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Meatballs
The star-making performance by Bill Murray in his first starring role is the only reason to watch a seriously dated semi-cult classic called Meatballs, which incredibly was the 14th top grossing film of 1979. Admittedly, the only reason I watched this is because during a recent round of channel surfing, I was subjected to a steaming pile of crap called Meatballs Part Two and I wanted to see what was so great about the first film that merited a sequel.
Murray plays a counselor at a summer camp called Camp North Star, that charges $1000 per camper and has a long standing feud with neighboring Camp Mohawk. This alleged comedy of wacky summer camp hijinks features one really interesting storyline where Tripper, Murray's character, brings an introverted young camper named Rudy (Chris Makepiece) out of his shell.
This film features a lot of the hijinks a 12 year old would expect from the paper thin premise, unfortunately, most of them just aren't that funny. I'm totally scratching my head as to why this film was such a box office smash back in '79, because whenever Murray wasn't onscreen, this film comes to a screeching halt. Murray's supporting cast including counselors in training who were basically just walking hormones and the girls either chasing them or being chased by them were about as funny as paint drying.
It is Bill Murray's presence in the starring role that kept this movie from being a complete bore for me. Aided by director Ivan Reitman and screenwriters Len Blum and Dan Goldberg, Murray gets laughs out of every moment he has onscreen here. The friendship of Tripper and young Rudy is the best part of the movie, but it's only about a third of the running time. The rest of the film is spent on moving counselor's beds, hot dog eating contests, a silly basketball game, and a so-called Olympic competition between the two camps, which includes a cup and saucer carrying contest where one of the contestants is a guy named Spaz. Murray is the saving grace here though. He even makes the most out of a series of PA announcements like MASH, but his romance with a fellow counselor named Roxanne falls flat, the only time onscreen he is unable to salvage.
Even though the film launched Murray's career, it pretty much destroyed the careers of everyone else involved. An actor named Russ Banham who played Crockett, followed this movie with one part on a TV series and never made another movie. Only for hardcore Bill Murray fans. Murray, Reitman, Blum, and Goldberg would reunite and fare a little better with 1981's Stripes.
The star-making performance by Bill Murray in his first starring role is the only reason to watch a seriously dated semi-cult classic called Meatballs, which incredibly was the 14th top grossing film of 1979. Admittedly, the only reason I watched this is because during a recent round of channel surfing, I was subjected to a steaming pile of crap called Meatballs Part Two and I wanted to see what was so great about the first film that merited a sequel.
Murray plays a counselor at a summer camp called Camp North Star, that charges $1000 per camper and has a long standing feud with neighboring Camp Mohawk. This alleged comedy of wacky summer camp hijinks features one really interesting storyline where Tripper, Murray's character, brings an introverted young camper named Rudy (Chris Makepiece) out of his shell.
This film features a lot of the hijinks a 12 year old would expect from the paper thin premise, unfortunately, most of them just aren't that funny. I'm totally scratching my head as to why this film was such a box office smash back in '79, because whenever Murray wasn't onscreen, this film comes to a screeching halt. Murray's supporting cast including counselors in training who were basically just walking hormones and the girls either chasing them or being chased by them were about as funny as paint drying.
It is Bill Murray's presence in the starring role that kept this movie from being a complete bore for me. Aided by director Ivan Reitman and screenwriters Len Blum and Dan Goldberg, Murray gets laughs out of every moment he has onscreen here. The friendship of Tripper and young Rudy is the best part of the movie, but it's only about a third of the running time. The rest of the film is spent on moving counselor's beds, hot dog eating contests, a silly basketball game, and a so-called Olympic competition between the two camps, which includes a cup and saucer carrying contest where one of the contestants is a guy named Spaz. Murray is the saving grace here though. He even makes the most out of a series of PA announcements like MASH, but his romance with a fellow counselor named Roxanne falls flat, the only time onscreen he is unable to salvage.
Even though the film launched Murray's career, it pretty much destroyed the careers of everyone else involved. An actor named Russ Banham who played Crockett, followed this movie with one part on a TV series and never made another movie. Only for hardcore Bill Murray fans. Murray, Reitman, Blum, and Goldberg would reunite and fare a little better with 1981's Stripes.