Summerhood (2008)

The Worst Film Ever

Simply Perfect

Excellent but underrated film

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Summerhood (2008): Dir: Jacob Medjuck, Tony Dean Smith / Cast: Scott Beaudin, Raquel Alessi, Jesse Cammacho, Joe Flaherty, Christopher McDonald: Independent summer teen camp comedy that reflects on those innocent days of yesteryear where the door is open just a crack for the next phase of life. Unfortunately this lacks the memorable characters and funny situations that rendered Meatballs such a popular summer comedy. The big issue that directors Jacob Medjuck and Tony Dean Smith heave at us is the romantic hints between underage characters. In reflection, most of us view summer camp at the age of these characters as being anything but parading after girls. Meatballs did this but it was between the counselors and their social hyjinks. It has the total opposite affect here and comes off as creepy as oppose to funny. It also doesn't help that none of these characters are remotely memorable. Even the presence of Joe Flaherty and Christopher McDonald cannot help breath new life into tired retreads. The kids have about as much life as the average store window mannequin. It fails to teach anything about growing up whereas Meatballs bore humour from experience. What we have here looks less impressive than your neighbor's vacation slides. Best advice is to watch Meatballs and try to lose the ugly memory of this drab film ever being in existence. Score: 1 / 10

Coming of Age films are amongst my favorite types of films, and I was really excited to sit down and watch the critically acclaimed Age of Summerhood. I really liked the fact that for once, the actors were actually portrayed by kids the same age as their characters. Many times in films like this, the kids are portrayed by much older actors, in order to spare the young ones from the language and grown up elements expressed in the film, but in 2015, what kid hasn't heard the F word before? Using real kids made the film a lot more authentic and because of it, those funny moments were really funny. The film is the story of a group of ten year old friends, and their adventures at summer camp. I wish I could give a better description than that, but that's really all this film was about. Most coming of age stories are about life changing events, that will come to define the main characters life. Sometimes they are about a crime or first love, but not in The Age of Summerhood, as this film is nothing more than a film about kids at camp. While the writers briefly touch on typical coming of age elements, the film doesn't really get into them, in fact, the film doesn't really go into anything, as it's a series of short scenes, some funny moments, and nothing of substance. 10 year old, Lucien Maisel, stars as Fetus and he was great. As I said early having real kids play the roles, made the jokes that much funnier and made the film feel that much more authentic, but it's completely wasted on a film that just doesn't go anywhere. Age of Summerhood is too cute for adults and too raunchy for kids, it's falls in the middle. While my fellow critics loved it for it's authenticity and the debut of future stars, I found the film to be just one big jumble of kids acting like kids, with the occasional laugh, Age of Summerhood is not a bad movie, but not all that entertaining either.

Not one funny scene and yet every scene tries to be funny! This movie is a choppy collection of 'kids at summer camp misbehaving' and trying to be lovable rapscallions but it fails at every turn.The plot is questionable due to it's constant meandering between the love interest with that too tall girl and 'the boys shenanigans' .... dead end!The counselors are stoned or just lost in how to portray their character. Then the four daughters ....really? I thought this was a kids movie. Don't waste your money - !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While this is one of those feel good movies involving young children, this is a more earnest and, to a vast extent, less cliché, than other movies of its kind. The dialog is less refined, and just something that would be expected to be uttered by kids in real life.The performances by the kids were adequate. I didn't feel that one stood out more than the other, as it seemed that the director was content to let the story take the main stage. Even though the movie's essentially about Fetus and his epiphanies at the summer camp it didn't really focus on Fetus all the time. Rather, it meandered away from him, and I feel that this is where a flaw occurred. There was no proper focus so I couldn't really connect with Fetus at times. Thankfully, his attraction towards Sundae was not one of those moments, though sadly it wasn't properly developed. Some of the dialog was muffled and didn't make sense in tying it to the story.Having said that Summerhood is still a movie worth watching. There are some laugh aloud moments, some poignant moments, and some moments that will make you reflect about your best summer, or your first kiss, or when life really began for you. Don't let this movie pass you by.