Oddballs

My review was written in December 1986 after watching the film on Lightning video cassette.

Reviewed for the record, "Odd Balls" is a weak imitation of the Bill Murray hit from Canada, "Meatballs". Shot in 1983 and released regionally the following year, trite pic has comedian Foster Brooks going for it and little else.

Brooks plays the owner of decrepit boys' camp Bottomout, across the lake from a posh girls camp, whose owner is a corrupt land developer trying to get control of Brooks' camp. The baddie even sends his son to try and seduce Brooks' pretty daughter as part of his plan.

Lame script by Ed Naha has a heavy emphasis (within restrictions of a PG-rating) on the young boys angling to see the girl campers nude, while including idiotic spoofs of other film genres, such as an unfunny routine involving subtitles as inadequate translating ot purposely bad synchronization on a dubbed karate wiz. Even incorporated is a dated spoof of "E. T.", which was also present in the TriStar pickup "Meatballs II".

Brooks does a nice job while the youngsters make little impression.. Dumb sound effects are used to try to generate laughs much in the manner of a tv laughtrack.

This is one of the most intellectually-devoid movies I have ever seen. The cover mentions that this movie was made in an attempt to ride the "Meatballs" fad of the '80s. The "characters" include an incoherent drunk "grandpa" camp owner, three horny adolescents who look everywhere for sex (especially for the owner's blond granddaughter, who reminds me of "Blondie"), a homosexual aerobics instructor who has a heart attack after sniffing two poppers and exercising to death, some white guy with an afro and a huge lizard on his shirt (i.e. making fun of the "izod" shirts of the '80s), and too many more to list. This movie is so ridiculous I can't even begin to delineate the absurdities that happen throughout the movie. Not to say that it is bad; I laughed at several scenes because they were so absurd. In one nonsensical scene, after the kids learn that grandpa sold the camp to the evil antagonist, the camera zooms in on a plate of breakfast arranged to make a stupid face (e.g. eggs for eyes, sausage lips, etc.) twice, with cartoon sound effects. It made no sense whatsoever. If you like nonsense, then "Oddballs" is a surefire winner.

Cheap copy of "meatballs" mixed with Benny hill, porkys/etc .... it's terrible with cartoon sound effects and bad one liners but if you go into it knowing it's terrible, there's a LOT to groan and laugh at

A "wacky" summer camp movie spoof of Meatballs about young boys who want to get laid, an evil land developer who wants the land the camp is on, and a drunk camp owner who hates his life and job.

Oh man, this is a terrible movie devoid of any redeeming value. It's so "zany" it uses cartoon sound effects as stingers, jokes about killing the flying nun and Mary Poppins, etc The terrible Bill Murray impression by Mike MacDonald is painful but the whole thing just falling so flat is what makes you cringe just watching it. I think I laughed twice (?) Overall not worth your time tracking down or watching.

Some movies are bad. This one is incredibly bad. In fact, it's almost funny how bad this film is. It tries to be an Airplane- like spoof of summer camps at times and at other times, tries to be a coming of age film for twelve year olds. The film's level of humor though makes it seem like it was aimed at three year olds. In one scene for example, a guy puts on cologne and goes into the woods hoping to attract a babe who's there but attracts a bear instead. To make things worse, the actors are all incredibly amateurish and the low budget is evident in nearly every shot.