Summer Camp (2024)

Summer-Camp-(2024)
Summer Camp (2024)

Three terrific hyper-feminist roles are perfectly integrated, summer camp reunion scenario full of humor and moral values: what could go wrong? At Summer Camp, Castille London’s writing and direction show how decades of baggage come undone, but a level of forced monotonous security makes it difficult to enjoy. Perhaps I was not the intended audience. Either way, watching Kathy Bates (Misery, Fried Green Tomatoes), Alfre Woodard (12 Years a Slave, A Series of Unfortunate Events), and Diana Keaton (Something’s Gotta Give, The Family Stone) in old characters brings moderate entertainment in summertime dullness.

Nearly fifty years after they first met at Camp Pinnacle three friends who by now have matured and are somewhat distant are brought together by fate. The first summer camp party which marks their first reunion after a very long time is quite likely to bring joy back to their friendships. The decades count in terms of how they were. Still, some things have remained constant even after all these years. Nora (Keaton) was and still is an introvert to the core, focusing entirely on her career and bailing out on all her plans with them throughout the years. In fact, she’s somewhat of a recluse. Ginny (Bates) has turned into a renowned self-help guru and an author. Even as a little girl, she was wise beyond her years. The last of the trio, Mary (Woodard) is now married, settled, and is a resident in a hospital. Shocking isn’t it? All of them do not appear to reflect what the young girls had set out to be. Well, that’s the beauty of the story. This, however, will be the very camp reunion that transforms them first allowing Mary to only worry about her chair not spinning.

Had there been more agenda to their respective stories than what was too evident, perhaps this would have worked better. One would assume Ginny would be all uptight and snooty because she is the most popular of the lot but no, her main conflict is even much more different than most control freaks she’s a control freak. Unfortunately, this script takes the approach that tossing flashcards into the wind is akin to character development, or gaining a few important life lessons. Mary grimaces even more: her story does even worse whatever we learn about her so-called failure in marriage occurs almost off the record. How can we root for her using a crowbar to escape from the marriage when all it proposes to offer is a little bit of toe-curling discomfort, that is, very little in the way of conflict? The least problem-prone story belongs to Nora, but one can be pretty sure that it is only a matter of time before she learns how to stop working so much. Nora becomes infatuated with Eugene Levy, and the two flirt quite casually with each other during the short run time.

Castille London places these characters into various combinations of situations so that they can go crazy, one such situation is a “lazy river,” which is just white water rafting, a run-in with the former high-school bitches who call themselves the “pretty committee”, archery, zip lining, and horse riding. Surprisingly, Josh Peck’s character Jimmy steals the scene as a camp employee who is a bit of a loser. Now Jimmy makes every possible gaffe there is, but he does show up for every important occasion the girls might think about going to. Peck makes use of everything he has learned on Drake & Josh and has his own distinctive touch which unfortunately is the case with the rest of Summer Camp as well, being the most overshadowing feature of the show. The big friendship fallout takes longer than necessary to take place, and when it does, everybody knows how it will end. And yes, all is well in the end.

On the other hand, Summer Camp, despite the best of intentions and boots self evidently terrible wigs, does not manage to rise up from the mediocrity in which it has buried itself. It is indeed sad to waste so much talent, however, at least Bates does manage to extract some laughable moments from the premise. I still admire the effort Castille London put into trying to create a senior-centered film that retired people would want to go and watch. This is one Summer Camp that does not merit a visit that is at least the length of the holiday.

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