CAMP STORIES
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 1.5 Alternative Scale: 1/2 out of ****
United States, 1996 U.S. Release Date: 8/96 (tentative) Running Length: 1:50 MPAA Classification: PG (Mature themes) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Zachary Taylor, Paul Sand, Ted Marcoux, Jerry Stiller,
Talia Balsam, Kris Park, Elliot Gould
Director: Herbert Beigel
Screenplay: Herbert Beigel
Cinematography: Paul Gibson
Music: Roy Nathanson
CAMP STORIES manages the extremely difficult task of making 1993's dumb comedy-drama INDIAN SUMMER look intelligent, thoughtful, and original. This inept coming-of-age story is easily the worst camp film ever filmed -- and I'm not forgetting about the abysmal MEATBALLS series. At least those movies never made a pretense of being anything other than bad. CAMP STORIES seems to think that having a moral makes it somehow worthwhile, when, in fact, it's close to unwatchable. And I'm not sure who the intended audience is: viewers under twelve will be bored out their minds; viewers over that age would need a frontal lobotomy not to be insulted by what passes for a plot.
It's the summer of 1958 (somehow, writer/director Herbert Beigel must have missed the fact that the '90s are reviving the '70s, not the '50s), and high school student David Katz (Zachary Taylor) is hoping to spend the next eight weeks sitting in his local movie theater, watching daily matinees. Like any true film buff, he doesn't mind viewing FROM HERE TO ETERNITY several dozen times. Unfortunately, his parents have other ideas. They ship him off to Camp Ararat, near Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. It's an orthodox Jewish camp that helps transform children into responsible adults by eliminating all possible sources of pleasure from their lives.
There's a power struggle going on among the camp's leaders. Shlomo (Jerry Stiller), the camp's founder, is on death's doorway, and has to hand Ararat over to one of two men: the meek and kindhearted Moshe (Paul Sand) or the hard-hearted disciplinarian, Chiram (Ted Marcoux). David, who is viewed by Moshe as a "good kid", but by Chiram as a troublemaker, becomes a pawn in their low-key battle.
Not only is the plot muddled and paced worse than a snail race, it's essentially one lame cliche piled atop of another. We have the usual camp friendships and rivalries, the detested leader, the secret girlfriend, etc. It's all very familiar and executed with alarming ineptitude. Nothing in this story is remotely interesting, especially since it's child's play to guess everything that's going to happen. And the poor writing isn't just limited to plot details -- the dialogue is stilted and insipid. It's hard to believe that any actor would be caught dead saying some of these lines.
Then again, most of these actors give performances worthy of a corpse. The only one who's even adequate is Zachary Taylor. Everyone else, from recognizable names like Elliot Gould to no-namers like Kris Park, either shows no evidence of acting talent or doesn't care enough to do more than what's required to take home a paycheck. It's embarrassing to watch these performers stumble through their one- dimensional roles.
There are other problems with CAMP STORIES, including the music and cinematography, both of which border on awful. In fact, there's nothing that this film does even remotely well. Herbert Beigel probably had good intentions -- tell a story about being true to oneself -- but the execution is unspeakably poor. At one point, David comments that his life is "like a bad movie." Unfortunately, we don't need him to tell us what's perfectly obvious.
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net web: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin
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