Gorp

I remember seeing this when it first came out in 1980 when I was around 16. It was torture sitting through the whole movie (even as a teen), and couldn't believe how bad this was and why a studio would waste so much time and money into total garbage as this. The only memories I have of the film are a young Dennis Quaid dressed as a GI driving some tank, exploding poop, and 1st grade humor from beginning to end (a precursor of today's comedy, perhaps?). Just saw it's available on DVD and blu-ray(!) on Amazon. Hard to believe they'd put this on disc when there are so many other films much more worthy. But again, much of today's comedy is pretty much on this level, so I can understand. $$ for the studio.

Picked this up on DVD after seeing an interesting trailer for it on a compilation. I wanted to like this. I really did. It seems like the writers had a lot of ideas and tried to throw them all into the mix. This means that no time is spent with any of the characters really. None of the characters are really likeable or relatable, save for maybe Fran Drescher's character -- but maybe that's just because I LIKE Fran Drescher. But there are all these minor side characters that we'll get a scene or two with and they are gags that ALL fall flat. I'm sure the makers of GORP thought they were loading the movie to the brim with hilarious set-pieces and gags, but none of them really work and the whole thing is an incoherent mess. I don't know if they were just trying to out-ANIMAL HOUSE ANIMAL HOUSE or what, but the writing wasn't strong enough to touch that one. And as others have pointed out, this movie is pretty rapey -- which is kind of in line with 80s teen sex comedies, but this one feels extra gross. And I'm no prude when it comes to this sort of material when taken in context... but some of the content here was stomach-turning and played for laughs that never connected. This gets an extra half star for Fran Drescher.

'80s camp comedy in the vein of Meatballs. I haven't seen Meatballs since I was a kid, but I have to imagine it's quite a bit better than this dud. There are a handful of young actors who would go on to be pretty big (notably Dennis Quaid, Fran Drescher and Rosanna Arquette), but that's about the only reason to watch. It's comprised of a bunch of semi-related sketches. There are several lazy plot lines, only like one of which gets resolved by the end. The main characters, played by Michael Lambeck and Philip Casnoff, are awful, loudmouth, Italian stereotypes, and you just want to smack them in the face in every scene. Really, all the males in the movie are pigs and borderline rapists. There are some very pretty girls in the film (yes, even Fran Drescher was quite hot when she was in her early 20s), but they hardly figure in it. It's all about the boys acting obnoxiously. Of the future stars, Dennis Quaid has the biggest role as a guy obsessed with guns, explosives and fireworks. He's damn annoying, too, although at least he has a bit of charisma, unlike Lambeck and Casnoff.

I never went to camp as a kid, but I still have an affection for a lot of these "summer camp movies" of the late 70's/early 80's. This one, however, is pretty worthless. It's not funny like "Meatballs". It's not politically incorrect like "Little Darlings". It's not nudity and sex-saturated like "Summer Camp" and "The First Turn-On". And unlike "Friday the 13th", "The Burning", and "Sleepaway Camp", it doesn't even have Jason or somebody like that around to kill off these unfunny and irritating characters and put them out of my misery. The only innovative aspect to it is that it's supposedly set at a Jewish summer camp (even though half the cast is obviously not Jewish).

The director Joseph Ruben generally had an impressive exploitation career aside from this, directing everything from "The Pom-Pom Girls" to "The Stepfather", and he later found some mainstream success in the 1990's. This is probably his worst movie though (OK, "Sleeping with the Enemy" might have been worse, but THAT had Julia Roberts in it). As for the cast, this does include early career missteps by such notables by Dennis Quaid, Roseanne Arquette, and Fran Drescher (although the latter's entire career was pretty much a misstep). Quaid, like all the male characters here, is flat-out annoying as a military-obsessed weirdo. Roseanne Arquette is very cute and adorable in her first role, but she has virtually screen time. Drescher meanwhile, while she has never been unattractive and is not nearly as annoying here as she would become some years later, plays the camp nympho who "does" everybody (including a rabbi!) without actually ever taking off her clothes. I would have vastly preferred this role had gone to some anonymous bimbo who was willing to disrobe. And speaking of bimbos, Debi frickin' Richter is also in the cast. She was "Miss California 1975" and had one of the best bodies around back then (see her in the movie "Hot Moves"), but you get to see exactly none of it here.

I almost never COMPLETELY pan movies because I almost never watch movies in the first place if I have any inkling that they're going to COMPLETELY suck. I was fooled by this one though. Don't make the same mistake. See any of the movies I mentioned above (well, except maybe "Sleeping with the Enemy") instead.

I owned and drove the M-5 Stuart tank in the movie GORP. (actually written in all capitol letters). There were lots of interesting stories I recall from the filming but the one that stands out in my mind was when I drove thru the house. (a prop built for the movie)

We were to receive a radio message as when to stop----but it never came ! I could see nothing out the vision port and finally decided to slap on the brakes and stop. Had I continued one more foot I would have crushed one of the stunt people that was to have jumped out the window but didn't. Amazingly the big concern was that I came within inches of one of the very expensive Panavision cameras. The "Movie people" said they could always get another stunt girl but cameras were expensive.

All in all I was treated great by all the "movie people" and I left with many good stories----several best left untold.