SUMMER CAMP
(director/writer: Castille Landon; cinematographer: Karsten Gopinath; editor: Morgan Halsey; music: Tom Howe; cast: Kathy Bates (Ginny), Diane Keaton (Nora), Alfre Woodard (Mary), Dennis Haysbert (Tommy), Eugene Levy (Stevie D), Beverly D’Angelo (Jane), Betsy Sodaro (Vick), Josh Peck (Jimmy), Nicole Richie (Sage), Victoria Rowell (Evelyn), Maria Howell (Judy), Taylor Madeline Hand (Tween Nora), Kensington Tallman (Tween Ginny), Audrianna Lico (Tween Mary); Runtime: 96; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Diane Keaton, Alex Saks, Tyler W. Conney, Dori A. Rath, Stephanie Heaton-Harris; Roadside Attractions; 2024)
“Moronic friendship camp comedy.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
In this moronic friendship camp comedy the blame for its failure falls mostly on the director and writer Castille Landon (“Fear of Rain”/”After Everything”) for not taking any chances and giving us a tasteless “Meatballs” type of lite pic.
The old folks in their sixties Nora (Diane Keating), Ginny (Kathy Bates) and Mary (Alfre Woodard) try to rekindle their child-like possibilities by attending a summer camp in North Carolina for seniors. The girls were fifty years ago summer campers as tweens, but in the ensuing years have lost contact with each other.
It’s up to the film’s narrator, Ginny — a popular self-help person who wrote the book “Get Your Shit Together” — to get her friends back together. The hold-up is that Mary is a workaholic nurse locked into a bad marriage, while the wealthy scientist widow Nora is a no-fun person and a workaholic.
But the ladies get together at Camp Pinnacle for a week-long anniversary celebration. Their snooty rival Jane (Beverly D’Angelo) also attends along with former camp stud Stevie D (Eugene Levy).
Nora and Stevie D do some flirting, while Mary and her old crush Tommy (Dennis Haysbert) also flirt with each other. Meanwhile Ginny runs it back to us that she doesn’t have her shit together.
There’s a camp food fight and white water rafting, as the ladies find by the end of the week their individual problems are somehow magically solved during their camp vacation.
The performers are good, but the story is not doable.
REVIEWED ON 6/6/2024 GRADE: C