Heavy Weights (1995)

Plump kids are lured into joining a posh fat camp with the promise of quick weight loss and good times, only to find that the facility is a woodland hellhole run by a psycho ex-fitness instructor.

Director:

Steven Brill

Writers:

Judd Apatow, Steven Brill

Stars:

Tom McGowan, Aaron Schwartz, Ben Stiller

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Goldman	...	Nicholas
Joseph Wayne Miller	...	Sam
Cody Burger	...	Cody
Allen Covert	...	Kenny
Tim Blake Nelson	...	Roger Johnson
Nancy Ringham	...	Mrs. Maury Garner
Seth St. Laurent	...	Camp MVP Racer
Bobby Fain	...	Camp MVP Pitcher
Tom McGowan	...	Pat Finley
Aaron Schwartz	...	Gerald 'Gerry' Garner
Shaun Weiss	...	Josh Burnbalm
Tom Hodges	...	Lars
Leah Lail	...	Julie
Paul Feig	...	Tim
Kenan Thompson	...	Roy

Storyline

11-year-old Gerald "Gerry" Garner lives in Long Island, New York, and he's overweight. Gerry's parents Maury and Mrs. Garner decide to send Gerry to Camp Hope, a camp for overweight boys. The camp is owned by kindly Harvey Bushkin and his equally kind wife Alice Bushkin. When the Bushkins file for bankruptcy the camp has to be sold, it is bought by a wacko named Tony Perkis. Tony plans to force the campers to lose as much weight as they can, and he also intends to document the marathon shedding of weight and use it for an infomercial for his slenderizing program. In the eyes of the campers, Tony has made Camp Hope a living hell. As Gerry and counselor Pat Finley lead the efforts to overthrow Tony, the campers prepare for the Apache Relay against arch rival Camp MVP. The Apache Relay is a kind of race in which Camp Hope has never defeated Camp MVP before.

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Plot Keywords:

overweight | fat camp | boy | exercise | bankruptcy | 

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Taglines:

They never met a hot dog they didn't like... until now.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Family | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for some rude language and pranks

Details

Official Sites:

official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 February 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Les poids lourds

Filming Locations:

