Heavyweights

### Produced By

Roger Birnbaum, Joe Roth, Morgan Michael Fottrell, Charles J.D. Schlissel and Jack Giarraputo

### Production Companies

Walt Disney Pictures
 Caravan Pictures

### Release Date

February 17, 1995

**Heavyweights** is a 1995 American live-action film directed by Steven Brill.

It focuses on a fat camp for kids that is taken over by a fitness guru named Tony Perkis.

The film was released on February 17, 1995.

## Plot

When school ends for the summer, Gerry Garner’s parents send him to Camp Hope, a weight loss camp for boys. Initially reluctant, Gerry meets enthusiastic camp counsellor Pat, and befriends the other campers, who have smuggled in enough junk food for the entire summer. The first night at Camp Hope brings the revelation that the original owners, the Bushkins, have declared bankruptcy and the camp has been bought by fitness entrepreneur Tony Perkis Jr, who plans to transform the camp’s weight loss program into a best-selling infomercial.

Tony replaces the camp’s beloved activities, including go-karts and ”the Blob”, with a punishing exercise regimen. Pat is replaced by the strict new counsellor Lars, and the campers endure a painful softball game against their more athletic, over-competitive rivals, Camp MVP. When Tony purges the cabins’ hidden food caches, camper Josh stands up for Gerry by taunting Tony, and is sent home without a refund, which prompts the other campers to theorize about what happened to Josh after this. Tony arranges a dance with Camp Magnolia, a girls’ summer camp, to humiliate the boys into losing weight, but counsellors Tim, Pat, and camp nurse Julie convince everyone to enjoy themselves together. Josh returns to Camp Hope, revealing that his father, a lawyer, threatened to sue Tony for kicking his son out without a refund.

Gerry and his friends sneak into Tony’s office in search of their confiscated snacks, and learn that Tony has intercepted all the campers’ letters to their families, including the letter that Gerry wrote to his grandmother. They discover a secret food stash used by most of the camp, leading them to gain weight, and Tony forces the boys on a twenty-mile hike, preparing to endanger their lives for the sake of fitness. The boys trick Tony into falling into a pit, and imprison him at camp in a makeshift cell, electrified with a bug zapper. With Pat, Julie, and Tim on their side, the campers take back control of Camp Hope, tying up Lars in the woods with Tony’s other counsellors, and celebrating with a binge eating bonfire party. Tony's counsellors, who are foreign, ultimately side with the campers due to threats of deportation.

The next morning, Pat rallies the campers to take responsibility for themselves and start losing weight, and they all start a healthier regimen while making Camp Hope fun again. The boys’ parents arrive for visiting day and are shown a video documenting Tony’s cruelty, which is interrupted by Tony, having escaped his cell. Exchanging blows with Gerry’s father, he attempts a series of backflips but knocks himself out. As Tony is taken away, his own father (a Western Pennsylvania lamp store guru whose fortune Tony uses to buy and fund the camp) arrives and promises to refund everyone’s money, but announces that the camp will be closed. The boys ask for the camp to stay open, and Pat, with eighteen years’ experience and the support of Gerry and the others, agrees to assume responsibility for Camp Hope.

Under Pat’s leadership, the campers restore their favourite activities, and prepare to face Camp MVP in their annual competition. Camp MVP takes the lead in the first event, an obstacle course, but Camp Hope catches up in the second round, a test of knowledge. In the final go-kart race, Gerry wins the competition for Camp Hope. Demonstrating that having fun is more important than winning, Pat throws the trophy in the lake, and seals his romance with Julie with a kiss. As Camp Hope celebrates their victory, Gerry thanks Pat for the best summer of his life.

In a post-credits scene, Tony has become an unsuccessful door-to-door salesman selling healing crystals.

## Cast and Characters

* Aaron Schwartz as Gerald "Gerry" Garner
* Ben Stiller as Tony Perkis Jr. / Tony Perkis Sr., Tony's father
* Tom McGowan as Patrick "Pat" Finley
* Tim Blake Nelson as Roger Johnson
* Jeffrey Tambor as Maury Garner
* Joseph Wayne Miller as Samuel "Salami Sam" Dampier
* Jerry Stiller as Harvey Bushkin
* Anne Meara as Alice Bushkin
* Shaun Weiss as Josh Birnbaum
* Kenan Thompson as Roy Murphy
* David Bowe as Chris Donnelly
* Leah Lail as Julie Belcher
* Paul Feig as Tim Orford
* Tom Hodges as Lars
* Max Goldblatt as Phillip Grubenov
* Robert Zalkind as Michael Simms
* Patrick La Brecque as Dawson
* Nancy Ringham as Mrs. Garner
* Allen Covert as Kenny Parry
* Cody Burger as Cody Farley
* David Goldman as Nicholas Wales
* Judd Apatow as Homer Schulz
* Lauren Michelle Hill as Josie
* Peter Berg as Chef

## Production

Heavyweights was filmed over the course of two months in North Carolina at 2 separate camps, Camp Pinnacle and Camp Ton-A-Wandah. Filming started on March 28, 1994 and finished on May 25, 1994.

## Release

### Home Media

Heavyweights was released on VHS on August 15, 1995, LaserDisc on February 20, 1996, and released on DVD on March 4, 2003. Heavyweights was released on Blu-ray on December 11, 2012. It was also included on Disney+ in November 2019.

## Reception

Heavyweights received mixed reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 29% based on 7 reviews, with an average score of 4.80 out of 10. On Metacritic, the film received a score of 42 based on 16 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on scale of A to F.

According to Stephen Holden of The New York Times, "Heavyweights is really two movies in one, and they don't mesh. One movie is a no-holds-barred spoof of a Tony Little- or Susan Powter-style fitness merchant... The other movie is a conventional family comedy that pokes light-hearted fun at the chubby young campers."

In 2012, on the release of the Blu-ray, critic Brian Ordorff gave the film a grade "B" and wrote: "Time has been kind to the discarded fat camp movie, finding Heavyweights more digestible these days, after years spent processing the askew sense of humor shared by Apatow and Company."

### Box Office

The film made $17.6 million at box office and was not successful theatrically, though the film has garnered a cult following.