Pfundskerle

Most fun I've had with a movie in a long time. A film doesn't need to be a masterpiece to be enjoyable

"Heavyweights" is a mid-90's Disney film about a fat camp taken over by the villainous fatboy-turned-success Tony Perkis. While the premise is not so novel, the execution is great and keeps you pretty entertained throughout.

Some of the humor is dated, very 90's-specific. However, there is plenty of timeless, cross-generational humor, and Ben Stiller is absolutely at the top of his game. He would reprise this role many times again in his career: the guy with low self-esteem who becomes an overcompensating jerk. Tom McGowan, who plays a Camp Hope lifer, also plays a solid role and draws many laughs.

Sure, it's another Disney story about underdog kids who end up conquering the odds... or something like that. But Stiller and McGowan are great, and the kids do a pretty admirable too. It's not a must-see movie, but you also won't feel like you wasted your time for having watched it.

Despite being a child of the '90s, somehow I missed "Heavyweights" entirely. Considering the similarities it shares with "The Mighty Ducks" movies such as actors Kenan Thompson and Shaun Weiss, I'm almost embarrassed. Regardless, there's still plenty to appreciate about "Heavyweights" 15 years later in spite of its silliness -- and it's more than just a joke about the ineptitude of the Buffalo Bills.

For one, it was written and directed by Judd Apatow, who has a majority hold on the comedies of the last decade and for two, it marks one of Ben Stiller's first prominent roles as fitness wack-job Tony Perkis, who takes over a once-adored fat camp and harasses the kids.

Good thing "Heavyweights" was made then or it may never have surfaced, seeing as the age of political correctness and weight sensitivity has befallen us. The film is not cruel at all in its depiction of overweight campers, so parents surfing around for slightly older kid films and coming across this one shouldn't be concerned about that factor, but there's no doubt that such a concept would be hard to get off the ground, especially at Disney, in the 21st Century.

Co-written by Apatow and Steven Brill, writer of "The Mighty Ducks" films, it was as if the two conspired to plant a seed for a type of humor that kids my age at the time would come to identify as their own as they entered the PG-13 and R-rated age. Tony Perkis, for example, is the spitting character image of Stiller's White Goodman from "Dodgeball" and yet to me he is just as amusing doing his patented whispery intimidating voice now despite my countless repeated viewings of "Dodgeball."

There's also a classic overnight camp comedy sense of humor in "Heavyweights" like the kids getting beat in sports by their rival camp, an awkward dance mixer with a normal girls camp and when the kids unload the candy stashes they've snuck in camp into secret compartments -- as well as the run-of-the-mill fart jokes. Characters such as Tony's hysterical right-hand European man Lars, however, were way ahead of their time.

"Heavyweights" is pretty immature and excludes girls (because fat girls would be too taboo for the '90s). Its typical camp movie plot as well as its "overthrow-the-bad-guy" story arch - - which ruled the '90s -- come off as stale. But ignore those distractions and "Heavyweights" is a funny, quotable movie with some classic scenes, which is all a kid (or someone trying to go back and grab some nostalgia) really wants.

~Steven C

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Heavyweights is one of those movies that most people either love it or hate it. But for me it's a terrific comedy from my childhood that still holds up today.

From the 1990's comes a film about a bunch of kids who go to fat camp. The camp gets a new owner who's eccentric ways begin to make life difficult for the campers, who then take matters into their own hands.

It's a fun movie for the whole family, and filled with plenty of laughs for kids and adults alike. The characters were wonderfully cast with good young actors, and Ben Stiller does an amazing job as the main villain of the film. I would recommend this movie to any comedy fan.

Heavyweights was a movie that will not teach you any lessons. All this movie will teach you to do is have the time of your life whenever you are released from school for the summer. However, I still think that the movie Camp Nowhere was a little bit better though.

11 year old fat kid Jerry (Aaron Schwartz) finds out that his parents are sending him to Camp Hope for the summer. He gets excited by the idea at first until he discovers that it's a camp for fat children. After he is forced to go, he arrives and meets a ton of cool kids even though their fat also. He immediatley fits in the group and everyone is happy until the owners of the camp discover that they're being replaced by the psycho health nut Tony Perkis (Ben Stiller). Tony puts the boys through nothing but a living nightmare because he makes them work out 24/7 and doesn't let them eat anything good or let them have any fun. So the boys put their heads together and work on a plan to take down Tony and take the camp over themselves to have some FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I must say that this was one of Ben Stiller's very first movies and he did such a hilarious job with the character.

Heavyweights is a very entertaining family comedy that will leave you laughing even while the credits are rolling.