User reviews

When the strict camp director of Camp Bleeding Dove (Peter Stormare of "Fargo" and "the Big Lebowski") gets electrocuted, the group of freshman camp counselors (including Jamie King of "Sin City", in her first role, and yes she gets topless) have to run the summer camp by themselves. Because of their personalities, they start to clash with each other. The Movie was funny in parts, but I think I was expecting more from Daniel Waters, I mean the cat gave us Heathers, Ford Fairlane, and Demolition Man. Not to say this is a bad movie in the least, just that it's sadly mediocre in every way.

My Grade: C+

Eye Candy: Jamie King goes topless

And I mean that in a bad way. "Happy Campers" is not just another summer camp flick which is about sex and s'mores and sex and food fights and sex and water sports and sex and counselor pranks and sex and Kumbaya, etc. No, this loser is about sex and sex and sex and sex and sex and sex and sex. Not creative and fresh sex stuff but stupid, infantile, and boring sex stuff. "Happy Campers" is a flick only a sexually preoccupied juvenile could love. Another blotch on Swain's resume, files this one under "D" for dog. (D+)

Daniel Waters guaranteed himself a place in cinema history with his debut screenplay "Heathers", one of the sharpest, blackest and downright original films of the second half of the eighties. Yet in the meantime he has seemingly enjoyed his well-paid limbo in hackville, churning out scripts ranging from the what-was-he-thinking (yes "Hudson Hawk", we mean you) to the sublime (the second and best installment in the Batman franchise). Thus the phrase "Daniel Waters' directorial debut" immediately raises expectations, will it be a twisted and perverted return to his "Heathers" world view? The answer is yes.

The premise is as warped as one would expect - a black, and I mean black, satire on the banal summer camp genre, using it as a metaphor for the point in our lives when, as teenagers, our childhood innocence gives way to the disappointments and tribulation of adulthood. If this sounds pretentious that's because it is, wildly so, but one has to give Waters some credit for not simply churning out a "Heathers" clone ("Jawbreaker" did us that favor). And while the characters are nowhere near as nihilistic as in that film (more so they are skewered stereotypes), the film does, particularly in the second half, move into bleak territory. The film's primary saving grace, besides a typically biting screenplay from Waters, is his outstanding casting, notably Stormare, Swain, Renfro and, particularly, the underused Bergl, all of whom deliver fine performances but struggle with the main flaw in Waters' script, none of the characters are very likable. It's not a great film, in fact it is a very flawed one, but it is never anything but ambitious and frequently very funny. It also makes an interesting double bill with "Wet Hot American Summer", another off-the-wall satire on the genre released the same year. Let's just hope we don't have to wait so long for his next film.

Maybe I missed something that the other reviewers saw. All I saw was this: unbelievable, stereotypical characters. There was nothing really that complex about Brad Renfro's character or Dominique Swain's character or James King's character. This movie was just horrible. Brad Renfro just didn't carry off the "hot stud camp counselor" and Swain never gave me any indication that she had any depth. Even the campers were boring and the camp pranks even more dull. Don't rent this movie. It's not even worth laughing at.

Brad Renfro is one of the most misused actors in Hollywood. Here, he is cast in a summer camp movie that refuses to show off his, or any of the other actors, talents. Instead, the characters are written as stereotypical and, worse, banal. The occasion moments of comedy are quite stimulating at times and might please younger teen audience members. But those who want real laughs should stay home and rent "Porky's."

Given the long and storied history of camp movies, who would have thought that this one would be anything more than a teen sex-comedy romp? Yet Daniel Waters lives up to the more accomplished entries on his resume (Heathers, Batman Returns) and delivers something else. What else? Happy Campers uses the camp setting and its inevitable sex as the staging ground for its characters to regress into a primal state of sexual savagery. Waters uses the sex to make an existential statement about humanity. In this way, the movie resembles Kubrick's Fear and Desire, right down to the fact that the characters are not actually characters but empty psychological archetypes.

