On M List of Movie Reviews
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Meatballs (1979)
Rate:
5
Viewed:
3/10, 3/21
3/10:
Meatballs is the grandfather of summer camp pictures.
Strangely, I've never really understood the word selection for the movie title. The following is an interview from a 2012 Yahoo
article:
"Adam Pockross: Having watched the film a few times now, I still have no idea why it's called Meatballs.
Ivan Reitman: Neither do I. It seemed to be one of the staples that was part of camp food: Spaghetti n' Meatballs. And
meatball also has a secondary connotation, as in goofy. We couldn't call it Summer Camp cause there was going to be
another summer camp movie, so it was just a name I came up with."
It's the first Bill Murray picture in a leading role. I know that he comes across many viewers as an egomaniacal jerk with
a certain air of superiority, but his brand of dry humor is quite good. It's also the first for Ivan
Reitman, and he and Bill Murray would do three more together:
Stripes, Ghostbusters, and its sequel.
There isn't much of a story, but it's well-supplied with many random moments. It's funny when Morty woke up somewhere else
instead of his cabin. Other than that, the film is drenched in blandness. The only one that's particularly well-done is
when Bill Murray screamed "it just doesn't matter!" over and over. Thinking about what he was trying to say, I realized
it's true. The message represents everything that's wrong with sports today. That's why most kids don't care about who won
and lost or what records were broken because it's all about having fun.
All in all, Meatballs is a classic Bill Murray picture.
3/21:
Meatballs hasn't aged well, and I think in ten years, it'll be a dinosaur.
Bill Murray is all right; he's literally the only thing the movie has going by saying whatever comes through his mind and not
be taken seriously. The rest of everybody, most especially Chris Makepeace, is lame. There are a lot of random "uh"
moments, and then, they move on to the next hijinks. Most, maybe all, scenes aren't funny. At least, the summer camp
part looks realistic given that I partook of it many times back in the day.
All in all, despite what I think of Meatballs, Bill Murray will wisely say, "It just doesn't matter," and it's
because the film grossed over $70 million against a budget of almost $2 million.