Summer Camp

People think that these kind of teen movies are paint-by-numbers and very easy to make. Camp proves that theory wrong.

Movies like this either need to be high-camp comedy or deep and meaningful. This movie manages to be neither.

I never once cared about any character (And the ensemble cast was so big that characters just melded into one.) Just a lot of bland, cookie-cutter depressed teenagers.

There was nothing new, nothing interesting, nothing humourous.

It feels like another film written by people who have completely forgotten what it is like to be a teenager.

I stuck with it to see if it got better, but it didn't.

I'm always willing to give a summer camp movie a try. Heavyweights (1995) was and is a great movie. I tried this one and it was a complete miss. I wondered why the actors and actresses looked so young when the movie claimed to be made in 2024 on the streaming service. On here it says 2023. Thankfully someone had posted a super helpful fact under Trivia here that said "Shot in 2016 but not released until eight years later." Exactly. The old DVD that sits on a shelf for almost a decade routine. Usually it's a few years but in this case it's eight. The more years it sits, the worse it ages. That sums up this movie. If this movie was good and test audiences gave it good reviews, it wouldn't have sat on a shelf for 8 years.

Getting to the movie itself - it's just an unnecessary movie. As in, most of the characters are incredibly vapid and just insult each other. It became so over the top. I found myself losing interest quickly as I couldn't relate to anyone. I ended up sitting through the whole thing but it was tedious and I was happy once the credits rolled. If there was a masked killer picking people off during it, at least there would have been a point.

I get that not everything can be the next Heavyweights, Meatballs, Wet Hot American Summer, or Camp Nowhere, but at least try and give your movie some personality to become a great camp story of your generation.

This movie has the personality of a moth, and they got a bunch of good talent just to squander it.

If you want to make a coming of age story, do it, but do it right. This movie wanted to be every teen sex comedy mixed with My So Called Life and all it did was make the color brown after all the horrible genre mixing.

I feel like no one can get a good formula down for a summer camp movie. There is sooooo much source material out there.