Three things I liked about Wet Hot American Summer:
- Chris Meloni is as good as legend would have it as the bat-shit crazy camp cook. He hedges the performance not one bit, committing fully to the character's unhinged lunacy.
- The kids. By and large, they cast very well, and elicited great, non-grating or show performances from the campers.
- Jeneane Garofolo and David Hyde-Pierce, who not only have surprisingly good chemistry, but nail the balance the film calls for between parody and sincerity.
Three things I did not like about Wet Hot American Summer:
- How unevenly the cast and film nailed that balance. WHAS isn't an out and out parody the way Airplane was, but it's not just a goofy comedy film set in the 80s either. It's a very schizophrenic mix of parody and original absurdist humor, and while at times that mix worked great, at other times it felt very disjointed.
- That they filmed (per the bonus features) and didn't use the 10-years later flash-forward reunion. That looked funny.
- The comedy. Not really. It was very funny. But I couldn't help but feeling throughout that it should have been funnier.
Until Whenever
1 comment:
Hi,
I saw this as a midnight cult classic showing at a super cool hip theater near Boston called the Coolidge Corner in Boston. It was summer, the audience was awesome, and sometimes things are just *funnier* after midnight.
I think that if you loved Meatballs and you spent some time in summer camp as a kid, this is just comedy gold. Glad you caught it. I'm thinking of hosting a WHAS party this summer. Do up some bbq, lots of beer, then show the movie.
Cheers,
Robert
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