Meatballs (1979)

Thanks for the memories!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Man, I was watching Meatballs, its not even a half hour in there's this scene with Bill Murray and some lady councilor, he makes a move on her and she rebuffs his advances so Bill Murray laughs it off and keeps coming on to her, she keeps saying "no" and he keeps smiling and laughing it off, this lady just wants to leave and he won't let her leave, Bill Murray's character wants to have sex and she just wants to leave- thats as far as I have got in Meatballs, no further. Hey man, I know, its Meatballs its a raunchy teen-sex comedy set at camp, I get it, and I had seen all the other Meatballs movies previous to this one so I knew beforehand what I was getting, but none of the other Meatballs movies has a sexual assault played for laughs. I don't give a god damn if I ever see this movie again it will be too soon.

It's funny how your perspective changes after going several years between seeing the same movie, as I recently did with Meatballs. If anyone were to ask me if I recommend this film, I would say only see this for a pretty funny performance by Bill Murray, who portrays Tripper, the counselor more interested in cracking jokes than actual "counseling". I wished for a few serious scenes between Tripper and Rudy, the very shy camper who feels left out from the cool crowd, but perhaps Murray didn't have the acting chops yet to pull that off. That being said, most of his scenes are very funny, as are the quips he spews to any who'll listen to him. There's a few more well known comedic moments revolving around Spaz, Fink, and Morty's sleeping habits and they all work for the most part, especially Tripper's speech the night before challenging Camp Mohawk and Spaz's game of stacking. Overall, Meatballs is about what I expected, and I had quite a few laughs along the way.

A year after John Belushi hit it big in the movies with Animal House, fellow SNLer Bill Murray would do the same with Meatballs with help from director Ivan Reitman-who was a producer on AH-and that film's co-writer Harold Ramis. Also from the Belushi picture was music composer Elmer Bernstein who would provide scores for other Reitman/Murray/Ramis movies like Stripes and Ghostbusters. Anyway, Murray provides great laughs with his charismatic wild-man persona as a camp counselor who helps a shy young boy (Chris Makepace) get out of his shell and a fellow female staff member (Kate Lynch) fall for him. Another staff member is Morty (Harvey Atkin) who falls victim to many of Bill's practical jokes. Then there's Spaz (Jack Blum, brother of the movie's co-writer Len Blum) and his buddy Fink (Keith Knight) who provide a touchingly humorous nerd-&-tubby vibe. There's also some sex appeal in the person of Wendy (Cindy Girling) and a girl-next-door one in A.L. (Kristine DeBell though she's probably best known for being Alice in the X-rated version of Alice in Wonderland). In other words, there's a nice mix of one-liners, slapstick, and sentimentality though it doesn't go overboard on the latter. Not everything works but Meatballs is still-all these years later-a good comedy worth watching especially for the first starring role of Bill Murray. Oh, how I loved hearing "Spaz! Spaz! "Spaz!" and "It just doesn't matter!" once again...

This might be for those who have been to summer camps, but it sure isn't an entertaining camp. I went to one before, but it didn't make me scream up and down for joy. Instead, it made my head hurt.The first thing you notice is that Bill Murray actually had some hair in the 70s. Yeah, and he also didn't mind running some. But to get him to run a lot, you would need to give him a woman to chase after.Its not that some of the stunts can't be funny. For example the running joke with one of the councilors who is always waking up somewhere else due to the movement of his bed. Instead, its that the jokes and stunts were poorly setup and executed. It just failed to be funny.To somebody who loves comedy, this is a pain. Others are glued to it for life. I wish it was more like Leonard Part 6, but it doesn't come close. "F"