Summer Camp (1979) - USA - Comedy - Rated R
Directed by Chuck Vincent
Starring Linnea Quigley (as Barbara Gold), John Laughlin, Walter Olkewicz* (as Ray Holland), Michael Abrams, John F. Goff, Kashka Bartisick, Brenda Fogarty, Verkina Flower
*Keep up with The Supernaughts for an upcoming interview with Linnea Quigley in their Shut Up Kids podcast and later on the site.
It's summer time at Camp Malibu, where the clothes come off easier than the laughs.
The owner and director of Camp Malibu has a problem, summer camp has not been profitable enough to keep the camp going. He has come up with a solution to invite past attendees back to the camp for a free stay. Of course free comes with a price as activities he plans for them include free labor by getting them to fix up the camp, and to persuade them to get their parents to finacially support the camp. But these young, lustful campers are more interested in having fun, pulling pranks, panty raids, and making out.
If anything this movie has that stands out is the credits. Opening and closing credits are done in the same red font and are barely legible. The lighting is not much better either as scenes in the shade and night scenes are near unwatchable and scenes out of the shade at times approach extreme overexposure. Though the credits are just simply poorly done, the lighting is just as likely a result of this being an older VHS release.
A problem with some older videotapes, and nothing to do with age, is that the transfer process on some tapes in the 1980s was quite contrasty and not in a good way, which made dark scenes darker and light scenes lighter. Unfortunately with movies like this which have only seen the light of day on an old VHS release, many will review them with criticisms about the lighting, contrast, color, etc., without relizing the transfer process used could be and probably is the culprit. I have seen movies on older and newer releases, Alone in the Dark (1982) comes to mind, in which the older VHS is near unwatchable when scenes are dark, but the movie looks just fine on the newer VHS release.
Regardless of any transfer process though, that has nothing to do with the script, editing and general content of the movie. Summer Camp has some enjoyable moments and is a silly movie, but for me there was not a lot of laugh out loud moments. There are more tits coming out in this, not a complaint, than there are laughs. At least the sleaze content is there even if some of it can't be seen very well because of the poor quality of the video. And there is enough sillyness going on to keep ones interest.
Another item of note is that I have seen in several reviews of Summer Camp, it has almost become a standard, people calling this a rip-off of Meatballs (1979). Now that would truly be an amazing feat, considering this movie was released before Meatballs. O.o
Recommend: No
This movie has only been released on VHS. Twice that I know of. A Media release and part of a 3 movies in 1 release on videocassette which is even worse quality than the Media release due to it being on extra long play (ELP 6hr) speed and thin tape. I would be willing to consider a recommendation if it were released on DVD/Blu-ray. I think it is entertaining enough of a movie to watch, but the poor quality of available copies makes it a choir to watch.
*I have listed Walter Olkewicz in the actor credits even though IMDB does not. They list Ray Holland as the name of the actor playing the character of Horse as that is how it is listed in the movie credits, but watching the movie that is Walter Olkewicz playing the role. Either that or he has a twin brother named Ray Holland.
Get Summer Camp on VHS with Wild Child and Cheerleaders Wild Weekend
No comments:
Post a Comment