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This may be one of the least insufferable John Cusack romantic comedies out there. He’s nauseatingly pussy-whipped like always, willing to drill a hole in his own head to catch a piece of hair pie. When his friend (Anthony Edwards) promises there’s a hot blonde (Nicollette Sheridan) ready to bump uglies out in L.A., Cusack, always sickeningly deranged at the mere hint of poon-tang, catches the next ride out of town. But this time the script sidetracks him from that all-consuming vaginal objective.

In its second act, The Sure Thing starts following in the footsteps of It Happened One Night, with Cusack on a cross-country road trip with a fellow classmate played by Daphne Zuniga (The Fly II, Spaceballs). They hate each other, of course. But just as Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert did back in 1934, the bickering transforms into genuine affection. It helps that Zuniga is up to the task — cast for talent at least as much as for her looks. She is the anti-bimbo here, and her presence goes a long way in making this a movie about two people instead of two sets of genitals.

There’s no ground-breaking going on here, but director Rob Reiner (Stand By Me, The Princess Bride) does manage to elevate a tired formula on the charm of his two leading actors. With Viveca Lindfors and Tim Robbins.