Meatballs
Tags: prank

Plot synopsis:
Tripper Harrison is the head counselor of a group of new counselors-in-training (CITs) at Camp North Star, a cut-rate summer camp. Camp director Morty Melnick falls victim to Tripper's practical jokes mainly by being taken from his cabin in the middle of the night and relocated to an unusual place.
Rudy Gerner, a lonely boy who is sent to summer camp by his father, decides to run away from camp to a nearby bus station. Noticing Rudy is unable to fit in, Tripper takes him under his wing and each morning they go jogging and bond as friends. Tripper helps Rudy gain confidence while Rudy encourages Tripper to start a romance with Roxanne, the female head counselor. Love is also in the air for many of the CIT's; Candace "kidnaps" Crockett in a speedboat and confesses her feelings for him. Wheels, who had broken up with A.L. the year before, successfully rekindles their relationship during a dance. The nerdy Spaz develops a crush on Jackie.
A subplot deals with the camp's rivalry with the wealthy Camp Mohawk, located across the lake. During a basketball game, North Star is being beaten by Mohawk when they attempt their own perverse form of victory. This sets the stage for the yearly Olympiad held between the camps in which Mohawk carries a 12-0 record.
During the first day of competition, Mohawk dominates North Star, cheating in many cases to win. Crockett fails to clear the high jump bar, Hardware gets pummeled in boxing, and Jackie suffers a broken leg in field hockey, thanks to the dirty work of two Mohawk girls. The score at the end of Day One is: Mohawk 170, North Star 63. That evening at the North Star Lodge, Tripper gives a rousing speech, telling the demoralized campers that it doesn't matter whether they win or lose. In unison, Camp North Star begins to chant, "It just doesn't matter!" Day Two of the Olympiad belongs to newly inspired North Star as they win every event. Wheels outwrestles his opponent, Spaz defeats Rhino in a stacking contest with inspiration from Jackie and a thwarted Mohawk cheating attempt, and, after 12 years of North Star defeats, Fink finally beats "The Stomach" in the hot dog eating contest. North Star now trails by only 10 points with one event left, a four-mile cross country run for 20 points. Tripper steps forward and selects a surprised Rudy to compete against Horse, Mohawk's star runner. The many mornings Rudy spent jogging and training with Tripper pay off as he wins the race, giving North Star its first Olympiad victory by a score of 230–220.
Later that evening, Morty, Tripper, Roxanne, and the CITs sing around a campfire and say their final goodbyes as the camp prepares to close for the summer. Rudy has already decided to return to camp next year and Roxanne agrees to live with Tripper. The two ride off on Tripper's motorcycle, leading the buses out of camp and leaving Morty behind, in bed, on a raft in the middle of the lake.

Review: While some of the pranks that takes place in this movie, like carrying the camp director out in his bed and leaving him on the side of a road, strung up in the trees or out on a lake, are a bit over the top some of the other pranks are not.
(Especially during the camp social - while Bill Murray hams it up for the camera - just watch Spaz behind him dancing with the poor girl he picks to dance with!) By far, one of my very favorite comedies of all time!.
Those of us who got to go to camp will see many of the scenes as we remember or wish they could have been.Bill Murray plays senior boys counselor Tripper Harrison, who really runs the camp.
He drives the film with his one liners and ad-libs.Chris Makepeace plays Rudy, the loner camper who is taken under Tripper's wing and breaks out of his shell.The rest of the campers and staff in the film were excellent as well.The overall theme of the movie is the underdog overcoming obstacles to finally win.
From Rudy to Spaz to the Camp and even to Tripper himself, the underdogs of the film are the stars.
The cast look and act like real people.The comedy and heart draw you in to the point that at the end, just like at camp, you are sad to leave.In my summer camp experience we had underwear run up flag poles, mystery meat, trying to sneak a peek into the girls cabin, the lunatic-with-the hook stories around the camp fire, and moving sleeping people out of their cabins and putting them elsewhere.
Many people who went to summer camp as kids will see that it is presented here faithfully to the way it usually was, but with slapstick comedy mixed in.
Tripper has great one-liners throughout, usually broadcasting his jokes as pseudo-announcements over the camp's public-address system.Several great supporting actors played the campers and counselors to build a myriad of fun and interesting subplots, all the while sprinkled amongst the many incidents of camp hi-jinx.
