Wet Hot American Summer (2001)

Set on the last day of camp, in the hot summer of 1981, a group of counselors try to complete their unfinished business before the day ends.

Director:

David Wain

Writers:

Michael Showalter, David Wain

Stars:

Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Michael Showalter

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Janeane Garofalo	...	Beth
David Hyde Pierce	...	Henry
Michael Showalter	...	Coop
Marguerite Moreau	...	Katie
Paul Rudd	...	Andy
Zak Orth	...	J.J.
Christopher Meloni	...	Gene
A.D. Miles	...	Gary
Molly Shannon	...	Gail
Gideon Jacobs	...	Aaron
Ken Marino	...	Victor
Joe Lo Truglio	...	Neil
Michael Ian Black	...	McKinley
Liam Norton	...	Arty
Amy Poehler	...	Susie

Storyline

The setting is Camp Firewood, the year 1981. It's the last day before everyone goes back to the real world, but there's still a summer's worth of unfinished business to resolve. At the center of the action is camp director Beth, who struggles to keep order while she falls in love with the local astrophysics professor. He is busy trying to save the camp from a deadly piece of NASA's Skylab which is hurtling toward earth. All that, plus: a dangerous waterfall rescue, love triangles, misfits, cool kids, and talking vegetable cans. The questions will all be resolved, of course, at the big talent show at the end of the day.

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Plot Keywords:

year 1981 | tube sock | car crashing into a tree | sex scene | rescue | 

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Taglines:

It was the last day of summer camp. It was the first day of the third week in August.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexual content, language and a drug sequence

Details

Official Sites:

Eureka Pictures

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 April 2002 (Czech Republic)

Also Known As:

Wet Hot American Summer

Filming Locations:

Honesdale, Pennsylvania, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$17,481, 29 July 2001

Gross USA:

$292,102

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eureka Pictures, North Coast Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although called "Wet Hot", the credits thank the crew for surviving a cold, wet Pennsylvania spring. You can also see the actors' and actresses' breaths at points during the movie.

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Goofs

The elastic on the men's Fruit of the Loom Briefs had the brand name printed on them which did not happen until years later. At that time the film was set, it was just the blue and yellow stripes.

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Quotes

Gene: Now finish up them taters; I'm gonna go fondle my sweaters.
Gary: Come on - what?
Gene: Finish up the taters.
Gary: And then what did you say?
Gene: And then what did I say?
Gary: You said you were going to... fondle your sweaters.
Gene: Ah, uh - no I didn't. I said... fondue the cheddar... I was thinking about making fondue with cheddar cheese for dinner tonight.
Gary: No, Gene, that is *not* what you said.
Gene: That *is* what I said. Fondue cheddar.

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Crazy Credits

After the credits is a "10 years later" epilogue.

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Alternate Versions

DVD contains several deleted scenes.

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Connections

References Trainspotting (1996)

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Soundtracks

When It's Over
Written by Paul Dean and Mike Reno (as Joseph Reno)
Performed by Loverboy
Courtesy of Columbia Records and Sony Music Entertainment (Canada) Inc.
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

Overall, pretty terrible, but gets a couple chuckles from sheer weirdness

I don't fully know how I feel about this movie. It's incredibly bizarre and strange, but it balances the normal scenes and the bizarre and weird scenes pretty terribly. For maybe the first half of the movie it feels like a normal, silly R-rated comedy (for the most part). Then, kind of out of nowhere, it slams all the weirdness and utterly ridiculous stuff into your face. It's rather jarring and really confusing. That being said, some scenes were just so strange that I couldn't help but laugh at them. So, we have this movie that is overall fairly bad, but it does make you laugh on occasion. I can't really call it a great movie, as I feel like every laugh the movie gets was gotten by the filmmakers just throwing silly stuff on the screen. That's not the hardest thing to do. But it it most certainly is a watchable film. It gets a few laughs. Maybe, possibly worth a watch, but you can probably do much better.