Family Camp

I have to start my review out by saying that, as someone that has enjoyed The Skit Guys for years, I'm bound to be biased about their first movie. The teaser for this movie played for multiple years on their show, and I wondered how much longer it was going to take.

First off, Tommy and Eddie (the comedians, not the characters) mesh really well together. You know they've been friends in real life because you can sense it in their videos. They're genuine friends for life. Now, imagine one of the characters they're playing is not in the habit of caring much about Church, and the other character is ridiculously obnoxious. Want to see a movie about those two characters that's almost two hours long? Even if in the end they learn to be better people?

Ehhhhhh. Not really.

Neither of the characters they play are someone you want to spend time with, and Leigh-Allyn Baker's character is quite over the top, and annoying.

In the beginning of the movie, there's almost a vibe that's making fun of religion, and the people that partake of Church. It's not heavy handed, but it feels kind of like a little kid giving a middle finger.

It really hurts me to type these words, and maybe you just have to look at the big picture. It's wonderful that Eddie and Tommy (the comedians, not the characters) made a movie. It's great to see them on the big screen.

The characters, the lack of really funny bits, the length, and the up and down heavy parts just didn't mesh for me.

I'm proud of them for being able to make a movie, and all the work that it entailed to make this. I'll give them that.

But as a movie, I can't really recommend it for anybody. I know some people are already giving it a 10 out of 10, and I'm glad they enjoyed it.

I'm not hating on this movie, I'm just saying that by the next movie they (hopefully) make, I hope it's more enjoyable to me.

I saw this in the theater with my 5 year old. It was too silly for me and not funny enough for him. Probably best for pre-teens. Still, the jokes didn't land. I imagined them performed by A-list comic actors and could see how the writers might have thought the script would've been funny but there were very few laughs. Also there were times when they tried to be too emotionally dramatic. The movie is set up to imply that you're about to see a slapstick comedy but then they try to get a little too deep. It's awkward when you're constantly late to realizing that what you're watching is suddenly supposed to be serious rather than funny. The balance just isn't there. And is it supposed to be preachy? I would have to assume so based on the fact that the movie wouldn't have to change at all if it omitted the religious aspect. Classic straight man/comic foil structure done much more poorly than most of the similar low budget B movies of the 90s.

Save your money and watch something else. There's plenty of nicer christian movies with better acting in them. The movie stars off okay, even a little funny perhaps, but then it drags on and everything just feels forced. Don't bother.

The storyline is an easy one to anticipate because there's a whole bunch of overused tropes in the plot. I wouldn't call it offensive, but it's far off the path from being impressive.

Production quality is good, but that's really the only aspect of this film that allowed me to continue.

With an attempt to merge silly jokes and a little bit of inspiration, it's tough to know if the film is mocking the Christian values the plot is based on, or supporting them. That doesn't matter all that much except besides being a goofy family comedy, it's hard to know if the writer's missed the mark on the comedy because maybe they were focused on something deeper, but....probably not.

It wasn't funny, and wasn't inspiring and some scenes were almost tough to sit through.

This film was worthy of a script written for Chevy Chase and his family for National Lampoon's vacation movie. Unfortunately, this one is pretty much in the same vein, so it has that been there and done that feeling. It is squeaky clean, and fit for family viewing, but once again, there will not be too many laughs along the way. The script is weak and so are the jokes. Most of the movie is predictable and is overly PC. An attempt at copying the successful Saturday night formula falls a bit short, but is harmless enough viewing if you have nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. I saw the film for free with my pass.