SummarySet on the last day of camp, in the hot summer of 1981, Wet Hot American Summer follows a group of counselors who are each trying to complete their unfinished business before the day ends. (Eureka Pictures)
SummarySet on the last day of camp, in the hot summer of 1981, Wet Hot American Summer follows a group of counselors who are each trying to complete their unfinished business before the day ends. (Eureka Pictures)
The movie is so hilariously sly about something so fetishistically trivial that at times it appears to take in an entire culture through a lens made of cheese.
The film keeps being yanked back from nothingness by this or that clever sendup, delivered by a small army of invigorated performers who seem to push off from one another's energy levels.
This is probably my favorite comedy film of all-time and sits at number 26 on my Top 100 Films list. I’ve talked about this film so much, I don’t know what else to say. At some point I will do a full analysis of it. But, for right now, here are my summarized thoughts.
This is the perfect absurdist comedy film. It serves as a parody/satire of typical summer camp/teen comedies. It plays on every trope and makes fun of itself from music to editing to acting to plot to sound editing, etc. There are misplaced pottery **** sounds, semantic humor (my favorite humor) like “Thank you Henry” “No please, call me Henry”, ironic trite plot points, fourth-wall breaks, intentional plotholes, painfully obvious stunt doubles, cartoon physics, and a lot of comedy pioneering with the invention of the slow clap. Overall, it’s surprisingly progressive in its mockery. It has a beautiful **** sex scene and the **** of characters is only a subversion of typical character behaviors to show a complete acceptance and normalization of ****. Also, it heavily mocks the ideals of dating and romance. Many characters are heavily-sex driven and a large theme is finding romance or sex on the last day of camp. It makes fun of the character who needs to justify his masculinity with his body count or the virgin who desperately wants to have sex to fit in. It also breaks the stereotype of the sex-crazy male by showing a romantic male lead who is interested in sex secondarily, but primarily is fueled by love and genuine interest in personality and character. It also breaks the stereotype of slut-shaming by showing a highly promiscuous woman who unabashedly goes after what she wants and without judgement from her peers: sex. Lastly, it **** the idea of the male fantasy beautifully in the end, by subverting what we expect the male characters to earn in the end, whether it’s getting the girl or getting what they want. There are powerful female characters, vulnerable male characters, and a normalization of differences whether it’s **** vs. straight or jock vs. nerd or rich vs. poor.
I would highly recommend this film to anyone. I’ve seen it probably ten times and every time, I find something new and find myself laughing out loud. It’s stupid, yet one of the most intelligent comedies I’ve seen, and that’s why I love it.
Wet hot American summer is one of the most underrated films of all time it has some of the most memorable characters ever put to screen and the jokes of course are hilarious it deserves the cult status and Netflix follow up prequel series it has received.
If you don't like this movie, then you must be the most suffocatingly
boring person ever. You must **** so bad that your mom punches herself
in the face every day to atone for giving birth to you. People who
don't like this movie likely get a huge stiffy thinking about tax
season and professional golf. I hope all you haters severely burn the
roofs of your mouths.
Everyone should watch this movie. Period. Awesome throwback flick with
a great cast. Crass, goofy, slapstick, you name it, this flick has it.
While the plot is a mixed bag of ups and downs, Wet Hot American Summer is a “it’s so bad that is so good” movie with over-the-top yet funny jokes and amazing cast comedic chemistry.
Rating: 8/10
Pros:
+The jokes are over-the-top funny.
+The cast has great comedic chemistry.
+I can feel like the cast had a good time making this movie. Because of this, it makes this movie more enjoyable to watch. If the cast were awkward instead, this movie might not have the grade that I gave.
+The movie has re-playable value. Either you can watch it alone again or you can watch it with friends who loves comedies.
Neutral:
.The plot is quite a mixed bag of ups and downs. Some of the subplots are stupidly hilarious and some of the other subplots are stupidly dumb.
Wet Hot American Summer is actually a pretty funny movie. It is painfully stupid at times but the weird mix bag of comedy and stories negates the dumb parts for the most part. The movie truly only worked due to the fact I knew so many people in the movie
Up until Netflix decided to make a TV prequel I'd never heard of this movie, which is surprising considering it contains so many big name comedy actors. Attempting to spoof the stereotypical 80's summer camp movie, as well as a few other genres, this is yet more proof that a good cast alone is not enough to make something successful. There is the odd funny moment here and there but far too few of the jokes really land and I certainly hope the Netflix revival offers a bit more.