jimbo-53-186511 Having just watched Meatballs I was struggling to decipher what this film was trying to be or what it was trying to say; clearly it has a coming-of-age aspect to its story, but it's given very little focus or development. It's also clearly a film about the trials and tribulations of a bunch of youths whilst they're at a summer camp whilst they are being mentored by their crazy leader Tripper (Bill Murray).The problem with this film is that it has no definitive structure and no coherent plot line; it moves from scene to scene and from person to person but never in a way where it feels as though a story is being told - it felt like I was watching a series of goofball sketches lazily edited together rather than an actual story. Up until about the 60 minute mark the film doesn't seem to have any kind of point (although to be fair it does establish one in its final third) but to be honest I found myself kind of bored; nearly all of the characters are boring clichés that unfortunately remain this way throughout the film - there never seems to be any revealing moments or irony with any of these characters making them feel rather dull and one-dimensional.There is one interesting aspect of the story (involving the bond between Rudy and Tripper) which is quite endearing, but it's never really given the attention that it deserves and sadly Reitman seems more interested in creating several chaotic and random moments which never seem to manifest themselves into any kind of story and many of these moments seemed to serve little purpose.When I looked at this film I was actually hoping that it would be similar to Animal House but the thing with Animal House is that it was silly but funny whereas Meatballs is silly without being funny and that's the key difference. There were no big laughs on offer at all and very few small laughs (the only thing I found mildly amusing was the scene where they strap Monty to his bed and leave him outside strapped to the bed overnight).One thing that is great about this film is Bill Murray and he does bring this dreck to the life whenever he is on screen. Granted he does overact occasionally, but in fairness he probably felt obliged to because nobody else seemed to be making much of an effort.The film has a nice feel good ending to it (albeit a predictable one), but truthfully Meatballs isn't a particularly fun film to sit through and its 'Are you ready for the summer' theme song is pretty annoying as well.

fedor8 Strangely enough, MB gets better with age. The fact that I had never seen it before might mean that I am not 100% qualified to make that statement. (Then again, when has THAT ever prevented me – or Obama – from saying anything unqualified?) That is to say, while MB would have (most probably) left me busy wiping tears of boredom 20-30 years ago, it now has the nostalgia bonus that so many 70s films have these days – at least for those viewers who can appreciate what made that decade so special. (I don't mean the undistilled "joy" of having Jimmy Carter infesting the White House.) It was almost impossible to make a movie in the 70s and not make it look good; the proof of that being that even Ivan Reitman had done it, and he is notorious for having zero aesthetics. He's always been the competent producer, always the money-maker, very rarely the "artiste".There is a lot Bill Murray can do with a mediocre script, but even he isn't a magician. There was real potential here, though. The set-up is very good, actually; the characters are good enough, and the cast playing them even better; the kids look natural and act naturally. The hitch is the poor gag-writing. If only someone had been brought in to tweak the script a bit, fatten it up, improve upon it, this could have been a funny comedy and not just a visually-pleasing piece of 70s nostalgia. As it is, MB falls squarely into the "mildly fun to watch, but very rarely funny" category of comedies.If this movie gets you roaring with laughter, you're either 11 years old, or you're high on laughing gas.For those of you hoping for Porky's-like raunchiness, there is no toplessness. However, there are no bras either.

Scott LeBrun "Meatballs" does pretty well at milking laughs out of a rite of passage for many American people, the summer camp experience. True that the script isn't anything great, this functions on an often juvenile level, and not all of the jokes are terribly funny, but it works because of a basic likability. This viewer thought it was pretty harmless. Maybe in the scenes between Tripper and Rudy does it get too maudlin, but these scenes are effective at humanizing the Tripper character. Overall, it's a solid vehicle for SNL star Bill Murray, making the most of his first lead role. It's hard not to laugh at some of his morning announcements, the TV interview, and his big show stopping "It just doesn't matter!" speech.Murray plays Tripper, the head counselor at Camp North Star, a man with a wacky approach to life. There's not much of a story here (screenplay credit goes to Len Blum, Daniel Goldberg, Janis Allen, and Harold Ramis), but among the antics are the pranks Tripper and his fellow counselors (among them, Jack Blum ("Happy Birthday to Me"), Keith Knight ("My Bloody Valentine"), and Matt Craven ("Crimson Tide")) play on camp director Morty (Harvey Atkin), Tripper reaching out to a shy and lonely young camper, Rudy (Chris Makepeace, "My Bodyguard") who just wants to make friends, and the final Olympiad where Camp North Star competes with the more macho and aggressive Camp Mohawk youngsters.It's not too hard to identify with many of these characters, especially during their more awkward moments. By the end you really are rooting for them, and are enjoying the big finale involving a race through the woods.In addition to Murray, the rest of the cast does well, with Kate Lynch able to hold her own opposite the comedy star, playing the object of his affections. The lovely Kristine De Bell also appears as one of the counselors.Best of all, director Ivan Reitman keeps the gags coming right through the end credits.Overall, this is good natured fun and something that I can't believe anybody would hate.Eight out of 10.

tavm A year after John Belushi hit it big in the movies with Animal House, fellow SNLer Bill Murray would do the same with Meatballs with help from director Ivan Reitman-who was a producer on AH-and that film's co-writer Harold Ramis. Also from the Belushi picture was music composer Elmer Bernstein who would provide scores for other Reitman/Murray/Ramis movies like Stripes and Ghostbusters. Anyway, Murray provides great laughs with his charismatic wild-man persona as a camp counselor who helps a shy young boy (Chris Makepace) get out of his shell and a fellow female staff member (Kate Lynch) fall for him. Another staff member is Morty (Harvey Atkin) who falls victim to many of Bill's practical jokes. Then there's Spaz (Jack Blum, brother of the movie's co-writer Len Blum) and his buddy Fink (Keith Knight) who provide a touchingly humorous nerd-&-tubby vibe. There's also some sex appeal in the person of Wendy (Cindy Girling) and a girl-next-door one in A.L. (Kristine DeBell though she's probably best known for being Alice in the X-rated version of Alice in Wonderland). In other words, there's a nice mix of one-liners, slapstick, and sentimentality though it doesn't go overboard on the latter. Not everything works but Meatballs is still-all these years later-a good comedy worth watching especially for the first starring role of Bill Murray. Oh, how I loved hearing "Spaz! Spaz! "Spaz!" and "It just doesn't matter!" once again...