Review of Wet Hot American Summer (2001) by Jesse O — 08 Jul 2013

I would say that, despite the rating, this movie is actually worse than the rating implies. Certainly I had fun watching it but that is because it's clear the cast had a blast filming this movie and that, at times, makes you forget that, in fact, the script has far more misses than it does hits.

If there's something that I enjoyed about the movie is its self-awareness of how silly it is that all these events have taken place in a 12 hour span and how seemingly impossible it is to fit so much stuff into that time span.

Problem is, there's so much schtick, that a lot of it is instantly forgettable. Instantly the scene that comes to mind is the capture the flag scene with everyone trying to catch what looks to be a professional runner, that scene was probably the funniest and it was entirely due to Michael Ian Black who, instead of actually RUNNING after this man, is actually speed walking.

Oh and it's all shot in slo-mo and that, somehow, makes the visual of him speed walking even funnier. There's also the scene of Christopher Meloni and Michael Showalter doing a training montage right out of the Rocky movies is also funny.

Even if a lot of the jokes miss in the movie, it is energetic. So even if the jokes don't work most of the time, you're still having some fun. The movie does make a concerted effort, in its last act, to get as crazy and silly as is humanly possible and while I applaud the movie allowing itself to be as silly as it can, the LARGE majority of this last act doesn't work at all.

But, with the way this film was made, it was obvious that this film was going to amass a cult following. I wouldn't go out of my way to say this was a great, it is an average movie with a fun cast and that, to me, raises the rating a little bit in spite of all the script's weaknesses.

Still it's a fun movie that requires being in the right state of mind to enjoy.