Wet Hot American Summer (2001) Reviews

• "It's fun to get away from the camp, even if it's just for an hour."

  deputydoofus2002-03-12

  The strangest point in this film is a point, about a half hour through, when all of the seemingly normal camp counselors go out in to the city. In a montage shot, they slowly go from reading books at the library, to smoking cigarettes, to smoking joints, to buying cocaine from a guy on the street, to becoming prostitutes, then becoming strung out heroin-addicts at the local crack house. This is not your parent's parody movie. From this point on, the film is never the same. Seemingly normal character development goes out the window, and characters jump from one complete different personality to another within seconds. We get brilliant lines of dialogue that could only be brought from members of The State, like: "Hey, there's a problem. I've got something I need to tell you." "Oh no! You have crabs." "No. Well, yeah, but that's not the problem." "Oh good." Pure genius!!! Why don't more comedies have lines of dialogue like this? Some other great points: "There is a way we could save everyone's lives. Well, no that couldn't work. In order for it to work, we would need to have a device that could randomly generate numbers between 1 and 20." "That's impossible. That would take some sort of highly advanced supercomputer to work." "Not necessarily. No dungeon master goes anywhere without his...20 sided die." I sort of wish I had known what films were being parodied in this movie. I saw strands that sort of matched what I had seen from old Summer Camp movies I had seen back in high school during the wee hours in the morning during comedy central. But, there were many things here that seemed like they must be references to other films. Oh well. It's just all crazy. Anyway, I guess I should say that this isn't a really good...movie, per se, but...well, I have no excuses for it. Wet Hot American Summer rules! Dolphins suck it!!!

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• Like nothing you've seen before

  msuare012002-01-20

  Wet Hot American Summer is without question, the funniest movie to come out in years, and certainly among the funniest I've ever seen. The reason you might not have heard of it is because it isn't as advertised as other movies, because it doesn't have the type of budget to advertise itself. It breaks my heart that horribly made, unfunny, unoriginal movies, such as American Pie 2, were in more theaters and are more available to rent or buy. The humor in WHAS is not comparable to humor in any other movie that comes to mind. The humor is a lot like the what you would see on The State (because it was written/directed by State cast members). Many scenes are just so ridiculous that you have to laugh, and if you don't, its because you are taking the movie too seriously. The day this movie came out on video, my friends and I watched it as many times as we could manage to, in one day. Every time we watched, we noticed something new, and still laughed hysterically at the stuff we noticed the first time. It has the type of replay value that should make you go out and buy it, rather than rent it.

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• What am I missing?

  phazetds2006-03-16

  OK, I am pretty forgiving and can enjoy a lot of stupid movies. But I REALLY don't get what it is people like about this movie! I like a lot of the actors, but the jokes were NOT funny. I mean maybe 5% of the jokes worked. It was like a long bad SNL skit or something. I just really rally don't get it. I would rather watch Weekend at Bernie's 2 three times in a row than see this again. This movie was flat, unfunny, and just a complete waste of time. I am sorry, I really wanted it to be good, but I think I laughed once the entire time. Molly Shannon was good, but still not that funny. I imagine when reading the script it may have seemed funnier than it was. Someone said it was going to be a classic and be quoted form like Caddyshack! PLEASE!! Skip it.

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• A mixed bag of a summer camp film

  tex-422002-02-16

  This movie defintely has its high and low points, the plot concerns the last day of camp in 1981 at a small Jewish summer camp in Maine. It's meant as a parody of all those late 70s, early 80s teen sex romps like Porky's and Meatballs, and while some of the parodies are dead on, others fall rather flat. Perhaps the funniest moment concerns some of the counselors "hour-long" trip into town which starts out innocently but then degrades into a drugged-out parody where the kids start out smoking cigarettes and quickly go to robbing old ladies to feed their newfound cocaine and heroin addictions. Other high points include the Vietnam veteran cook, the loony arts & crafts instructor, and even the children deciding not to play baseball against the anonymously evil-rival camp because they just don't feel like it. A lot of the movie seems more like a bunch of strung together sketches, which adds to its weakness. However, it is fun to see the return of the bad haircuts, too-short shorts, and high socks that made up that era, along with some great early 80s rock hits.

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• A Cult Classic of Epic Proportions

  WriterDave2003-03-04

  "Wet Hot American Summer" is an overlooked comic gem and an absurdest spoof of those god-awful summer camp movies from the 1980's. If you enjoy "Monty Python" style sketch humor or were a fan of "The State" (many of the players are employed here) or "Kids in the Hall," then this is the ticket for you. People who enjoy humor more in line with the Farelly Brothers or the "American Pie" films probably just won't "get this." It's all a matter of taste and your sense of humor. But seriously, how can you go wrong with a movie that has a pep talk from a talking can of vegetables or an overly dramatic chase scene where the person doing the chasing is thwarted by a single barrel of hay in the middle of a wide open road? My personal favorite is when the guy is driving the van singing along to "Danny's Song" and then out of nowhere screams bloody murder as he slams into a tree. Oh, and who can forget the hilariously rapid decent into the underworld of drugs and despair by the kids spending an hour away from camp in town? This is also a must see for people who appreciate Janeane Garafalo's comic timing and Molly Shannon's bizarre brand of humor. This film was grossly overlooked when it hit theaters, but I think there is a cult following waiting for this movie. I hope these people are allowed to collaborate on another comedy. If they are, then we may have a new dawn of "Monty Python" style humor infecting the barbarian hordes.

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