Heavyweights
School's out for the summer, and Gerry Garner (Aaron Schwartz, 'The Mighty Ducks') eagerly forecasts weeks of lazing around the house. That is, until his parents (Jeffrey Tambor and Nancy Ringham) inform him that they have signed him up for a holiday at Camp Hope, a "fat camp" that, unbeknownst to Gerry, is about to be bought out by mentally unhinged exercise guru Tony Perkis (Ben Stiller), and turned into a rigorous fitness facility for youths. Tony pumps the fun out of the whole summer, and, with his assistant Lars (Tom Hodges, 'Lucas'), punishes anybody who tries to break his totalitarian grip on the camp. Together with his new friends (including Kenan Thompson and Shaun Weiss) and the camp's original staff (including Tom McGowan and Leah Lail), Gerry must stop Tony's brutal regime, and take back the camp at all costs.
Family films are usually simple, but it's somewhat confusing when said film wants the audience to sympathise with a certain group of people, while piling on the jokes at their expense. 'Heavyweights' squeezes onto the screen from Steven Brill (the writer behind the hit 'Mighty Ducks' franchise), who is calling the shots for the first time with this flaccid comedy. 'Heavyweights' boasts a ho-hum message of learning to accept people for who they are, and not what they may look like. And, this being a Disney film, Brill (co-writing here with Judd Apartow, "The Ben Stiller Show") is given the opportunity to bash the audience over the head with it.
I accept and support the observations that Brill shares with the audience; after all, it could work wonders for the self-esteem of those both old and young who are sensitive about their shape. I'm sure others would too, and with 'Heavyweights', there's a perfect chance to address a problem in our schools, a problem that's becoming too widespread and serious to be swept under the carpet.
But what does Brill do? Takes this potential and goes in completely the wrong direction, slapping a (un)funny face onto a very important issue. When Brill isn't messing around with crude toilet humour and lumbering slapstick, the crux of most of the gags is mainly poking fun at the fat kids (doesn't this happen enough in the classroom?), who are insultingly portrayed as mischievous, food-obsessed youngsters with a deep abhorrence of any kind of physical activity. There's even one riling scene where one of the youngsters is lured into helping Tony out of a sticky situation with the offer of a chocolate, and another where the kids perform a celebratory, almost ritualistic night-time dance around a bonfire as they cover themselves with fatty foods. Then, to counterbalance this, Brill lazily writes off the visiting kids from the other, "non-fat" summer camps as either mean or dumb (whereas the overweight children are the exact opposite if only real life were that simple!). The wit in Brill's script is foul enough to deter most people from enjoying it, but with tough-talking black kids, stiff-upper-lip Brits, burly Germans and homophobic-tinged jokes tacked on, virtually no-one in the audience will be able to escape the offensive, paradoxical inanity of 'Heavyweights'.
The only performer to emerge from this nonsense relatively unscathed is Ben Stiller. A television star (and ex-"Saturday Night Live" cast member) making a shot at a film career, Stiller's performance as the muscular, neurotic Tony Perkis is quite irksome - and, unlike the rest of the film, in a good way. What a shame, then, that Brill didn't seem to realise this, as Perkis's often-uproarious descent into insanity is pushed to the backburner of the film far too many times. Also, Stiller's character dives so far into caricature along the way that the actor can barely keep the film up on his brawny shoulders. Stiller is an able comedian, but this unexpected detour into family film land just doesn't fit, particularly in the wake of his cult generation-X tribute, last February's 'Reality Bites'.
~ 4/10 ~
School's out for the summer, and Gerry Garner (Aaron Schwartz, 'The Mighty Ducks') eagerly forecasts weeks of lazing around the house. That is, until his parents (Jeffrey Tambor and Nancy Ringham) inform him that they have signed him up for a holiday at Camp Hope, a "fat camp" that, unbeknownst to Gerry, is about to be bought out by mentally unhinged exercise guru Tony Perkis (Ben Stiller), and turned into a rigorous fitness facility for youths. Tony pumps the fun out of the whole summer, and, with his assistant Lars (Tom Hodges, 'Lucas'), punishes anybody who tries to break his totalitarian grip on the camp. Together with his new friends (including Kenan Thompson and Shaun Weiss) and the camp's original staff (including Tom McGowan and Leah Lail), Gerry must stop Tony's brutal regime, and take back the camp at all costs.
Family films are usually simple, but it's somewhat confusing when said film wants the audience to sympathise with a certain group of people, while piling on the jokes at their expense. 'Heavyweights' squeezes onto the screen from Steven Brill (the writer behind the hit 'Mighty Ducks' franchise), who is calling the shots for the first time with this flaccid comedy. 'Heavyweights' boasts a ho-hum message of learning to accept people for who they are, and not what they may look like. And, this being a Disney film, Brill (co-writing here with Judd Apartow, "The Ben Stiller Show") is given the opportunity to bash the audience over the head with it.
I accept and support the observations that Brill shares with the audience; after all, it could work wonders for the self-esteem of those both old and young who are sensitive about their shape. I'm sure others would too, and with 'Heavyweights', there's a perfect chance to address a problem in our schools, a problem that's becoming too widespread and serious to be swept under the carpet.
But what does Brill do? Takes this potential and goes in completely the wrong direction, slapping a (un)funny face onto a very important issue. When Brill isn't messing around with crude toilet humour and lumbering slapstick, the crux of most of the gags is mainly poking fun at the fat kids (doesn't this happen enough in the classroom?), who are insultingly portrayed as mischievous, food-obsessed youngsters with a deep abhorrence of any kind of physical activity. There's even one riling scene where one of the youngsters is lured into helping Tony out of a sticky situation with the offer of a chocolate, and another where the kids perform a celebratory, almost ritualistic night-time dance around a bonfire as they cover themselves with fatty foods. Then, to counterbalance this, Brill lazily writes off the visiting kids from the other, "non-fat" summer camps as either mean or dumb (whereas the overweight children are the exact opposite if only real life were that simple!). The wit in Brill's script is foul enough to deter most people from enjoying it, but with tough-talking black kids, stiff-upper-lip Brits, burly Germans and homophobic-tinged jokes tacked on, virtually no-one in the audience will be able to escape the offensive, paradoxical inanity of 'Heavyweights'.
The only performer to emerge from this nonsense relatively unscathed is Ben Stiller. A television star (and ex-"Saturday Night Live" cast member) making a shot at a film career, Stiller's performance as the muscular, neurotic Tony Perkis is quite irksome - and, unlike the rest of the film, in a good way. What a shame, then, that Brill didn't seem to realise this, as Perkis's often-uproarious descent into insanity is pushed to the backburner of the film far too many times. Also, Stiller's character dives so far into caricature along the way that the actor can barely keep the film up on his brawny shoulders. Stiller is an able comedian, but this unexpected detour into family film land just doesn't fit, particularly in the wake of his cult generation-X tribute, last February's 'Reality Bites'.
~ 4/10 ~