I picked up this movie solely because Dominique Swain is in it. But the movie was a major disappointment on many accounts. Especially on the comedy side. I didn't laugh a single time throughout the entire movie.

And you would think that with Dominique Swain, Justin Long and Peter Stomare that you would be in for at least a somewhat enjoyable movie. But alas, no, "Happy Campers" didn't deliver where it counted.

The story is about a summer camp where the camp director is injured in a lightning accident, and it is up to the college student camp counselors to step up and run the camp in the directors absence.

For a comedy "Happy Campers" was disturbingly devoid of laughs and funny situations. And it was as if director Daniel Waters just wanted to focus on the sexual situations that he may or may not have experienced in camp himself. As such, the movie sank from mediocrity right into downright ludicrous stupidity.

This movie isn't worth the time or effort, and there are far better movies available in this late teen/early adult comedy genre.

"Happy Campers" is a useful movie only because it prompts basic questions about its writer/director Daniel Waters and his breakout film "Heathers" (which he wrote but did not direct). Did he use up all his good stuff writing the Heathers screenplay and have nothing left for "Happy Campers? Did he lose most of his active brain cells shortly after making Heathers (an event that would account for both the 'Hudson Hawk"and the "Happy Campers" screenplays)? Was Heathers just a happy accident? Or is Heathers so open-ended that critics and viewers attributed significance to a very ordinary movie. All these explanations are possible either jointly or collectively.

For "Happy Campers" Waters tries to weave "Breakfast Club" themes into a "Meatballs" story. So you get tedious voice-over suggestions about how the artificial bounds of the high school hierarchy can sometimes be bridged by spending a couple months together as summer camp counselors. Like each detention server in "The Breakfast Club", each counselor is an easily identified stereotype. And over the course of camp each is supposed to go through changes, at least that appears to be the premise.

Unfortunately the script has difficulty communicating this process despite an unprecedented amount of voice-over narration. All seven of the main characters get some voice-over time, a device that is very confusing and pretty much destroys any possibility of the movie having any unified theme.

Dominique Swain has the biggest part as Wendy, the terminally peppy cheerleader type (appropriately pictured in a cheerleader outfit on the DVD). Swain is the only good thing about the movie, it is an over-the-top caricature that plays to her acting strengths. This is the type of role Swain should be playing, one that requires self-parody rather than subtlety. She also benefits by relative comparsion to James (Jaime) King-whose acting skills are in the Kathy Ireland mold, as well as from being paired with the physically miscast Brad Renfro-who manages to drain all energy from each scene in which he appears. The other four counselors have a fair about of screen time and some lame misadventures but nothing particularly memorable.

Some effort is made to introduce the actual summer campers to the story but none of it even remotely works. "Meatballs" was able to get away with shallow character development because it was basically just a Bill Murray vehicle. Although Swain might have been able to carry the whole thing like Murray the script does not allow this and things never really get going in "Happy Campers".

Waters apparently believed that audiences would react positively to a movie where 90% of the comedy involved sexual references that most preteens would consider moronic. Hey Daniel, did you pay someone to write that Heathers" screenplay for you.

Well, I was quite surprised when I saw that this little-known (or less than that) film only recieved a rating of 5 out of 10. The minute this movie was over, I hopped onto Amazon.com and ordered a copy for myself. I didn't even return it to the video store until my own copy came. I have never been this pleasantly surprised with a movie. The film starts off seemingly as just another teen movie where stereotypes and cliches abound. The humor even seems a little slapstick at first, not really my kind of humor. But once this film gets going, it doesn't let up. It takes you in and makes you look at things differently. Some of the quotes from this movie are the most touching and profound lines I've heard from a film since "The Breakfast Club" (still, my all-time FAVORITE movie), such as "When it comes to the ritual of growing up, sometimes you smile because you're happy. Other times, you smile just because you've survived. But hey, a smile is a smile." Those lines show that this movie goes deeper than just another teen flick and in the end, you have a feel-good feeling that stays with you for a while. I think that those of you who have viewed this film and gave it less than a seven need to view it again. But this time, look closer. . .let it take you in the way a good film should.