For example, Tripper befriends a shy, lonely kid, Rudy(Chris Makepeace), and takes him under his wing.The story culminates with a sports competition against a rival camp.
But add in Bill Murray (already showing some dramatic as well as his usual comedic talent), a nice supporting cast, and an unexpected sweetness about growing up, and remembering those great, or not so great days at summer camp, and you get a heartwarming, funny, sleeper hit.It does get a little too smarmy for its own good, but that is also one of its charms.
When you hear the title "Meatballs", and see the poster, you expect a teenage sex romp, but what you get is a sentamental, yet sometimes sexy look back at those formative years at summer camp.
The only movie I've seen that comes close, is "Indian Summer", which I like almost as much as "Meatballs", and also stars Matt Craven.
I just finished watching it again, thanks to the 50+ movie channels satellite offers these days.Anyways, not only is Meatballs the excellent feel-good movie every young boy and 30 something should watch, it reminds me of the times I had in summer camp when was 7-10 years old.
Bill Murray really makes the movie, as does "Rudy." The movie really shows how boys and girls did act at summer camp.
Stripes, an army training camp comedy starring Bill Murray and directed by Ivan Reitman, is a favourite of mine.
Meatballs, a summer camp 'romp' starring Bill Murray and directed by Ivan Reitman, is a complete waste of time.
It takes a considerable effort for four screenwriters to produce a movie (the word 'comedy' infers a work with mirth aforethought) as witless, anaemic and boring as this.Murray evidently reached the same conclusion during filming, but his usually reliable powers of improvisation escape him and his flailing attempts to inject life into proceedings just add to the embarrassment - the "It really doesn't matter" chanting scene is excruciating.
It's a genial summer camp movie, so the jokes aren't mean minded in a lasting way that makes one character the permanent butt of ridicule.
The tone of the entire film has the same style as its leading man, established with a great opening scene showing the Murray way of getting ready for the day.
If you like Bill Murray, and you like good clean fun, you will probably like and enjoy this film very much.
Yes, the best summer camp movie ever is this here flick!
It's also clearly a film about the trials and tribulations of a bunch of youths whilst they're at a summer camp whilst they are being mentored by their crazy leader Tripper (Bill Murray).The problem with this film is that it has no definitive structure and no coherent plot line; it moves from scene to scene and from person to person but never in a way where it feels as though a story is being told - it felt like I was watching a series of goofball sketches lazily edited together rather than an actual story.
Up until about the 60 minute mark the film doesn't seem to have any kind of point (although to be fair it does establish one in its final third) but to be honest I found myself kind of bored; nearly all of the characters are boring clichés that unfortunately remain this way throughout the film - there never seems to be any revealing moments or irony with any of these characters making them feel rather dull and one-dimensional.There is one interesting aspect of the story (involving the bond between Rudy and Tripper) which is quite endearing, but it's never really given the attention that it deserves and sadly Reitman seems more interested in creating several chaotic and random moments which never seem to manifest themselves into any kind of story and many of these moments seemed to serve little purpose.When I looked at this film I was actually hoping that it would be similar to Animal House but the thing with Animal House is that it was silly but funny whereas Meatballs is silly without being funny and that's the key difference.
There were no big laughs on offer at all and very few small laughs (the only thing I found mildly amusing was the scene where they strap Monty to his bed and leave him outside strapped to the bed overnight).One thing that is great about this film is Bill Murray and he does bring this dreck to the life whenever he is on screen.
Granted he does overact occasionally, but in fairness he probably felt obliged to because nobody else seemed to be making much of an effort.The film has a nice feel good ending to it (albeit a predictable one), but truthfully Meatballs isn't a particularly fun film to sit through and its 'Are you ready for the summer' theme song is pretty annoying as well..
Hey man, I know, its Meatballs its a raunchy teen-sex comedy set at camp, I get it, and I had seen all the other Meatballs movies previous to this one so I knew beforehand what I was getting, but none of the other Meatballs movies has a sexual assault played for laughs.
A typical summer camp film with the prerequisite fat guy, nerd, hot girl and the corny but fun-spirited song is saved by Bill Murray as Tripper Harrison the head counselor, making this film humorously enjoyable, if not laugh out loud funny.
