Summer Camp

Summer Camp features a promising cast. Unfortunately they are brought down by weird plastic surgery, a strange cairacture supptoring role, and a food fight between 60-somethings, which would never happen. The most real parts of the movie were in the very first scenes, when the main characters were girls.

The premise makes me wish I could return to my summer camp days: sleeping in a cabin, making frieds with other girls, doing arts and crafts, waterfront, and campfire.

This script did nothing for these star players. Costuming was totally unrealistic as well. I would have fallen asleep if I was watching this at home; fortunately I was in a theater with food and a beer.

Senior citizen comedies generally suck, and the exceptionally weak "Summer Camp" is no exception. Motivational speaker Kathy Bates pulls estranged pals Diane Keaton (sadly obligatory for this kinda fare) & Alfre Woodard to a 50yr reunion of their childhood summer camp (duh) with the likes of Eugene Levy, Dennis Haysbert, Beverly D'Angelo. Cue a bunch of 'hilarious' sequences (such as folk falling into food trays and/or out of rafts) as grievances are aired, lives are sorted, and everyone gets somewhat wiser (sigh). Experienced writer / director Castille Landon (who also has a supporting role) really pooped the bed on this one. So lame.

I didn't have super high hopes for "Summer Camp" after seeing the trailer and poster. Sure, the cast features some promising actors, but the overall delivery is cheesy, poorly developed and at times boring...

Let's start with our three leading females. Alfre Woodard probably is the best of the three, as she tries her best to make use of the material. Kathy Bates (in a questionable wig) is fine, but the creative team could have given her so much more to do. And then there is Diane Keaton playing Diane Keaton. Diane - I love you, but it's time to break out of your shell a bit.

Finally, there are a few charming moments, but they are minimized by the lackluster screenplay and okay direction. This is a film for actors to collect a paycheck and have a little fun, but don't expect much substance.

Very cute but also incredibly lacking. I generally love this genre of heartwarming film but Summer Camp was missing an anchor. The story was a bit uneven in pacing; some scenes seemed out of order, we could have flashed back to the younger campers a little more and I think it would have added to the emotional depth. The writing wasn't quite there and the acting also seemed flat for a large portion of the film. None of the emotion felt earned, it felt as though the audience was being told "this is an important moment" rather than feeling the important moments. There wasn't enough character development to really feel invested in the characters' journeys.

I wanted to love this movie. With a cast like Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard you would expect this film to be damn near perfect or at least funny. But I am not going to blame the cast for this epic failure. It comes down to the writing. What is going on with writing scripts for actors of this generation of late, take for example the latest Book Club, which was another failure. Writers need to get their act together and start delivering decent scripts that do justice for these amazing actors. This really is not good enough. Like I said in the title, the best bits were the bloopers during the end credits. Such a disappointment.