Camp Pinnacle - 4080 Little River Road, Hendersonville, North Carolina, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$17,689,177 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Caravan Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Heavy Weights blu-ray disc, released in 2012, featured over 30 deleted and alternate scenes including: 1. An alternate beginning featuring Gerry and a classmate walking through the halls on the last day of school carrying A/V equipment and talking about their plans for the summer. 2. A scene where Gerry talks to his brother as he enters his house about the visitor. 3. A 2 minute long version of the Camp Hope Promotional video, showing additional shots around the camp and more additional commentary from the Bushkins. 4. An extended version of Roy and Gerry talking on the airplane, including a scene where Roy steals another passenger's food, as well as more dialogue as they exit the airport and talk to the other campers, as well as a segment where Gerry mistakenly boards the Camp MVP bus while being taunted by Chris. 5. Another camper, Alex Hollins, is weighed by Tony during the midpoint of camp, and it is revealed he neither gained nor lost weight. 6. A scene where Gerry, Roy, Josh, and Nicholas are preparing to do their beginning of the year physical with Nurse Julie, and they talk about getting boners. 7. An extended version of the campers swimming in the lake under Lars's supervision--this includes a scene where Gerry asks Lars about the Blob, a scene where Nurse Julie talks to Pat, who is scrubbing graffiti from Camp MVP, and the campers see the dismantled go-karts and are told by Tony it would be replaced by an obstacle course called PUOC. 8. A scene in the Chipmunk bunk where the campers talk about the sit-up game (done later in the movie to foil Tony during the hike) and experiment it on Lars, who, when doing the sit-up, pushes Josh across the cabin. 9. Two versions of the Camp Hope campfire, both of wish begin with Pat and Tim singing about Camp Hope under Tony's leadership. Tony and Lars interrupt the campfire with Tony discussing sacrifice, obesity, and smuggling illegal candy into the camp. Tony urges the campers to throw all candy into the fire, and when nobody volunteers, he then raids the cabins to search for candy. 10. An extended version of the bunk raid scene where Tony asks a camper, Philip, to unzip his pants where it is revealed that he had a 3 Musketeers in his pants. This version also includes the infamous Peter Fitz joke given by Josh. 11. Additional dialogue about Josh's whereabouts from the lunch line. This scene also shows the cafeteria workers warning Pat for giving the campers large servings. 12. An extended scene of Tim talking to Tony before the Camp MVP baseball game. Pat then approaches Tony, asking him to be reassigned to the Chipmunk bunk, but Tony tells Pat that he should stay away from the campers given his weight. 13. An extended scene of Gerry crying at the end of the Camp MVP baseball game--he ends up running away from the game and sees Lars harpooning the Blob. 14. An alternate scene of Gerry writing a letter, but this one was to his parents and full of sarcastic comments, such as saying how he sees the nurse all the time, how he has made friends playing baseball with the Camp MVP kids, and how he has enjoyed the Blob. This scene also contains an alternate version of Tony on a bed of nails. 15. A scene where the campers perform a play featuring Roy as a drunken bum getting a fish bone and the other characters playing alley cats. 16. Two versions of a scene where Nurse Julie visits Tony, and she snoops around his cabin and criticizes his weight loss program and personality. Tony tells her that "pain is the ultimate tool for shifting a belief," citing various motivational speakers. 17. An extended version of the campers searching Tony's cabin and an extended version of Tony running and working out around camp. The campers learn Tony is interested in the money from the infomercial, and Nicholas smuggles ginseng, rice cakes, and bulking agent from the cabin. 18. An extended version of the 20-mile hike, featuring junior counselor Dawson thanking Gerry for not ratting him out for smuggling food, an alternate version of the Icarus/Sisyphus story, a scene where they walk over an underground ant farm, as well as an extended version of Tony working out on the top of a mountain. 19. A scene where Tony, after being imprisoned, talk some wisdom to Sam, who was standing guard, and encourages him to let him out. This version also features an alternate motivation parody tape featuring Roy and Josh and not Gerry. 20. A scene where Pat talks code to Gerry to meet in the dining hall during Parents Day and he introduces himself to Gerry's parents. Gerry's parents also ask why they had not met Tony. 21. An extended version of the Camp Hope or Camp Hell video, which includes more dialogue between Tony and Josh where Tony coaches Josh to say positive things about the camp. Josh criticizes the food, leading to alternate takes, and when he tells Tony he's been at the camp longer, Tony makes him do 120 push-ups. The film also shows Tony prepping the campers for a small 30 minute run where he taunts the campers and tells them to run with their heels up to their butt. It also has extended footage of Josh and Roy eating a rat and ends with Gerry introducing Nurse Julie, who gives her disapproval of Tony's program. 22. An extended version of Tony invading Parents Day. After he loses his balance in the auditorium, he reaches for a bow and arrow, aims it at Mr. Garner, and talks about how his own father never showed him any affection. 23. Extra footage of Camp Hope after Pat takes over, including his stealing Camp MVP's boat motor to use in the go-kart for the Apache Relay and a scene where he has sex with Nurse Julie on a boat. 24. The Apache Relay scene is extended to show many more events including Pat and Lars giving the campers a motivational talk and Gerry thinking Camp Hope would get creamed. It is revealed that MVP picked 15 events and Hope picked 15 and each event had a time limit such that the participant would automatically advance if time ran out. Other events featured in the deleted scenes but not in the film itself were an obstacle course, a t-ball derby, a canoe race, a belly flop contest, an A/V obstacle course involving the camper running a projector through a simulated hallway and setting up the film, Tim (in a Southern accent) reading Shakespeare passages in the Hall of Intelligence, and a segment where the Hall of Intelligence participant had to skip to the next event (the Grand Prix). Also, at the end of the film, Chris from Camp MVP files a formal protest because he realized Pat stole his boat motor to use as the Camp Hope go kart motor. 25. Alternate versions of Tony selling items door-to-door including mail-order meat, Chinese herbal healing remedies, and South American massage balls.

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Goofs

The bug zapper in Tony's cage drastically alters positions as scenes change.

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Quotes

[Tony chases Josh down a hill and Josh gets a leg cramp]
Tony Perkis: Congratulations, you've just joined the 76% of Americans who forget to stretch before doing any physical activity.

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Connections

Featured in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #18.10 (2010)

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Soundtracks

SET THE WHEELS IN MOTION
Written by Barbara Keith
Performed by The Coyotes
Courtesy of Mohawk Trail Music

User Reviews

An Enjoyable Camp Flick!

Heavyweights was a movie that will not teach you any lessons. All this movie will teach you to do is have the time of your life whenever you are released from school for the summer. However, I still think that the movie Camp Nowhere was a little bit better though.

11 year old fat kid Jerry (Aaron Schwartz) finds out that his parents are sending him to Camp Hope for the summer. He gets excited by the idea at first until he discovers that it's a camp for fat children. After he is forced to go, he arrives and meets a ton of cool kids even though their fat also. He immediatley fits in the group and everyone is happy until the owners of the camp discover that they're being replaced by the psycho health nut Tony Perkis (Ben Stiller). Tony puts the boys through nothing but a living nightmare because he makes them work out 24/7 and doesn't let them eat anything good or let them have any fun. So the boys put their heads together and work on a plan to take down Tony and take the camp over themselves to have some FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I must say that this was one of Ben Stiller's very first movies and he did such a hilarious job with the character.

Heavyweights is a very entertaining family comedy that will leave you laughing even while the credits are rolling.