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:

fat camp | summer camp | mother son relationship | father son relationship | videotape | 

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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:

Heavyweights

Filming Locations:

Asheville, North Carolina, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$17,689,177

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

While Ben Stiller played the parts of both Tony Perkins and his father, the Bushkins were played by his actual parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.

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Goofs

Tony offers Nicholas a "chocolate kiss" to lure him closer to his cage. The boys had only just been through their all-night food and candy orgy. It's highly unlikely that Nicholas would be tempted by a little piece of chocolate, given he's been able to have whatever he wants to eat for days now.

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Quotes

Tony Perkis: [first time seen] Can you smell it? There's a life force in here tonight. Do you feel it? Hmm? I look around this room, and I see potential.
[to Gerry]
Tony Perkis: I see the future chairman of a Fortune 500 company.
[to Roy]
Tony Perkis: I see a famous rap artist.
[to Nicholas]
Tony Perkis: I see the president of the United States of America.
Gerry: He's from England!

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Connections

Referenced in Starsky & Hutch (2004)

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Soundtracks

I WANT CANDY
Written by Bert Berns, Bob Feldman, Richard Gottehrer, and Jerry Goldstein (as Gerry Goldstein)
Performed by Bow Wow Wow
Courtesy of BMG (UK) Limited

User Reviews

A comedy precursor for the next decade

Despite being a child of the '90s, somehow I missed "Heavyweights" entirely. Considering the similarities it shares with "The Mighty Ducks" movies such as actors Kenan Thompson and Shaun Weiss, I'm almost embarrassed. Regardless, there's still plenty to appreciate about "Heavyweights" 15 years later in spite of its silliness -- and it's more than just a joke about the ineptitude of the Buffalo Bills.

For one, it was written and directed by Judd Apatow, who has a majority hold on the comedies of the last decade and for two, it marks one of Ben Stiller's first prominent roles as fitness wack-job Tony Perkis, who takes over a once-adored fat camp and harasses the kids.

Good thing "Heavyweights" was made then or it may never have surfaced, seeing as the age of political correctness and weight sensitivity has befallen us. The film is not cruel at all in its depiction of overweight campers, so parents surfing around for slightly older kid films and coming across this one shouldn't be concerned about that factor, but there's no doubt that such a concept would be hard to get off the ground, especially at Disney, in the 21st Century.

Co-written by Apatow and Steven Brill, writer of "The Mighty Ducks" films, it was as if the two conspired to plant a seed for a type of humor that kids my age at the time would come to identify as their own as they entered the PG-13 and R-rated age. Tony Perkis, for example, is the spitting character image of Stiller's White Goodman from "Dodgeball" and yet to me he is just as amusing doing his patented whispery intimidating voice now despite my countless repeated viewings of "Dodgeball."

There's also a classic overnight camp comedy sense of humor in "Heavyweights" like the kids getting beat in sports by their rival camp, an awkward dance mixer with a normal girls camp and when the kids unload the candy stashes they've snuck in camp into secret compartments -- as well as the run-of-the-mill fart jokes. Characters such as Tony's hysterical right-hand European man Lars, however, were way ahead of their time.

"Heavyweights" is pretty immature and excludes girls (because fat girls would be too taboo for the '90s). Its typical camp movie plot as well as its "overthrow-the-bad-guy" story arch - - which ruled the '90s -- come off as stale. But ignore those distractions and "Heavyweights" is a funny, quotable movie with some classic scenes, which is all a kid (or someone trying to go back and grab some nostalgia) really wants.

~Steven C

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