by Brendan Foley
Two Cents
Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick
Well guys, we’ve made it to the end of Two Cents in one piece, except for a few campers who are lepers.
Wet Hot American Summer debuted in 2001 to little fanfare and lower box office, but writer/director David Wain and co-writer/star Michael Showalter have had the last laugh. The film is one of the most beloved, heavily quoted cult films of the new millennium, giving us an early look at the careers of some of modern cinema’s biggest stars. And this Friday, Netflix is launching a prequel series that reunites the entire cast, still playing teenangers. Also Jon Hamm will be there because why wouldn’t he be.
With over a decade in hindsight, how well does Wet Hot hold up? Does the anti-narrative humor still work or has it grown tiresome? Has the constant quoting only made the film’s legacy all the stronger, or is the bloom off this particular rose?
Two Cents braved the wilds of talking canned food, falling space labs, and many, many montages to bring you this detailed report.
Did you get a chance to watch along with us this week? Want to recommend a great (or not so great) film for the whole gang to cover? Comment below or post on our Facebook or hit us up on Twitter!
Next Week’s Pick:
Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is back for another mission this summer in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation. The series has become one of the oddest tentpole fraschises, each entry helmed by a new director under Cruise’s general guidance and often sacrificing continuity for style.
John Woo’s contribution to the franchise, Mission: Impossible 2, is not the most well-loved of the series by a long shot, but it’s certainly one of the wildest. The first sequel reversed the original film’s emphasis on intrigue and paranoia in favor of a faster pace and ridiculous action. Join us as we cheer or jeer what is quite possibly the most divisive entry in this storied series.
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co!
Our Guests
Len Carmichael:Gene: Now, we need to make 8 gallons of bug juice by snack hour; do you know where the powder packets are?
Gary: Yeah.
Gene: In the pantry, above the sink, right next to my bottle of dick cream… Uh, wait, forget that last part.
Gary: Did you say dick cream?
Gene: No! I said next to my… stick… team, you know, stick team! Stickball! Go away, leave me alone!
It’s scenes like this that just make the movie 1000% rewatchable in every way.
I’ve been advocating for this movie since it’s release, forcing friends and family alike to watch it, and keep watching it. It’s on that list of movies that no matter where it is, if it’s on and I see it, I’m lost the rest of the duration because I’m watching the movie.
Poehler, Garofalo, Michael Ian Black, Cooper, Lo Truglio, Meloni and Rudd? Come on, you can’t lose. (@abefroman_tskoc)
The Team
Elizabeth:Watching the film for the second time a few weeks ago, I caught things I missed the first time around. I recognized more faces (Joe Lo Truglio, who I now see regularly on the hilarious Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and a young Kyle Gallner, aka Beaver from Veronica Mars, as a camper) and was more prepared for the absurdity of the film.
Wet Hot American Summer is a constant barrage of bizarreness, where nonsensical plot twists abound. There is no point to this comedy, except to serve a sort of Gen X nostalgia for an ’80s that never was. It sees your tropes from 1980s B-films (the types I would see in the video store as a kid with women’s bodies being ridiculously objectified on the covers) and raises them.
There is so much going on in this film that it has an unbalanced feeling. The reason I appreciate it despite its many flaws is the stellar comic cast (although, one of the flaws may be that the size of the cast means we don’t know much about a number of the characters). I will also watch Amy Poehler in anything, so I may have a slight bias. (@elizs)
James:I’d assumed David Wain’s Wet Hot American Summer was some sort of scatological sex comedy a la Porky’s. It was only years later, when most of the quite frankly stunning cast got all rich and famous did I get round to watching it. In the process, my drug-addled brain worked out that the film is actually a fairly astute and sporadically amusing pastiche of 80s summer camp flicks.
Seeing as I came late to the party on this one, the fun is in seeing a bunch of talented A-listers gamely throw themselves into a silly-but-knowing plot involving unrequited teenage romance, desperate virgins, gay love, and plummeting satellites. Standouts include Paul Rudd’s obnoxious douchebag, Christopher Meloni’s unhinged, fridge-humping Vietnam vet, and Amy Poehler’s neurotic camp leader.
At times arch, irreverent, and surreal, it’s not surprising that it’s become something of a cult favorite. But like nearly all cult favorites, it’s not for everyone, being a little hit and miss. The more familiar you are with the tropes it’s mickey-taking, the more likely you are to appreciate its charms. For me, belly laughs were few and far between, only producing the occasional smirk as I recognized another cliché being (sometimes quite mercilessly) lampooned. (@jconthagrid)
Frank:If the Michelle Pfeiffer/Zac Efron portion of New Year’s Eve were transported to a summer camp and sprinkled with R-rated humor, you would have Wet Hot American Summer. The tale of a group of camp counselors looking to resolve some unfinished deeds on their last day of camp remains the very definition of a cult classic. I’ve always thought it a shame that this movie was never given its due by the studio who distributed it, nor by the critics who failed to see the admittedly raunchy, yet truly hilarious tip of the hat to the summer camp movie favorites that had come before it.
For me, the best part about this film is its cast. I’m a sucker for a good ensemble film. Its always fun to see different kinds of actors work together, especially when you have a mix of up and comers and veterans sharing the screen. Here, the filmmakers attracted possibly one of the best casts ever. Where else can you find Bradley Cooper, Christopher Meloni, Janeane Garafalo, David Hyde Pierce, and Elizabeth Banks in the same lineup? For some, it simply isn’t summer without at least one viewing of Wet Hot American Summer. (@frankfilmgeek)
Brendan:It just doesn’t make me laugh.
I’ve seen Wet Hot American Summer three times now, and I’ve gone back and back and forth trying to articulate why this thing falls so flat for me when the cast is so great, when this exact creative team is responsible for comedies that I enjoy, when the humor seems so perfectly pitched to my own tastes.
And at the end of the day, all there is to say is that this is a comedy that does not make me laugh. There are scattered chuckles (almost all due to Amy Poehler, though the Michael Ian Black/Bradley Cooper stuff is killer) but for the most part this is just a flat, grating experience every time I watch it. Between the amateurish filmmaking and the complete lack of a central figure to ground the absurdist universe (this movie desperately needed a Graham Chapman) it just lays there. By about the 20–30 minute mark, I just wanted out.
Maybe it’s that I just do not give a shit about 70s/80s culture, whereas I know some people who go into hysterics just looking at the costumes. Whatever wavelength this movie is on, I am just not sharing it. (@TheTrueBrendanF)
Austin:This was a first-time watch for me so this hasn’t really settled for me yet, but here’s my initial reaction.
The first and strongest impression is that of the cast. There’s something magical about all these now famous comic actors appearing together as an ensemble, and I can only imagine how energized this set must have been. So many of these unknowns have become the biggest stars of film and television.
That said, the film’s style of absurd and non-sequitur humor didn’t land with the same impact as the cast. There are quite a few laughs, but just as many really, really dumb or obnoxious moments. It doesn’t all come together cohesively as a particularly great film, but more of a crazy oddity that’s worth checking out. And while some of my favorite comedies are the ones that I had to sit on for awhile and rewatch, I don’t anticipate Wet Hot American Summer joining their ranks anytime soon. (@VforVashaw)
Did you all get a chance to watch along with us? Share your thoughts with us here in the comments or on Twitter or Facebook!