Review of Meatballs (1979) by Drew S — 01 Jul 2010

Did not laugh once throughout the whole movie. Bill Murray is at his zaniest, dropping one liners like nobody else. Throwing his body around with reckless abandon and twisting his face like Play Doh. Only problem is these zingers, and contortions are about as funny as getting a hot stick shoved in your ass.

There are some obvious moments where you can tell Bill Murray was doing some improv and I just kept thinking "How did this guy get on SNL"? The story is extremely predictable. The nerdy guy named "Spaz" wears Buddy Holly glasses with a piece of tape across the center, the loner left out kid gets taken under wing by Bill Murray and ends up saving the day and the fat kid ends up being in a hot dog eating contest, how original.

The acting is laughably bad. The outcome of most of the scenes or punch lines for the jokes fall flat. Saying this film is corny is giving it too much credit, it's intentional corniness is aggravating.

The writing/dialogue is obnoxious with deliveries that are almost unbearable to watch. One thing that stood out to me is that there are only white people in this film. You'd think out of the 40 plus kids and the camp faculty that make up this film there would be at least one actor that's not white.

If you want to see a film about kids and summer camp done right go see Ernest Goes To Camp!