Meatballs (1979)
Directed by Ivan Reitman
Tripper is the head counselor at a budget summer camp called Camp Northstar. In truth, he's young at heart and only marginally more mature than the campers themselves. Tripper befriends Rudy, a loner camper who has trouble fitting in. As Tripper inspires his young charges to defeat rival Camp Mohawk in the annual Olympiad competition, Rudy plays matchmaker between Tripper and Roxanne, a female counselor at Northstar.
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What critics compared Meatballs to
Owen is like a funky update of the Bill Murray character in “Meatballs,” a manic mentor who teaches the troubled protagonist that it just doesn’t matter.
Channeling Bill Murray from “Meatballs,” Owen is the kind of guy that everyone wants to be around, and it’s easy to see why thanks to Rockwell’s immensely charming and hilarious performance.
Wheeling up to a water park, he comes under the wing of the manager, a breezy, don’t-give-a-damn lifer named Owen (Sam Rockwell, channeling the motormouth Bill Murray of “Meatballs”).
Faxon & Rash said their inspiration for Rockwell’s character was Bill Murray in Meatballs, but in Rockwell, at the risk of blasphemy, dare I say they’ve found something even better.
Seeking escape, Duncan ends up hanging around the nearby Water Wizz water park, where he’s adopted by wisecracking man-child manager Owen ( Sam Rockwell , echoing Bill Murray in Meatballs) and his long-suffering girlfriend ( Maya Rudolph ).
Think Bill Murray in Meatballs.
Complete with funny voice (never a good sign in a Sandler performance), mullet haircut and love for hard rock classics played on tape cassette, Donnie is the type of character who could easily fit in a 1980s era Meatballs rip-off.
This is a barnstorming performance, as wry as Bill Murray's in Meatballs (1979), but without the protective irony: He knows he's reaching out to a panoply of younger, awkward selves.
A year prior, in 1979, Bill Murray had a hit with the teen summer camp escapade, Meatballs.
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Did Bill Murray learn anything in Stripes or Meatballs?
Unfortunately the director is Ivan Reitman, who's never made a more emotionally complex film than Meatballs (1979).
Probably Ivan Reitman, the Canadian hack who lowered the bar for brain-dead comedy by directing trash like Meatballs, Kindergarten Cop and Cannibal Girls.
What's even more astonishing than the casting is the fact that veteran director Ivan Reitman (Dave, Twins, Ghostbusters, Stripes, Meatballs) has lost all sense of comic pacing.
The film's director is the veteran Ivan Reitman and, while he's in his mid-60s, he hasn't entirely tossed away the frat-house sensibility that gave us such sophisticated sparklers as Meatballs and Stripes.
Director Shawn Levy follows the anarchic formula devised by Animal House and perfected by Murray in Meatballs and Stripes: smart alecks where they don't belong proving to those who do that no-rules accomplishments are better, coaxing misfit sidekicks to join the revolt.