In camp, there's a eccentric counselor(Bill Murray) who knows how the boys and girls can have a good time.
Besides from some lame jokes, Murray led the way through the movie keeping it funny and entertaining.
Bill Murray tries his best to save this fitfully funny comedy, but the film still fails.
Later camp films lowered the bar.***** Meatballs (6/28/79) Ivan Reitman ~ Bill Murray, Chris Makepeace, Kate Lynch, Russ Banham.
Bill Murray (who was 28 during shooting) stars as an eccentrically droll camp counselor at Camp North Star who "trains" CITs, counselors-in-training, as they oversee the hordes of kids and face challenges with teams from preppy Camp Mohawk."Meatballs" (1979) is a fun and innocuous summer camp flick.
It's not great but it's entertaining enough, although if I'm going to view a summer camp film I prefer the Friday the 13th movies (practically any of them), mainly because they feature superior women.
This movie is a sloppy generic summer camp comedy that we've seen it a million times before.
This film also in a way is sort of like a journal as we watch it we can easily recall some of our past times when we gone to camp, from seeing some of these characters engage in a wild antic or two or even the games that camps engage in, just a lot of things that really bring you back.The only bad thing about the film is lack of a solid memorable ensemble which I felt the film could have benefited from even more.
Harvey Atkin as Morty whom sort of looks like Groucho Marx is always getting his authority undermined and Tripp and the rest of the colorful councilors they play some pranks on him to give him grief.To me the character that really stands out and I also feel really drives this film is Bill Murray as Tripp.
Like any good summer camp this is a film worth visiting.Rating: 3 and a half stars.
There are also some funny moments involving the counselors hitting on one another, but this is a PG rated film with little in the way of raunchiness.The film takes a serious note involving a shy camper named Rudy who is played by Chris Makepeace.
In other words, Murray might as well have said to Makepeace, "you must be that actor we hired to play the stereotypical lonely kid you see in most summer camp films who doesn't fit in." But before it's all over, Murray's performance makes this plot device more than bearable.
The quintessential "let's get ready for summer movie." It's dumb, goofy, and maybe a touch dated, but my kids just saw it and they laughed as hard as I did when I first saw it.
Sure, the script is predictably late 70's (like Little Darlings), but it's a fun movie, and I loved Rudy and Tripper.
I have to rent it, to see if It still makes me laugh out loud (I was only 15-16 years old when I last saw it, my since of humor might have changed), But I really remember it being on of Bill Murray's best..
Seen "The Original" 29 times (yes, I know, I need to get a life...)Bill Murray's finest (yes, better than Caddyshack, where he just had a bit part anyway) and all the supporting cast were great - good casting work.They definitely should have stopped after this one though....
I spent a summer at sleep away camp and I wish I had half the fun that Bill Murray and the crew have in Meatballs.
This movie has funny lines as well as funny characters.Bill Murray gets a lot of support from Spaz and Larry Finklestien who can't seem to master the art of Love at summer camp.Fink: You didn't do anything !
It also is the story of how one boy goes from outcast to hero after he is taken under the wing of a caring counselor.Sure there are jokes and highjinks, and a few teenage sexual references, but nothing over the top and they are all characteristic and true to form for summer camps.I love this movie.
it's a pretty weak film that everyone has seen a dozen times before, but if you like Bill Murray it is worth seeing.
Plus the kid who plays Rudy is great too.Unfortunately there isn't much else to this film - the laughs don't really hold up for the most part unless the jokes are Murray's, and the characters are all pretty lame and predictable.oh well.....
If anyone were to ask me if I recommend this film, I would say only see this for a pretty funny performance by Bill Murray, who portrays Tripper, the counselor more interested in cracking jokes than actual "counseling".
MEATBALLS (1979) ***1/2 Bill Murray is manic genius personified in his first big comedy smash during his "Saturday Night Live" salad day stint, as Camp North Star's summer camp for kids' counselor-at-large who firmly believes in the philosophy of having a good time all the time with some laugh-out loud hilarious hijinks.
The movie does have its moments, such as Murray's horror story and the basketball sequence, but the rest is all ho-hum and some scenes make the film look a bit too dated.
It's hard not to laugh at some of his morning announcements, the TV interview, and his big show stopping "It just doesn't matter!" speech.Murray plays Tripper, the head counselor at Camp North Star, a man with a wacky approach to life.
