedies such as "Adventureland" and "The Way, Way Back." Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsJun 6, 2014
The film's relentlessly quirky style of comedy is consequently very self-conscious. Every joke in Ping Pong Summer is a variation on a theme: 1985 was the most awkward time to be alive. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJun 5, 2014
This sweet, offhanded but lovingly observed remembrance is a real kick. It takes us back to the way things used to be, especially for 13-year-old guys, and specifically in the arcade rooms of 1985, filled with upright video games with glowing screens and big-haired girls in neon. Read full review
60
The GuardianChris MichaelApr 25, 2014
It's gawky and awkward, but just like Rad's breakdancing worm, this one gets better as it goes along. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweApr 25, 2014
Rose-tinted as the film’s perspective may be, Ping Pong Summer is still a lingering, entertaining glance back at an era that Americans just can’t seem to get enough of, whether in music or movies. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubJun 19, 2014
Writer-director Michael Tully simultaneously pays tribute to his own 1980s childhood and the cliched movies he grew up watching, and the result is one of the most honestly dishonest movies you'll ever watch. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 5, 2014
Ping Pong Summer may not be an instant classic, but it knows its time and place. There’s a humble honor in that. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinJun 5, 2014
Despite the visual and cultural accuracy, Ping Pong Summer is missing an elemental magic and vibrancy; a kick factor that makes the picture's endless pop throwbacks (break dancing, cassette tapes, giant boom boxes) seem more tackily forgettable than sweetly nostalgic. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickJun 4, 2014
Certainly nails the era, right down to a lengthy pan across a none-too-appealing dinner buffet. Read full review
40
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJun 5, 2014
This gentle comedy, while entirely unmemorable, releases a genuine warmth that deflects harsh judgment. It doesn’t, however, excuse characters that are little more than props for embarrassing fashion or delivery systems for dated slang. Read full review
40
Time OutCarla SosenkoJun 3, 2014
Granted, there’s something charming here — Ping Pong Summer itself feels like an underdog — and there are retro touches that children of the ’80s will smile at (remember smelling the liner notes of cassettes?). But ultimately, those are too few and far between. Read full review
30
Film.comCalum MarshApr 25, 2014
We all have childhoods to remember. Art needs to do more than just remind us. Read full review
20
The DissolveNathan RabinJun 5, 2014
The film’s reliance on formula and stereotypes wouldn’t be so frustrating if that formula worked and provided the glib pleasures the filmmakers are going for; instead, Ping Pong Summer feels stilted, undernourished, and oddly sour. Read full review
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