Action Park: À vos Risques et Périls

"Class Action Park is a true Crime Story" give or take a direct quote from the trailer for this documentary. Now I don't know how I was supposed to be left feeling after viewing this. Some will be filled with anger towards the park and park director and what follows. But I also think this glorified the park and most will be filled with nostalgia and a eagerness to go to Action Park even if that is impossible in this age. The latter is how I felt. I felt that the negatives were even somewhat talked about in a positive way. 80% of the time everyone was smiling and happy even in the sad parts. Might have just been me though but sign me up for a season pass. If you want to learn about Action Park watch this but you aren't missing anything.

The underlying tone of this documentary is summed up in "it's funny, but like not". The first hand stories told are so wild they almost seen unbelievable. A really captivating documentary that's well put together in both footage and interviews.

From the late 1970s to the mid 1990s, entrepreneur Gene Mulvilhill ran his own water park in Vernon, New Jersey called "Action Park". Often known as the most dangerous water park in North America, the park was known for its casualties as it was known for its bizarrely constructed rides. It was so controversial that it led to a documentary called "Class Action Park", which details the history before the park was even opened, its runtime, and the aftermath. Described mostly from the people who either attended or worked at the park, this might be one of the more fascinating amusement park documentaries out there.

As this park was known for its recklessness, the documentary details how much the owners utilized that as a gimmick, from the insanely designed rides injuring attendees to even the employees joining in on the reckless behavior. All of this was because "uncle Gene" was fulfilling his dream of creating his own fun-filled utopia without any rules. Many of his frankly crooked schemes would include engineering rides that sometimes wouldn't even make it past the testing phase, daring kids to ride these unsafe rides with money, and not even reporting on any action no matter how deadly. And yet, all this mayhem was what drove people to the park given how much freedom they had around the parks in the first place; everyone interviewed in the documentary has a story to last a lifetime. Probably the more fascinating stories come from the former employees, who were mostly dumb juvenile teenagers with little concern for morality and would spend their time drinking and partying more than anything. If that lifestyle doesn't sum up teen life in the 80s, let alone in New Jersey, I don't know what does.

In terms of filmmaking, a good chunk of the footage is older stock material of the park itself, which helps put into context just how crazy the park really was in terms of its lack of rules or unguaranteed safety. Considering a lot of the attendees were the youth or young adults, one could almost cringe at the sight of these people going around these parks despite not caring for their overall safety. In addition, some of the more painful slapstick moments are shown in animated form, which only adds to how cartoony a lot of the antics behind this park really were. In a way, the documentary is both a recap of the general events that went on in the park's runtime, and an 80s teen movie meets a gritty horror movie. Two of the interviewees who went to the park, comedian Chris Gethard and actress Alison Becker, even pointed out how much the Jersey-bravado motivated the people wanting to get hurt for fun on the ludicrous rides. But even then, they got to enjoy the rides in hindsight, compared to people who actually died at the park, which would become the park's ultimate downfall.

So in the end, not only is Class Action Park an intriguing documentary that showcases the fascination nostalgia can bring back to an adult, but it's also a reminder of how what you once thought was fun was really more of a miracle you even survived such a wacky ordeal. It's ok if some things are just left as a memory, because there's no way you'd want to revisit near death anytime soon. If you're still on board to check this documentary out, it's on HBO Max just waiting for you. It may make you cringe, it may make you feel unsettled, but it will never stop shocking you, like the park did to people for 18 long years.

I liked this documentary but the commentary from Chris Gethard was utterly obnoxious and distracting with his over the top storytelling and constant use of f bombs, it was driving me up a wall. I do agree with others that it is kind of an unusual way in which they have portrayed the park. It seems like a total nostalgic throwback about how cool the park was and how crazy it was that a bunch of kids ran it and how things were out of control but less about the actual tragic incidences at the park. One mother spoke about losing her son and how Gene is an awful person but that was really the extent of that. The documentary otherwise was about the staff experience. Still enjoyed it but not necessarily what I expected.

Fun and games with a heavy dose of 1980s carefree nostalgia until the hinted darkness comes to light. It's pretty gross when they try to salvage the nostalgia at the end after said darkness has been unveiled.