Poison Ivy

I remember watching this back when it came out in the 80's.

I also remember going to a summer camp in Central Florida that had a counselor nicknamed Beetle Bailey that reminded me of Michael J. Fox.

I watched Family Ties and thought the resemblance was striking even back then.

I always wondered if he, Michael, did a little background work by doing some Summer camp duties for this role.

I wonder if anyone else (besides my older brother) who was at this camp and remembers this person Beetle Bailey at the camp?

Not perfect but so much fun. It's been a staple in my MJF movies.. FYI thay kid isn't Jason Bateman. As much as we want it to be.. Once Nancy shows up I think we all fell in love because she's awesome. Carrey Guffy is a little gem as the kid who's busting out.. Love this TV movie and will watch without discrimination.. Michael j fox did 4 movies in 1985 and I put this on the pedestal of Teen Wolf and Light of Day.. Again I was just kid but they all hold up.. Family Ties Vacation, Teen Wolf, Back to the Future and Poison Ivy.. Dude never slept and didn't need drugs.. Seems impossible but he did it.. Love the guy.

Poison Ivy is one of my favorites.I just realized that Jason Bateman is credited with being part of the movie.The fifth credit on the box of the VHS copy, released in 1987.I cannot find any info on why he is not in the movie.Why he is credited?Anyone know why?The funniest thing about this mistake is that everyone seems to be printing the same info over and over to fill space on the web pages.You might notice this quote is just about in everything you might find on Jason Bateman.

"During this period, Bateman also found time to star or co-star in a handful of feature films, such as the 1985 made-for-TV summer-camp comedy Poison Ivy, Teen Wolf, Too, and 1991's Necessary Roughness. However, none of the projects were successful enough to give Bateman a springboard to big screen stardom."

Just your typical summer camp movie that follows the basic formula of a little romance, a few troubled youths, and some sort of friendly competition near the end. Well not all that friendly as one team tries to rig one of the events in a very unfair and mean spirited way. I would try to talk about the plot more, but it has been forever since I saw this movie as a kid. I figured I would review it though as I am not really keen on tracking this movie down and seeing it again. From what I remember though it is a better summer camp movie than say Meatballs 2, but not as good as the original or as different as say white water summer or that kind of creepy one where the kids take over the camp and everything goes berserk. What you basically get is the same old clichés and story lines. The only other parts that stand out other than the boy who learns how to do the backstroke is the story of the man who lives by himself in a cabin and has what appears to be blood on his hatchet.

There are lots of other 80s movies that I enjoy. But this one is something special. I always feel like the "summer camp" genre of movie has been ruined by certain other ones...Meatballs...Party Camp, and so on. Poison Ivy accurately captures the sense of humor a young camper has. From a logical point of view, there's some real nonsense (why exactly does Disbro dress up like that?) but it still provides perfectly clean fun.

There are a few problems. Most of them are technical (sound mixing) and directorial choices, but those problems don't detract from the enjoyabilty of the movie.

This movie is also noteworthy for two other things: 1 - This captures the essence of the 80s Michael J Fox. Those glittering closeups on his face really just say it all and 2 - It's highly quotable. I have two friends who also saw this when they were younger, and it's a ball to exchange quotes with them periodically.