Camp Cool Kids

Cute, but super duper religious. Oops. I wish there was an evangelical warning on movies like this. Caution: May contain religious messages. This stuff matters when raising an 8yo who has no idea there are cults of magic sky man people trying to convert kids. Most of it went over her head, so far.

I liked this when I was younger, but now it's really bad. The entire movie is basically one big ad for Christianity. Also, all the "cool" kids are Christian, this will make anyone who's not feel bad.

Wholesome elementary & teen camp movie. Most camp movies are either extremely crude, sexual, or lame. This one is actually pretty realistic, except for the obviously inadequate counselor-to-camper ratio, which leads to the bullying and pranking. Watched it with my kids. I grew up going to various camps. The counselors are pretty spot on (the over-hyped adventure guy, the laid-back hippie, the cool encouraging head-counselor). Good messages about faith, confidence, being a good brother, and being a good friend. It's nice not having to explain/mute/or clarify anything to my 9 and 6 year old.

The two grandsons of missionary/preacher Michael Gross are sent to a Christian summer camp which the kids who attend call Camp Cool. The older one Logan Shroyer would like to have a better social life. But Connor Rosen the younger is a nerdy, picked upon klutz of a kid who if Shroyer has to keep protecting he won't be making friends, especially of the opposite sex.

But in this particular camp both boys do a lot of growing up and make grandfather Michael Gross very proud.

Christian parameters were at work again. They tried and succeeded to maje this a fun film. But were limited. When the big kids pick on Rosen and his cabin mates, what they did was good and justified. Not so here.. And the chief villain is a bully of a kid who should have been kicked out. But not so here.

This one shouldn't leave church basements.

Meet Spence, a kid who, like many kids his age, struggle with fear and loss. He and his brother have just moved in with their grandfather, along with their recently widowed mother, who send them off to summer camp in hopes that it will build character and help them cope with the loss of their father. Before they go, Spence's grandfather tries to help equip him to face his fears, and that is what this movie is about - facing and overcoming your fears.

Camp Cool Kids could have been another movie to add to the shelf of classic camp movies like Camp Nowhere, and Earnest goes to camp, or Camp Rock. The genre has plenty of family oriented films that address themes of overcoming fear and social inequality; what isn't clear is why somebody felt this movie should be made at all. The tropes are cliche, the acting is a mixture of passable and atrocious, and the representation of camp bears no resemblance to how any legitimate summer camp can be run - as someone who has worked at several summer camps, I urge parents to never send a camper to a camp like the one in this film.

If you can get past the inequality and injustice of the grossly corrupt camp leadership, the absence of supervision and bizarre circumstances, you may be hampered from finishing the film by its slow-moving plot. Thankfully this picks up about midway through. Its soundtrack will likely drive you bonkers when a simplistic fanfare played on a children's keyboard blares over top of the plot's climax. This wouldn't seem so strange if it weren't for the use of legitimate musicians for the few highlight cuts in the film that are actually pretty decent.

Something that may not distract everyone, is the absence of a competent lighting technician on the film. Instead of using something as simple as fill light, it is evident that they were forced to gain up the exposure to compensate for the shooting conditions. This made several scenes flat and washed out, leaving people's features obscured.

As it is intended for a young audience, most children would not be distracted by the technical deficiencies of the film, but when other films address the themes more effectively, it is hard to justify the film to anyone but those looking specifically for the summer camp genre, and who has already seen all of the rest of them.