“Meatballs” (1979), one of the rare summer-camp movies I’ve seen where no one gets killed, marks the first collaboration between director Ivan Reitman and star Bill Murray. The comedy would probably be forgotten without those names, plus Harold Ramis as one of the four writers who I assume were writing it as they went along.
It’s not spectacularly funny or racy, and it’s hard to imagine a timeless classic like “Ghostbusters” coming from this team a mere five years later.
Just a series of gags
A chronicle of the kids and not-much-more-mature counselors of Camp North Star, “Meatballs” is a mostly painless 94 minutes of people acting goofy and playing pranks. It desperately lacks a memorable set piece, and sometimes lacks basic filmmaking competence.
For example, one scene finds a kid sticking a fish down the back of a female swimmer’s suit, but we don’t get a close-up of the fish, which would make the joke funnier. The film doesn’t lean into anything; it’s just a series of mildly silly gags.
Not awfully PC
Today, “Meatballs” is notable for the reasons it could no longer be made. The rival well-to-do camp across the lake is Camp Mohawk, wherein the cheerleaders dress up like Indians and swing tomahawks during the Olympiad against Camp North Star that dominates the film’s back half.
Tripper’s (“Saturday Night Live” veteran Murray) approach to attracting Roxy (Kate Lynch) is refusal to take no for an answer. The punchline to the inevitable sequence of male counselors spying on the female counselors’ cabin is gay panic.
Actually rather tame
That said, “Meatballs” is also tame. It has no nudity, and the one remotely sexual scene is shot in near pitch darkness. And – if we set aside his aggressive advances on Roxy as being a 1979 time capsule — Tripper is a sweetheart.
He spends a good chunk of his time with Rudy (Chris Makepeace) on morning jogs and playing blackjack for literal peanuts so the shy kid will have a great summer. This arc is so heavy handed that I almost tired of it.
Murray is clearly having fun – he puts physical and creative energy into making this movie mediocre — and so is the rest of the cast. Note the likely improvised scene where Tripper fires up the kids with a pep talk before the Olympiad, in which Camp North Star is of course the huge underdog. Kids can be seen laughing in the background.
“Meatballs” is sketchily and quickly made. It has a good heart, and the acting is not bad, but – aside from serious fans of Murray, Reitman and Ramis – it’s hard to imagine a viewer celebrating any moment of “Meatballs” as great or innovative.
But everyone has to start somewhere, and when you spend $1.6 million to crank out a film that grosses $70 million, you’re gonna get to make more movies. So as a fan of “Ghostbusters,” I say thank god for “Meatballs.”
