Summer Camp

For a movie with such a talented, capable cast, with several Oscar/Emmy winners, this is an embarrassment. I don't remember even smiling during the entire film, especially as I sat fuming about how much I'd spent to waste my time. The price of admission was all that kept me from walking out, unlike several others sitting in front of me who had more sense. It was like someone said "Who wants to make a few bucks? It won't require much effort." It's not even worth wasting your time if someone picks it up for streaming. This could easily have been a hilarious, poignant movie but falls absolutely flat. Not even sure why I gave it 2 stars.

Summer Camp (2024) is the latest dreadful film from Diane Keaton. This one is a total mess.

Yet another one of the old lady reunions, this time it's a reunion at a summer camp where, 60 years before, three gawky girls became friends. Wow. Over the next century they've grown apart. Wow. They all come back to camp and become friends again. Wow.

Keaton plays a PhD head of a research company ... but of course she's still the usual Keaton ditz. Kathy Bates plays a tough self-help guru with no private life, and Alfre Woodard plays a head nurse in a dead marriage. None of this really matters because at camp they flirt with the boys they knew 60 years before and have food fights and obsess about what they're going to wear. Written and directed by a 30-year-old female, these characters are totally stupid and unbelievable.

Bates and Woodard try but the material stinks. Keaton is especially irritating with all the same schtick from her Annie Hall days. There's also Eugene Levy and Dennis Haysbert and Beverly D'Angelo. By the book and boring.

Suffice to say, after forcing myself to watch it to the end, in case there should suddenly be any redeeming qualities... the first thing I did was warn my bestie NOT to bother watching it!

I really expect so much more from Kathy Bates. Eugene Levy - what did you do to your face, man?! Have you not SEEN Mickey Rourke?! Best actress in this? Nicole Ritchie! She was great. Best actor - that guy from the old Allstate commercials with the sexy voice! He was in some TV series, too - played the president in one, can't think of his name right now, but he's a tall, good-lookin rascal!

Still, don't waste your time...

I wanted to love this movie. With a cast like Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard you would expect this film to be damn near perfect or at least funny. But I am not going to blame the cast for this epic failure. It comes down to the writing. What is going on with writing scripts for actors of this generation of late, take for example the latest Book Club, which was another failure. Writers need to get their act together and start delivering decent scripts that do justice for these amazing actors. This really is not good enough. Like I said in the title, the best bits were the bloopers during the end credits. Such a disappointment.

Greetings again from the darkness. There is always space (and a need) for silly or mindless entertainment. But even that genre requires some skill and refinement, so as not to stoop to imbecilic. The Farelly brothers, the Monty Python troupe, Abrams & Zucker, and Mel Brooks all understood this when crafting a movie. Writer-director Castille Landon has been making movies for a while now, and it appears this concept has eluded her despite assembling her most well-known cast.

Camp Pinnacle was established in 1928 (according to the sign) and there is a group of young girls we see maneuvering through a traumatic first-time event for one of them who is not quite 11 years old. An older girl offers some very personal assistance, and a lifelong friendship begins among the three outcasts in Sassafras Cabin. Year after year, the girls return for a few weeks of camp shenanigans and bonding. We then jump ahead for the Camp's 50-year reunion (we assume this is 50-year reunion of the year these girls started attending and not 50 years for the camp itself, which would have put this at 1978).

Self-help guru (we don't use that word) Ginny Moon (Kathy Bates, Oscar winner MISERY, 1990) is the driving force behind organizing the reunion, and especially in getting her grown-up friends to attend. Mary (multi-Emmy winning Alfre Woodard) is a nurse, while Nora (Diane Keaton, Oscar winner ANNIE HALL, 1977) is a workaholic business owner. Personalities are quickly established. Ginny Moon has never married and rides around in a pink tour bus with her catchphrase, "Get Your S*** Together" plastered on the side. Mary is a talented nurse who is questioning her long marriage to her self-centered husband (Tom Wright). Nora is the type who uses her work as an excuse to avoid living a life.

Supporting roles are covered by Beverly D'Angelo, Betsy Sodaro, Josh Peck, Eugene Levy (as a love interest!), Dennis Haysbert, and Nicole Richie. There is really no reason to go in depth into what happens in this film. It seems obvious the filmmaker is hoping to capitalize on the success of recent films like BOOK CLUB and 80 FOR BRADY. The potential was certainly here, but the final product is simply insulting, belittling, and demeaning to women. Food fights and pillow fights may be camp staples, but inane dialogue and unbelievable situations and reactions make for painful viewing. Ms. Keaton, in particular, seems to mail in her performance with an overdose of her patented head shakes and sighs (and wardrobe). Ms. Bates and Ms. Woodard outclass her in every scene, with Ms. Woodard delivering the film's single best scene in her confrontation with her husband.

For years we have heard that the acting opportunities for older women are limited, and clearly there is an audience for stories about mature women. What's equally obvious is that these women deserve significantly better stories and better roles. Exploring the concept of finding one's self in life's later stages is a topic worth pursuing ... it's simply a concept that deserves better than this.

Opening May 31, 2024.