Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Canada's "Camp North Star" is the setting for summer fun. In the opening scene, groggy camp counselor Bill Murray (as Tripper Harrison) doesn't seem up for the job. He perks up fast when the new crop of school-aged kids arrive. The main co-star is sensitive Chris Makepeace (as Rudy Gerner), a lonely boy who may bond with Mr. Murray before the closing credits. Otherwise, we focus on "the CITs" (counselors-in-training). A lot of youthful co-ed skin (but no nudity) mixed with sex talk (but no action) made "Meatballs" a safe hit at the box office. Later camp films lowered the bar.***** Meatballs (6/28/79) Ivan Reitman ~ Bill Murray, Chris Makepeace, Kate Lynch, Russ Banham

A year after John Belushi hit it big in the movies with Animal House, fellow SNLer Bill Murray would do the same with Meatballs with help from director Ivan Reitman-who was a producer on AH-and that film's co-writer Harold Ramis. Also from the Belushi picture was music composer Elmer Bernstein who would provide scores for other Reitman/Murray/Ramis movies like Stripes and Ghostbusters. Anyway, Murray provides great laughs with his charismatic wild-man persona as a camp counselor who helps a shy young boy (Chris Makepace) get out of his shell and a fellow female staff member (Kate Lynch) fall for him. Another staff member is Morty (Harvey Atkin) who falls victim to many of Bill's practical jokes. Then there's Spaz (Jack Blum, brother of the movie's co-writer Len Blum) and his buddy Fink (Keith Knight) who provide a touchingly humorous nerd-&-tubby vibe. There's also some sex appeal in the person of Wendy (Cindy Girling) and a girl-next-door one in A.L. (Kristine DeBell though she's probably best known for being Alice in the X-rated version of Alice in Wonderland). In other words, there's a nice mix of one-liners, slapstick, and sentimentality though it doesn't go overboard on the latter. Not everything works but Meatballs is still-all these years later-a good comedy worth watching especially for the first starring role of Bill Murray. Oh, how I loved hearing "Spaz! Spaz! "Spaz!" and "It just doesn't matter!" once again...

Wildman head counselor Tripper Harrison (Bill Murray in peak nutty form in his first lead role) presides over the various wacky hi-jinks at North Star summercamp. Tripper befriends sad and lonely misfit kid Rudy (a nice and affecting performance by Chris Makepeace). Director Ivan Reitman relates the amusingly off the wall comic vignettes at a ceaseless snappy pace and maintains an engagingly good-natured tone throughout. This film astutely nails the breezy'n'breezy essence of summer: making friends, first love, pulling pranks, competing in sports with a rival camp, campfire singalongs, and, of course, the inevitable scary urban legend about the escaped psycho killer with the hook hand. The sense of gleefully raucous fun this picture generates is positively infectious. Moreover, the humor is always goofy and occasionally gross, but never too nasty or mean-spirited. Best of all, there's a winning surplus of pure heart to go along with said humor (the warm relationship between Tripper and Rudy in particular is genuinely touching). The cast have an obvious ball playing their likable characters: Murray's gloriously gonzo and galvanizing presence keeps things constantly humming (his crazy PA announcements are absolutely sidesplitting), plus there are sound contributions from Harvey Atkin as hapless camp owner Morty, Kate Lynch as Tripper's sassy old flame Roxanne, Russ Banham as the amiable Crockett, Kristine DeBell as the sweet, foxy A.L., Sarah Torgov as the feisty Candace, Jack Blum as klutzy bespectacled nerd Spaz, Keith Knight as tubby slob Larry Finkelstein, Cindy Girling as the fetching Wendy, and Matt Craven as the hip Hardware. Donald Wilder's cinematography gives the movie an attractive sunny look and makes nifty use of wipes. Elmer Bernstein's lively and melodic score likewise does the trick. A real riot.

I knew little about Meatballs except that it had Bill Murray in it, Ivar Reitman was directing, Wikipedia said that it was considered "raunchy in its day", so overall I was expecting a wacky gross-out comedy on camp life with plenty of hijinks and wet T-shirts. Instead it is a surprisingly muted, realistic and sentimental ode to the humble summer camp. In a subplot, Murray acts as an elder brother-type role model to a troubled camper, which in turn helps him to ground himself. This works surprisingly well, is less eerie than it might sound, and seems strangely antiquated by today's standards, where movies have become much more edgy and cynical. Although there is plenty of slapstick comedy, the pace is relatively slow.What really struck me was how natural the actors in this film are. They look like real counselors and campers. Especially Roxanne, the movie's sweetheart, is pretty but not catwalk material. That was a pretty audacious choice on the part of the film makers.Overall: nice film. Could have done with a few more jokes, though.