Gorp

If Meatballs had been written by a coked-up, mentally-challenged Jew, it might resemble something like GORP. What GORP stands for, I have no idea. Greatly Odiferous Retarded Premise? It might've been mentioned in the movie, but I was so annoyed by the lack of good comedy writing, the bad Vinnie Babarino accents and the absence of anything remotely resembling a plot that I might've missed it.

I thought at the least I might get to see some Fran Drescher nipps or a young Patricia Arquette burn up the screen. Wrong wrong wrong. The scenes of Fran "doing it" with camp counselers fully clothed resembled two people having a simultaneous seizer on the ground. I couldn't even tell which characters were even camp counselers, there were no scenes of them doing ANYTHING remotely camp related. You just want to punch every character in this movie in the face, hard. There are no peaks or valleys, no character development at all, it's just non-stop cracked out stupidity from the very start, and not even funny stupidity at that. I have to wonder how the writer of this movie even got his foot in the door, and I'd be surprised if he ever worked again.

Even treating it like an X-rated movie and fast-forwarding to the few scenes with Fran and the one or two scenes with Arquette didn't make it any more bearable. 40 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Comcast On-Demand freebies have really hit rock bottom. I'm canceling my cable.

I can't say what's worse...the fact that this movie was made, or the fact that so many reviewers here actually think it was good.

"GORP" is what it is. It came out at a time when movies that were capitalizing on the success of "Animal House" came out just like "Halloween" inspired plenty of successors in the slasher genre. The Party Animal, Teenage Sex comedy has another addition with this film that takes place in a Jewish summer camp that includes food fights, pranks played on nemises and the obligatory panty raids.

The film does have a certain atmosphere and the 2 lead protagonists are neither likeable nor interesting. They seem to get angry and shout all the time for no particular reason. It is also not clear if this film is supposed to take place in the '60s or in 1979-1980 when this film came out. Much of the film is carried by the madcap supporting characters including a younger Fran Drescher as a no apologies CIT who likes to chew and spit out men and Dennis Quaid in a rare turn as the gun obsessed "Mad Grossman." I have to say that it was interesting to see Quaid play a weirdo and it would be neat to see him play more roles like this now against his current leading man type.

The film doesn't have a real plot and is merely a bunch of unconnected scenes stuck together. "Animal House" had a coherent plot with developed characters that added a lot to the film. "Meatballs" also seemed to be more effective having a madcap counselor played by Bill Murray who also was likeable despite his delinquency. GORP meanders and even some of the pranks seem unjustified and mean spirited. I found myself wondering where the film was and where it was going and then it just eventually ended.

This is a rare film that seems to have disappeared from video distribution and has not seen a DVD release at this date. It's nothing special but it is a good example of the type of films that came out in the late '70s and early '80s in this genre and if nothing else interesting to see the earlier work of Dennis Quaid, Fran Drescher and Roseanna Arquette.

I owned and drove the M-5 Stuart tank in the movie GORP. (actually written in all capitol letters). There were lots of interesting stories I recall from the filming but the one that stands out in my mind was when I drove thru the house. (a prop built for the movie)

We were to receive a radio message as when to stop----but it never came ! I could see nothing out the vision port and finally decided to slap on the brakes and stop. Had I continued one more foot I would have crushed one of the stunt people that was to have jumped out the window but didn't. Amazingly the big concern was that I came within inches of one of the very expensive Panavision cameras. The "Movie people" said they could always get another stunt girl but cameras were expensive.

All in all I was treated great by all the "movie people" and I left with many good stories----several best left untold.

It's a good thing I was only 16 the summer this came out. Me and my buddies, all of us the same age, got such a kick out of this Animal House ripoff only because we were as horny and mischievous as the characters. It's interesting to see the subsequent accomplishments of some of the stars. I don't think I'd waste much time watching it again, even to reminisce. It is exactly what it was, a teen-target capitalizing on our adolescent urges: plenty of girl-spying and bragging about what you want your buddies to think you've done. I remember being excited that school was letting out soon for the summer, so we were all planning our own GORP adventure, which of course never happened (but told everyone it did). Fun, but absolute crap.

I remember seeing this when it first came out in 1980 when I was around 16. It was torture sitting through the whole movie (even as a teen), and couldn't believe how bad this was and why a studio would waste so much time and money into total garbage as this. The only memories I have of the film are a young Dennis Quaid dressed as a GI driving some tank, exploding poop, and 1st grade humor from beginning to end (a precursor of today's comedy, perhaps?). Just saw it's available on DVD and blu-ray(!) on Amazon. Hard to believe they'd put this on disc when there are so many other films much more worthy. But again, much of today's comedy is pretty much on this level, so I can understand. $$ for the studio.