Summer can tell you exactly how long her mother’s relationship has lasted: three months, one week, and six days. That number explains her better than any speech could. She treats time as a defensive system, counting down to the four-month mark when Milly’s romances usually collapse and life returns to something predictable.
Violet McGraw plays that rigidity without turning Summer into a simple killjoy. During a driving lesson with vice principal Glenn, she mistakes the accelerator for the brake and nearly plows through the school marching band. The panic is broad comedy, yet McGraw keeps the fear grounded. Summer is embarrassed by the accident, then disturbed by the immediate connection between Glenn and her free-spirited mother.
Three months later, Glenn has been nominated for Vice Principal of the Year and invites Milly, Summer, and her younger brother Grayson to a tropical resort for the ceremony. Summer sees the trip as an approaching deadline. Glenn sees it as a chance to turn a new relationship into a family.
Director Melanie Scrofano and writer Emily Andras build the movie around that emotional mismatch. The resort promises escape, but Summer brings her calendar, her suspicions, and every unresolved fear with her.
Sabotage in Paradise
The resort gives the comedy room to scatter in several directions. Grayson claims the best pool chairs each morning and rents them back to guests, treating an all-inclusive vacation like an emerging market. His scheme frustrates resort manager Bishop and supplies some of the film’s cleanest jokes because it comes directly from character. Grayson sees opportunity everywhere.
Glenn’s attempts to bond with Summer are less controlled. Acting on Grayson’s advice, he challenges her during a beach competition where both players wear giant inflatable balls and try to knock each other down. Glenn shouts that Summer is on fire. She takes him literally, crashes into a row of torches, and burns down the tiki hut.
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The sequence works because the physical chaos follows Summer’s anxious thinking. Her decision to sleep in the charred remains rather than hear Milly and Glenn through the adjoining wall is ridiculous, sad, and strangely believable.
Things become messier after Glenn’s adult daughter Sadie arrives. Summer first meets her as a wild stranger riding a jet ski, then discovers her identity at breakfast. When they find an engagement ring hidden inside Glenn’s snorkeling equipment, the two form an alliance to stop the proposal.
Their plan peaks during the awards ceremony. Glenn reaches into his bag for the ring and pulls out toy guns glued to his hands while gunfire effects blast through the speakers. Panic spreads across the ballroom, Glenn is escorted to a luxury “holding room,” and Summer accidentally knocks out Crosby’s front tooth.
The sabotage is funny in conception and shaky in execution. It works best once the noise stops and Summer sees the people she has hurt.
The Heart Beneath the Hijinks
McGraw gives the film its strongest emotional movement after the ruined proposal. Summer initially tries to blame Sadie for taking the plan too far. Grayson refuses to accept the excuse. His disappointment cuts deeper than any punishment because he genuinely liked Glenn and viewed him as a stable presence in their home.
McGraw lets the realization move across Summer’s face before the script puts it into words. The performance catches the painful gap between thinking like an adult and accepting adult responsibility. Summer has spent the vacation managing everyone else because she is terrified of admitting how little control she has.
Sophia Bush brings similar care to Milly. Her looseness could have made her seem careless, yet Bush shows the intention behind it. Milly wants Summer to relax because she can see her daughter carrying burdens that do not belong to her. Their conversation before the ceremony is especially effective. When Summer asks her to slow things down with Glenn, Milly agrees and makes it clear that her daughter comes first, even while the disappointment registers on her face.
Jerry O’Connell plays Glenn as a man who mistakes enthusiasm for charm and keeps trying anyway. His awkwardness fuels the slapstick, but his patience during Summer’s driving accident and his desire to include both children make him easy to care about. He embarrasses Summer constantly. He also listens to her.
Dawian van der Westhuizen nearly walks away with the film as Grayson. His dry delivery keeps the pool-chair hustle and “alpha” advice from becoming precocious. When he confronts Summer after the ceremony, the comedy drops away, revealing a child who had already started imagining Glenn as part of the family.
Crosby offers Summer a smaller version of the same problem. He wants to tell his Canadian parents that he plans to quit hockey, yet he cannot bring himself to disrupt their expectations. Their scenes together give Summer rare moments where she stops calculating and reacts like a teenager surprised by her own feelings.
When the Jokes Lose Control
Scrofano uses the resort’s pools, villas, beaches, and event halls as bright stages for escalating embarrassment. The smaller visual jokes fit this setting nicely: Glenn storing snorkeling gear in a safe, Summer hiding in a burned tiki hut, and Grayson quietly building a poolside business empire.
The movie struggles whenever it pushes past those character-based absurdities. A dolphin encounter involving Glenn and Summer arrives with frantic staging, bodily humor, and a perspective shot from inside the animal. The scene keeps escalating after its emotional purpose has expired. Captain Otto creates a similar problem. Tim Rozon commits fully to the sleazy yoga instructor’s revealing swimwear and exaggerated seduction routine, but the subplot feels designed to manufacture a late heroic moment for Glenn.
Several supporting roles operate at the same volume. Crosby’s parents repeat Canadian stereotypes about hockey, maple syrup, and politeness, while Sadie shifts from charismatic troublemaker to convenient villain with little friction. The constant mugging leaves less space for the warmer comedy to breathe.
The family scenes survive because their feelings are tied to specific choices. Summer asks Milly to slow down. Grayson refuses to let his sister hide behind Sadie. Glenn keeps reaching toward a teenager who has given him every reason to stop. Each choice carries a small emotional cost, and those costs linger longer than the dolphin, the fake gunfire, or the burning tiki hut.
This comedy film premiered exclusively on Tubi on July 3, 2026. The story follows a high-strung teen who goes on a luxury vacation and finds herself trapped with her free-spirited mom’s new boyfriend, who happens to be her high school vice principal, leading her to hatch a secret plan to split them up.
Where to Watch Summer’s Last Resort (2026) Online
Full Credits
Title: Summer’s Last Resort
Distributor: Tubi
Release date: July 3, 2026
Rating: TV-14
Running time: 97 minutes
Director: Melanie Scrofano
Writers: Emily Andras
Producers and Executive Producers: Lance Samuels, Emily Andras, Blue Ice Pictures
Cast: Sophia Bush, Jerry O’Connell, Violet McGraw, Tim Rozon, Clara Alexandrova, Dawain van der Westhuizen
Director of Photography (Cinematographer): Trevor Calverley
The Review
Summer’s Last Resort
Summer’s Last Resort finds its sweetest moments whenever the resort chaos quiets down and Summer recognizes what Glenn means to her family. Violet McGraw gives the film an emotional center, especially when Grayson rejects her attempt to blame Sadie for the ruined proposal. The tiki-hut disaster and Grayson’s pool-chair business produce playful character comedy, while the dolphin sequence and Captain Otto material stretch absurdity into exhaustion. Its jokes frequently miss, yet the affection between Summer, Milly, Glenn, and Grayson gives the vacation enough warmth to remain pleasant.
PROS
- Violet McGraw’s grounded performance
- Warm family relationships
- Grayson’s dry comic timing
- Believable Bush-O’Connell chemistry
CONS
- Exhausting dolphin sequence
- Overextended slapstick
- Supporting characters played too broadly
- Thin Captain Otto subplot
