Wet Hot American Summer
Comedy, Romance
Directed By: David Wain
With a new series dropping on Netflix at the end of the
month, I figured it was about time I got around to checking out the cult comedy
that started it all. All I knew going in was that this movie centered on a
summer camp in the early eighties. I had no idea it was rated R or the insane
cast that it boasted, I just knew that it sounded very familiar. As a kid I
grew up watching Bill Murray in Meatballs
more times than I can count and just seeing an image or two and small plot
synopsis I knew this movie was trying to capture the same spirit. By the time
the credits rolled I couldn't have been more pleased with what I had just seen.
What David Wain and company brought to screen fourteen years ago is a comedy
that is completely ahead of its time in both cast and subject matter.
It’s the last day of camp in the summer of 1981 and the last
chance for campers and counselors to make their summer memorable. We follow the
counselors as each of them makes plans to wrap up their summer with the perfect
someone...or something. Some are just trying to see how high they can get their
body count, others are looking for love or the mending of a broken heart, and
some just want to finally lose their virginity. No matter who or what you are
there is someone for you to connect with on some level.
This film exceeded my expectations in every aspect, starting
with the style of comedy. I really didn't know what to expect from this film,
even if I had known it was rated R you never know how far a movie is going to
go. Wet Hot American Summer embraces
everything about the eighties that is, in every sense of the word, silly and
pokes fun at it all. It is raunchy, over the top, slapstick humor at its best
and, as I mentioned earlier, it was ahead of its time. Featuring not only a
proudly gay couple but turning the cliché jokes surrounding them on their head
to make this a very pro LGBT film. This is something we all would love in a
film nowadays but back in 2001, this was still unpopular thinking. Not only
that but they still manage to find ways to make it extremely funny and
appropriate.
What makes any comedy though is the cast, the script can be
as funny as anything but if the cast is wrong then the jokes don't land and the
movie doesn't work. Much like the content of the movie, the cast of this film
was way ahead of its time. It featured a few popular names at the time like
Janeane Garofalo and David Hyde Park but it was the "unknowns" that
make this movie as impressive as it is. In 2001, names like Paul Rudd, Amy
Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, and Ken Marino weren't known to the
mainstream crowd. Today these are some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, and
they show exactly why in this movie. They are all incredible and absolutely
hilarious throughout the entire film.
This film is basically everything the adult version of me
always wanted to see from a Meatballs style movie and then some. It takes what
we love about classic summer camp flicks and pokes fun at all the tropes while
still celebrating its spirit. The film brought together some of the greatest
comedic talents around and simply let them do what they do best. It's now
wonder after seeing this that it has gathered such a large cult following, so
much so that Netflix feels it deserves its own show. Wet Hot
American Summer is a perfect summer comedy, best enjoyed on a hot night
with cool drink.
As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches
Movies. You can find me anytime on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later!
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