Daniel Waters, the writer of Heathers, takes a turn in writing and directing his latest feature: Happy Campers. If Meatballs could be remade with more, younger, and edgier camp counselors, than this would be the film. Some parallels can be made between this film and Heathers, showing that Waters knew which elements worked: both have an overweight child who is picked on, then is later highly respected; both have a song/jingle that is overplayed, which drive a main character crazy; and both try to invent new words and catch phrases. Happy Campers also looks to be inspired from various aspects of Shakespeare. Someone says, "...doth protest too much," straight out of Hamlet; The term "fairies" is thrown around and the head counselor's name is Oberon, who was king of the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream; and they toy with the idea of death by poisoning, which is a common end to many Shakespearean tragedies. I greatly enjoyed this film - It took chances, and fought to stay out of the "cleaned-up summer camping movie" category. There's enough shock value here to leave a mark in your moral judgment!

"Welcome to 'Camp Bleeding Dove', where seven hot-blooded college freshmen are left in charge of dozens of high-maintenance campers. When 'Chief Oberon' (Peter Stormare), the camp's only responsible adult, is hit by lightning, it's a hormonal free-for-all as the counselors 'Wichita' (Brad Renfro) and 'Wendy' (Dominique Swain) score with each other while trying to control the underage masses. At the end of 40 days, everyone is guaranteed memories that will last a lifetime!" promises the DVD sleeve description. Debuting director Daniel Waters' teen sex comedy is alternately appealing, embarrassing, teasing, and stupid. Unfortunately, emphasis is firmly on the latter.

** Happy Campers (1/21/01) Daniel Waters ~ Brad Renfro, Dominique Swain, Jaime King, Justin Long

Although I must admit, Happy Campers is not exactly an Oscar-winning title, nor is it as a movie. However, is this movie really aimed toward the serious 30s and 40s? I don't think so! The movie overall was very typical... but had a lot of crude, rude, and cute humor. Teens would absolutely love it.. including, the few girls and guys who are still cool, despite what others may say, about their likes of the immature all-around fun comedy. No Academy awards, of course, but funny and humorous performances from the worthy, Brad Renfro... as well as a favorite of mine, Dominique Swain. Good and fun humor!

This movie was completely hysterical. It took me a while to actually get my hands on a copy of it, but now it has a well deserved place in my collection. Daniel Waters brings us another underrated teen comedy that is destined to find a following just like his now cult classic writing debut "Heathers". It completely annoys me that New Line continues to release crappy films, yet sends this comic gem straight to video. It is definitely one of the best teen comedies to come out in the past few years. The entire cast is great, and James King is friken HOT! Well worth a rental and a buy. Thank you Daniel Waters for making another contemporary classic wrongfully overlooked. Now how about a "Heathers 2"?

What so many have tried, works only here. "Wet Hot American Summer" tried it and failed, "Scream", although scary and brilliantly referential, lost its emotions on the way, and Kevin Smiths "Mallrats" caught but a few glimpses of it. Only Daniel Waters managed to pull it off. Here it is ladies and gents, a heartfelt homage to something (seemingly) impossible to pay tribute to - late seventies/early eighties teen flicks (camp or slasher factor put aside).

Lacking a strong narrative, "Happy Campers" seems to be drifting along without a clear flow, but the way the movie changes gears from obvious dumb-founded Teen-Comedy to a rather insightful character study is just amazing. To direct something bad is easy, to direct something good is hard, but to take something that was once bad and elevate it to a meaningful and even touching movie about adolescence is next to impossible. Sure the odd bits and pieces sometimes don't fit together, but anything this loosely structured is bound to have a few things falling by the way side.