There's not much of a story here (screenplay credit goes to Len Blum, Daniel Goldberg, Janis Allen, and Harold Ramis), but among the antics are the pranks Tripper and his fellow counselors (among them, Jack Blum ("Happy Birthday to Me"), Keith Knight ("My Bloody Valentine"), and Matt Craven ("Crimson Tide")) play on camp director Morty (Harvey Atkin), Tripper reaching out to a shy and lonely young camper, Rudy (Chris Makepeace, "My Bodyguard") who just wants to make friends, and the final Olympiad where Camp North Star competes with the more macho and aggressive Camp Mohawk youngsters.It's not too hard to identify with many of these characters, especially during their more awkward moments.
The lovely Kristine De Bell also appears as one of the counselors.Best of all, director Ivan Reitman keeps the gags coming right through the end credits.Overall, this is good natured fun and something that I can't believe anybody would hate.Eight out of 10..
I do remember that I found it disappointing and quite dry, without many laughs at all and Murray--fresh off "SNL"--had not yet perfected the dry comedy in a mainstream movie that he would show much better in "Stripes" (1981) under the guidance of Ivan Reitman.
Meatballs also swerves unsteadily between cheap laughs and a ham-handed attempt to fashion some sympathy for a sad-sack loner kid (Chris Makepeace, in his feature film debut) befriended by Murray.
Forget this film, if your looking for a great summer camp movie try to find "Poison Ivy" a 1985 TV movie starring, Michael J.
It's hard to find and not that great anyway, but "Meatballs" makes it look like a Billy Wilder film!Final rating: 3/10 "A bad movie.
As it is, MB falls squarely into the "mildly fun to watch, but very rarely funny" category of comedies.If this movie gets you roaring with laughter, you're either 11 years old, or you're high on laughing gas.For those of you hoping for Porky's-like raunchiness, there is no toplessness.
Nostalgic and funny comedy has Bill Murray playing Tripper, a wacky summer camp counselor who, when he isn't trying to romance all the female counselors, is trying to help a sad boy(Chris Makepeace) who doesn't want to be there, and who isn't popular.
Then there is the rival summer camp where the rich kids go, and whom Tripper badly wants to show up.This could have been just another crass, predictable comedy, but this has a surprising amount of heart and empathy, and by the end, you may get just as misty eyed about it being over as the campers!
"Meatballs" is the "Citizen Kane" of cheesy summer camp comedies, and you can interpret that any way you want to.
The rebel camp counselor who's constantly playing pranks and for some reason always looks at least 10 years too old for the part: "Meatballs" did it first.
A year after John Belushi hit it big in the movies with Animal House, fellow SNLer Bill Murray would do the same with Meatballs with help from director Ivan Reitman-who was a producer on AH-and that film's co-writer Harold Ramis.
Not everything works but Meatballs is still-all these years later-a good comedy worth watching especially for the first starring role of Bill Murray.
Would set the tone for most summer camp movies to follow..
I liked this movie for the most part, but have to say had there been anyone else besides Bill Murray in the lead role it would not have been as good.
It's basically and hour and a half of complete silliness, with Murray as a counselor at a Canadian summer camp.
"Meatballs" comes across at times as an ensemble film, but Murray has all the good lines, all but Fink's earnest congratulations to Spaz ("you old make-out artist") after Spaz holds a girl's hand for a couple of minutes.
But "Meatballs" is funny, and it deserves extra credit for being such a nice introduction to Bill Murray the movie star.
it's one of the best camp comedies of all time.
It's a summer camp movie through and through which simply wants to entertain you.
This coming of age comedy explores all that, adding in the twist of some of the camp counselors being high school students and their efforts to get laid over the summer.Not quite leading the group is Bill Murray in his film debut, combining his trade work silliness and mentoring a pre-teen kid desperate to fit in.
The Original Summer Camp Comedy..........Classic Bill Murray!.
the underachievers competing for "bragging" rights in the typical camp contests, while the kids and consolers pursue pranks, sex, and "a good time!" "Are You Ready For The Summer?" Meatballs is the first (and best) summer camp movie for feel-good comedy.
The film works because of the wonderful comic timing and classic one-liners of Bill Murray.
The idea of having a racy comedy set in a kids' summer camp is not bad, but the great gags never really materialize.