Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
RipDelight
This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
Gurlyndrobb
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
thesar-2
Where's Jason Voorhees when we need him for these extremely un-Happy Campers? I haven't seen such a sloppy, random, uneven, incoherent, pointless and down-right sad movie than the inaccurately titled Happy Campers in a long time. Barely did I laugh in this "comedy," barely could I root for a single lost soul, barely did this rise above the solid one star (out of five) it deserves – and that's due to the actors playing counselors at least attempted to make something of the horrid direction they were given by Waters.And how the mighty had fallen; Waters wrote Heathers, probably his only great movie. Heathers, which would have a hard time being released as is today – with all the school shootings, killings since – was at least original, fun, dark and a very well made movie. Happy Campers is an all over the place mesh of random scenes and tiny skits/bad ideas just horribly spliced together.It's hard to write a synopsis due to the wandering of the script, but I'll try: punk counselors of all stereotypes await for the kids to arrive for a very long summer camp in the opening, while making fun of the manual – ding, ding plot point! – and when the unfortunate kids are dropped off, "comedy" ensures with the one and only adult (yeah, right) starts barking out commands.From there is hard to describe what I just watched. Let's see, one counselor likes another, but he's after another. One's gay and just loves to tell people and gets upset when others don't embrace him. One's just weird and another is good/bad/good with no real explanation. Oh, and then there's kids running amuck – duh, this is what happens when one adult's in charge and the rest of the group is as loony as the people who used to run Night Court. Even when the single adult is taken out of the picture for a really dumb accident, he had just about equal control as when he wasn't comatoast.There is zero point to this movie, unless you like the late Renfro – which I do and that's why I watched it. But even his minimal attempts couldn't save this movie. SKIP CAMP.
movieman_kev
When the strict camp director of Camp Bleeding Dove (Peter Stormare of "Fargo" and "the Big Lebowski") gets electrocuted, the group of freshman camp counselors (including Jamie King of "Sin City", in her first role, and yes she gets topless) have to run the summer camp by themselves. Because of their personalities, they start to clash with each other. The Movie was funny in parts, but I think I was expecting more from Daniel Waters, I mean the cat gave us Heathers, Ford Fairlane, and Demolition Man. Not to say this is a bad movie in the least, just that it's sadly mediocre in every way.My Grade: C+ Eye Candy: Jamie King goes topless
phoenix_elixir
Happy Campers has to be in my top ten and probably right at the top! I don't know what it is, but it really is one of life's good movies. To me anyway, to everyone else its utter nonsense! It has even inspired me to fly to America when I'm old enough and be a camp counselor!! I love the soundtrack, and if anyone knows how I can get hold of the song titles on the movie, (so far I've failed!) please email me a website or song titles and artists; anything would help!!! Wichita & Wendy: their flourishing romance, Pixel's floopiness and hot fashion, all the counsellors and their completely opposite personalities and backgrounds...and of course all the happy campers. Each scene brings out a new idea, a new perspective that leads to the end result. And listen to what they say - its so true. Their philosophy and story telling is blissfully blunt and simple. I Anyway, 10/10!!! See it!!! And if you have, watch it again!!! God knows I have!!!
tedg
Spoilers herein.Films have the same mystery as love: you find the best experiences in the most unlikely places.This movie gives the impression of a Bull Murray stupidity: teenagers and sex along the lines of `Breakfast Club.' Its underscored by using C and D list actors. That's too bad, because this can be seen as fairly intelligent. Daniel Waters writes films that seem to saturate their home genre, yet transcend them in ways more subtle than parody or the faddish irony. His stance is pretty abstract. Take another look at `Hudson Hawk,' where he explores the very coherence ofrepresentation and cosmology from the twinkle in Willis' eye. Look at `Batman Returns,' the one where Tim Burton decided to do it right and intelligently.Now look at this in the context of the book, `Lolita.' That wasn't the first book that was about writing and untrusted narrative. It wasn't the first one where you were fooled into thinking about the story as a distraction while the author plays with how you perceive it. But it was the first one that really worked at a level of subliminal metanarrative.In that story, Humbert imagines that Dolores was engaged in wild sex as a 12 year old at camp. He removes her from camp to begin his own reality-bending obsession. His notion of child-sex is purified, innocent.Now look what we have here: a film about sex at a preteen camp, starring the same girl who recently played Lolita (Dolores), with a single obsessed adult, and lots of exploration of an abstract sort of sex.Very risky approach; very few will get it. But check out the name: Camp Weeping Dove. Check out the names, Wendy (`Peter Pan'), Pixel (and her crowns), and Oberon(`Midsummer Night's Dream'). Jasper and Talia have several classical associations. Check out the oddly out of place secondary stories about child abuse (Witchita, and `don't touch me'). Did you get the items mentioned in the scavenger hunt?Dominique Swain puzzles me. She does many of these quirky indies like Parker Posey. But no one knows they are clever.Here, she works her butt off, with an energy that shows that there must be abreakthrough project somewhere in her future,Ted's evaluation: 3 of 3 - Worth Watching.