Nevertheless, I think only a handful of people could have been able to get away with a movie of this sort. Waters with the "Heathers" credit under his wings is definitely among the chosen ones. And after not having been connected with any kind of movie, at least credit wise, for almost a decade, this directorial debut contains all the trademarks that made him a cult hero for so many aspiring screenwriters (me being one of them).

The Verdict: The same that applies to "Heathers" - either you get it or you don't. If you do, I should agree with some of the other reviewers that this movie has cult potential. If it leaves you cold...it wasn't for you, but I hope it will some day.

Okay, for starters, Happy Campers completely blew me away. I was expecting an American-Pie-esquire teen sex romp, but what I got what a hysterically funny mature comedy with extremely colorful characters. It is by far the best teen comedy film I've ever seen, and it goes much deeper than most teen films dare. It is not afraid to be in-your-face with the humor, and the storyline is very realistic.

At Camp Bleeding Dove, many new counselors must unite after a mishap leaves the camp director unstable. They set out to diversify the camp, and change things up, and along the way they discover themselves.

The dialogue is just great, and it truly captures teen spirit and the way that teenagers talk. All of the camp counselors have their own unique personalities, and mesh so well together. Everyone has weaknesses, and the love story is incredibly true to real life. The counselors struggle with both relationships, finding themselves, and caring for the campers, a responsibility that some of them are unable to handle.

All of the great aspects of this movie come together so perfectly. The well-written script is brought to life by a lot of the most underrated actors of all time, which in turn are directed by a sensational director who gives the movie a great look and feel. Brad Renfro plays Wichita, the brooding camp counselor that everyone idolizes and looks up to. Renfro has always been extremely talented in my book, especially after his astounding performance in Bully. He is just as great here, bringing a great sensibility and look to Wichita that must have been completely absent on paper. Dominique Swain, the side character in most movies like Alpha Dog and Face/Off, takes center stage as one of the main characters, Wendy. She couldn't have been more perfectly cast. She turns Wendy into a loopy, insanely energized woman, and it works so well, especially in contrast to Renfro's Wichita. Keram Malicki-Sanchez, who has a history of small stand-out roles in Johnn Q, Cherry Falls, and the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, plays Jasper, the homosexual camp counselor that all the girls at camp are completely goo-goo over. It is great seeing him on center stage in a central role, and he is definitely perfect for the role. Emily Bergl, the seriously underrated actress from The Rage: Carrie 2, the TV miniseries Taken, and the 2005 film The Hard Easy, plays the strange and quirky Talia. Bergl is spectacular, and the role gives her a wide range of acting to do, all of which she is perfect at. There wasn't a single instance where her role of Talia was not believable. Jaime King, from such films as Sin City, The Tripper, and Cheaper By the Dozen 2, plays the sexual maniac Pixel. Her role is so goofy and ridiculous (in a good way) that it had to have been hard to mess it up. She was mostly great, but was definitely not the best of the cast. Justin Long, yet another underrated actor from films like Dodgeball, Jeepers Creepers, and Accepted, plays the nerdy Donald with such sincerity. Every role I've ever seen the guy play has been fantastic, and his role as the nerdy and inexperienced Donald is no exception. It is quite awesome to see his evolution in the movie thanks to the absolutely sensational script. Jordan Bridges, yet another underrated actor who appeared in Mona Lisa Smile, the TV show Charmed, and some other projects, plays Arnold, the aggressive sexaholic. As much as this movie sounds like it's filled with stereotypes, the actors and the scripts break away from them completely, and most often do the opposite of what you would normally be expecting. Bridges is no different, as his role as Arnold is very realistic and hilarious. His character is so much more than it first appears. The only person in the cast that I absolutely hated (and will most likely always hate) was Peter Stormare, who plays Oberon. He does get the job done, but I absolutely cannot stand him. Something about his voice just grates on my nerves and I don't feel that he has any real acting talent to speak of.

