Meatballs

 

                  I'm aware that this film is a hundred percent a summer themed movie and since we’re still in the first month of the new year we're not going to be seeing heat waves in the next four maybe five months. Desperate times calls for desperate measures, especially when you trying to find a full-time job as well as applying for a job isn't going your way. So, like the past couple of weeks I'm trying to find movies that are in the range of winter themed movies but more importantly finding films that put me in a good mood, and as fate would have it Bill Murray's first collaborations with both Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis, Meatballs has become the latest streaming movie of the month of January and I figured why not watch a Bill Murray film that I have not even came close to seeing, and surprisingly enough it wasn't what I expected in a typical raunchy film.

                 Tripper (Bill Murray) is the head counselor at a budget summer camp called Camp NorthStar. In truth, he's young at heart and only marginally more mature than the campers themselves. Tripper befriends Rudy (Chris Makepeace), a loner camper who has trouble fitting in. As Tripper inspires his young charges to defeat rival Camp Mohawk in the annual Olympiad competition.

                  The surprising thing I find when watching the movie is that, and granted this is from watching classics like Caddyshack, or Stripes is I would imagine this movie to be in the raunchy stage of 80's comedies. When in fact this movie does have those elements in a fair sense but more tone down in terms of how much raunch they can use, furthermore compare this movie to Stripes, this film technically a softcore porno if you want to compare this with past works of Bill Murray's earlier and most recognizable works. As much of an ego/narcists, Bill Murray was throughout his film career as a comedic actor, I never in a million years imagine this guy being a mentor/friend to a kid who is having trouble fitting in. And I was a bit unsure of what I should think of this movie especially Bill Murray's performance in the film, mainly because I always looked at the guy as a immature a**hole from is more popular films like Ghostbusters, Stripes and even Groundhog Day, like it was really on the freaky side of what I was expecting. Though to the films credit this something new out of Bill Murray that I never quite expected and the fact that he' tries to help out the estranged loner kid played by Chris Makepeace, I find it awesome to see for many reasons, I never had much in terms of cool counselors when I was going to Catholic camps but after watching Bill Murray's performance in the film I wish I had him as a counselor because he would most certainly be that go to camp counselor that I want to hang out with over and over again if I'm being forced to go to any summer camps. A side from this being Murrays first starring role in a movie with the success of Saturday Night Live, I got to admit that this was most certainly a movie where Murray shines as one of the all-time great improvisors from the many camp announcements he does in the movie to his epic comedic speech by the end of the movie, and Harold Ramis who co-written the screenplay states that Ivan Reitman did not know for certain whether Murray would be in the film until he showed up till the third day of shooting, for which I believe this was the first of many times Reitman or Ramis would get use to his antics until Bill and Harold had their feud during Groundhog Day filming. For any old film or classic movie that films next to a K-Mart I will always recommend a film that respects and honors the once and out of business K-Mart (anyone out there remember K-Mart?) because my entire childhood was always hanging around K-Mart's even when they began dying off the face of all of America. The movie itself is on both Peacock, Tubi and Amazon Prime and even though this is a summer themed movie I would highly recommend watching this movie because this is most certainly a great film that you can watch and have a great time watching this 80's cliche, comedic characters do their thing for an hour and thirty four minutes and really if your old as I am and want to remember the good old days of K-Mart's being in your local town, then this would most certainly be a movie for you especially when it's Bill Murray's rise to stardom.