Go on and admit, if you were a young boy when Kerri Green was really hitting her stride in the movies you had a little bit of a crush on her, at least for a little while. It’s not hard to cop to since back then as now she was a very attractive individual and was fairly constant when it came to the damsel in distress roles that she played. Two of her most noted obviously were her parts in The Goonies and Lucas, where she stands out as the object of desire for at least a couple of young males that happen to think she’s very attractive. If you’ll remember she starred with John Candy in Summer Rental as Candy’s oldest daughter as well, though a lot of people likely don’t recall the movie nearly as well as the other two. That trio of movies however still stands out the most when speaking of Kerri since just about everything she’s done since doesn’t really hold a candle to those three roles in the eyes of many fans that grew up watching her for a while. As of today it does appear that she called it quits in 2012 with show business, though it does sound as though she still writes screenplays for Hollywood despite having little else to do with the business.
Back in the day Kerri was what you would call a damsel in distress since she wasn’t all that physical in her early roles and did act like more of a girly-girl that didn’t get into the mix with everyone and start swinging away. Her on screen friend Stef, played by Martha Plimpton, was the more aggressive between the two characters since if you recall she did end up striking Mama Fratelli on the way off the ship and was a lot more outspoken. Even in Lucas and Summer Rental Kerri’s characters didn’t really speak up all that often save to show a bit of emotion and possibly just take up space in a way that could have been called less than effective but was actually perfect for both movies since she was where she needed to be and in the manner that befit her character. Some might want to argue that she was just window dressing for the first three movies of her career but really she came off as a character that was fully integrated into the story and the plot and created just enough conflict and shared resolution to be useful and to have a definite purpose all her own.
Just thinking of Summer Rental is amusing really since the part she played of the eldest daughter was one that a lot of fathers go through once their little girls start to grow up and notice young men. The fact that the family was living, for the summer, next to an entire bunk full of male lifeguards was enough to give Candy’s character pause since having a pretty young daughter around a bunch of men that would routinely strip down to a pair of swimming trunks for their job does sound like a lot of fathers’ worst nightmare and a good reason to invest in a few firearms ‘just in case’. Thankfully the comedic value of the movie and the moments shown with Kerri were great enough to lessen the sting of the reality since in the world we live in a lot of fathers might think twice about allowing their teenage daughter to be so close to so many young men whose hormones might still be raging just enough to make a mistake. Anyway, Summer Rental was undoubtedly one of her funniest movies, though The Goonies has to stand as one of the most classic that she’s been in, and while that’s not saying a lot in terms of the rest of her career it’s still saying a great deal since it’s how she’s been remembered throughout the years, along with her stint in Lucas. It’s kind of amusing really but the first three movies of her career, all of which have been mentioned, are those that fans have held the most dear for this long.
Sometimes a star rises and doesn’t rise much further but can somehow get by on the notice gained from a small number of appearances in which they were loved the most. In Lucas it’s likely that her character took a little flak for ending up with the popular guy when the lovable loser, played by the late Corey Haim, was expected to get the girl and carry the day. As it stood however the movie was a moral victory for the main character and what was deemed the natural order was depicted instead, with Kerri’s character going the way that many might expect while Lucas eventually gained the respect he’d always wanted. All in all, Kerri Green’s career can be summed up in those three movies, and without any doubt she’s still looked upon as an 80s legend that people still admire.
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