Another thing I liked about the movie was the narrating by all of the characters. For a second you think it's going to be a Justin Long comedy film, but then each of the actors take turns narrating, and in the end almost everyone had the same amount of screen time. There wasn't one character I wholly disliked and couldn't stand. They were all so different and unique that I liked each one of them for different reasons. The movie also had a great deal of heart, and it has a very subtle message, not the in-your-face crappy Hollywood movie messages.

The cast is so perfect and the script is so good that Happy Campers easily emerges as one of my favorite films of all time. It was laugh-out-loud hilarious in several parts, and I completely loved it. Not sure why this film doesn't have a bigger fan base, but I thought it was absolutely amazing. It was definitely a great comedy.

As a camp counselor and former camper myself, I've gotta say this is probably my favorite movie. It just combines so many elements of humor, dark comedy, sex, drugs, and angst, that it actually borders on realistic. Of course, it is extremely exaggerated, but in the best way. For those of you out there that enjoy dark indie comedies with hot college co-eds, this is a great film. And for those of you out there that have counseled at summmer camps, this is definately a must see!

i love the bitter un-Hollywood ending...life sucks and this movie tells it like it is....but secretly i weep b/c i myself am a hopeless romantic *sniffle, sniffle* sigh this movie really touches on that great feeling you have as a child...and the torturous existence of growing up. I haven't seen heathers as of now...but this movie makes me want to see it. These actors do a very superb acting job(even if the dialouge is somewhat typical at times). All in all it can be said that this movie will make you feel and probably make you remember that first real love...and it i slipped through your hands I highly recommend this movie to anyone who has ever felt frustrated by life.....

Happy Campers has to be in my top ten and probably right at the top! I don't know what it is, but it really is one of life's good movies. To me anyway, to everyone else its utter nonsense! It has even inspired me to fly to America when I'm old enough and be a camp counselor!! I love the soundtrack, and if anyone knows how I can get hold of the song titles on the movie, (so far I've failed!) please email me a website or song titles and artists; anything would help!!! Wichita & Wendy: their flourishing romance, Pixel's floopiness and hot fashion, all the counsellors and their completely opposite personalities and backgrounds...and of course all the happy campers. Each scene brings out a new idea, a new perspective that leads to the end result. And listen to what they say - its so true. Their philosophy and story telling is blissfully blunt and simple. I Anyway, 10/10!!! See it!!! And if you have, watch it again!!! God knows I have!!!

Happy Campers was a great and new movie for the new generation. I loved it and still watch it when it comes on PPV. My husband even watched it and he liked it. The movie was great. They really told it like it is at a boy and girls camp with no adults. That is really what all teens think about when they are alone with the opposite sex. I really liked the end when Jasper (the gay guy) told a young boy "Rick" that he should wait till he was 18 till he followed through with his feelings of being gay. That right there was a great touch to the end of the movie. All in all the movie was great but only to be viewed by 13 and up I think.

This was not the most original movie I've ever seen. I found there to be few laughs. There were several times when I simply stopped the tape, did something else and came back to it because it couldn't hold my interest. If you're interested in seeing a summer camp movie, check out Wet Hot American Summer.

This is one of those movies that has some problems. but makes up for them well. One-liners flawlessly lead another character into a joke, though at other times the plot drags a bit.

Some have said the characters are over-stereotyped, but I think that's the point. In the end, we see that these completely-different-seeming characters all end up with similar problems.

I took a slightly different spin on the whole conversation with "Rick," the gay kid at the end. I think this is the only area in which the movie showed any restraint. Jasper may have told the kid to wait until he was 18 to act on his feelings, but the kid also asked him back if that's what he did (wait 'til 18). It came through the acting that the Jasper character hadn't, even though he said he had. The Rick character would have seen that as well.

If they had to advocate that restraint to the gay kid, they should have advocated it to all of the kids. It seemed a little out of place to say "don't have sex yet" only to him.

If you haven't seen this movie yet, do. Especially if you're a parent-in-denial when it comes to your children's budding sexuality.