Meatballs.

Review #1846: Meatballs.

Cast: 

Bill Murray ("Tripper" Harrison), Harvey Atkin (Morty "Mickey" Melnick), Kate Lynch (Roxanne), Russ Banham (Bobby Crockett), Kristine DeBell (A.L.), Sarah Torgov (Candace), Jack Blum ("Spaz"), Keith Knight (Larry "Fink" Finkelstein), Cindy Girling (Wendy), Todd Hoffman ("Wheels"), Margot Pinvidic (Jackie), Matt Craven ("Hardware" Renzetti), Norma Dell’Agnese (Brenda), and Chris Makepeace (Rudy Gerner) Directed by Ivan Reitman (#026 - Ghostbusters, #031 - Ghostbusters II, #243 - Stripes, #487 - Twins, #1278 - Legal Eagles, and #1503 - Dave)

Review: 

Admittedly, it is the recognizable names that give the film more credit more than anything in the world. For one thing, the movie was written by Len Blum, Dan Goldberg, Janis Allen...and Harold Ramis (Blum and Goldberg, like Reitman, had gone to camp as a kid). Ramis, if you remember correctly, was one of the writers for Animal House (1978), the mega-hit gross out comedy that happened to have Ivan Reitman as co-producer (friends of good films will remember that he actually started as a producer with Shivers four years prior) because his attempts at directing were turned down because of his lack of experience. Ramis stated later that he worked on Meatballs for just a month, being recruited as a script doctor by Reitman because he had a good relationship with Bill Murray, who Reitman wanted to star in a project that he raised a million dollars to make. Of course, Murray did not commit to actually showing up on set to film until the day they started shooting. All of these factors would result in a movie that ended up being the first major box office hit from the country of Canada (with distribution by Paramount Pictures), as made by John Dunning's Cinépix (which became Lionsgate Films years later). Reitman, who had directed two previous films with Foxy Lady (1971) and Cannibal Girls (1973), would see his career change forever because of the success of the film, with Reitman, Ramis, and Murray each working with each other on several films over the next couple of years. 

You don't have to beat around the bush here with this movie, it is just an okay experience buoyed by the talent of Bill Murray. Even saying it is the second cousin of Animal House is just window dressing to the fact that it just has a moderate amount of success with basic innuendo with all the stops one expects from a season of summer. Look, I never went to summer camp, but I think one could vicariously enjoy what they see from "movie camp", so there's a point. This is the kind of movie where "It just doesn’t matter if we win or we lose” can be a mantra with wry conviction, where the result doesn't matter because the experience is what counts at the end of the day (i.e. not losing is a win). Of course, Murray is the reason anyone will watch, because this is his spotlight. The Evanston native had been featured on The National Lampoon Radio Hour (1973-74) and Saturday Night Live (1977-80). However, this was his first feature film role that saw him get bigger and better roles (going from Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979) to Stripes (1981), for example). His rebellious persona is the spark of life the movie needs to make it work out the right way, because he is the only one that keeps your attention with how energetic he proves in the simple art of bucking the trends of the time; as Harold Ramis once put it, he is "an outcast by choice". His detached confidence is generally paired with Makepeace, who inhabits the usual aspects of the young adult movie with adequate timing. Granted, Atkin is an okay straight man for the rest to pick on, but they just use him for sight gags with him waking up in strange places more than anything, while Lynch just plays causal partner to Murray in the bare minimum of chemistry. The others fall in line with basic descriptions that go from the nerd to the awkward kid, et cetera, et cetera; no one does terrible there, mostly because it isn't hard to play a camper when Murray is right there. As a whole, this is an average movie, filled with predictable aspects that will remind one of refrigerated comfort food: if you're into what it wants, pop it in. Reitman and Murray would cultivate better things together that would use solid craftsmanship from its director and solid rebelliousness from its star for bigger and better things. 

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.