Such a frustrating disappointment

Sadly Over-hyped

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This is one of the most boring comedy movies of all time. Meatballs II is a better movie. And that is an awful movie. This movie is not funny. The story line is awful. Good actors wasted there talent being in this movie. 6.2 is overrating this movie. I give it 4 out of 10 because it is boring and not funny. Do not see this movie. It is so boring. I can not believe that the same man who wrote Heavy Metal wrote this awful movie. This is a boring movie. Do no wast your time. Do not wast your money. Do not see this pooh pooh movie. This movie is pooh pooh ca ca in the toilet. Bad movie bad movie bad movie bad movie bad movie. Do not see it. It is so boring.

It's a new summer at Camp North Star for kids from six to fourteen. Morty "Mickey" Melnick runs the camp and Tripper Harrison (Bill Murray) is the irreverent senior counselor. He keeps flirting with fellow lead counselor Roxanne. Spaz is one of the CITs (counselor in training). Rudy Gerner (Chris Makepeace) is a lonely kid who doesn't fit in. He and Tripper form a close connection. They have been beaten by neighboring Camp Mohawk for the last 12 years. In the annual competition, they are getting crashed by the cheating Camp Mohawk on the first day. They rally with Tripper's sarcastic chant "It just doesn't matter."This movie suffers from a lack of solid secondary actors. Murray is doing his utmost. He and Makepeace provide the heart. Spaz and his chubby friend have a few moments. Most of the rest are simply amateurs unable to deliver the jokes. For example, Roxanne needs to be either hot or funny. The actress is neither. Matt Craven is probably the only one out of that group who would go on to do more stuff. Director Ivan Reitman does his best with who he had. It's a small Canadian production that is most important for bringing together Reitman and Murray early in their careers. It's cute innocent fun.

Wildman head counselor Tripper Harrison (Bill Murray in peak nutty form in his first lead role) presides over the various wacky hi-jinks at North Star summercamp. Tripper befriends sad and lonely misfit kid Rudy (a nice and affecting performance by Chris Makepeace). Director Ivan Reitman relates the amusingly off the wall comic vignettes at a ceaseless snappy pace and maintains an engagingly good-natured tone throughout. This film astutely nails the breezy'n'breezy essence of summer: making friends, first love, pulling pranks, competing in sports with a rival camp, campfire singalongs, and, of course, the inevitable scary urban legend about the escaped psycho killer with the hook hand. The sense of gleefully raucous fun this picture generates is positively infectious. Moreover, the humor is always goofy and occasionally gross, but never too nasty or mean-spirited. Best of all, there's a winning surplus of pure heart to go along with said humor (the warm relationship between Tripper and Rudy in particular is genuinely touching). The cast have an obvious ball playing their likable characters: Murray's gloriously gonzo and galvanizing presence keeps things constantly humming (his crazy PA announcements are absolutely sidesplitting), plus there are sound contributions from Harvey Atkin as hapless camp owner Morty, Kate Lynch as Tripper's sassy old flame Roxanne, Russ Banham as the amiable Crockett, Kristine DeBell as the sweet, foxy A.L., Sarah Torgov as the feisty Candace, Jack Blum as klutzy bespectacled nerd Spaz, Keith Knight as tubby slob Larry Finkelstein, Cindy Girling as the fetching Wendy, and Matt Craven as the hip Hardware. Donald Wilder's cinematography gives the movie an attractive sunny look and makes nifty use of wipes. Elmer Bernstein's lively and melodic score likewise does the trick. A real riot.

Meatballs is a great, feel-good movie. The first time I saw this movie was 1981 on HBO. I was 13 and loving every moment. I just finished watching it again, thanks to the 50+ movie channels satellite offers these days.Anyways, not only is Meatballs the excellent feel-good movie every young boy and 30 something should watch, it reminds me of the times I had in summer camp when was 7-10 years old. Bill Murray really makes the movie, as does "Rudy." The movie really shows how boys and girls did act at summer camp. Now, my summer camps were all church summer camps, but as young kids we all wanted the same things; to be accepted by others and fit in, and to have a shot at holding a girl's hand and maybe getting a kiss. those times were always great.Thanks to Ivan Reitman, we have a movie to ensure rekindling of great memories and laughs.