Wet Hot American Summer

So Hot Fuzz is an example of a comedy that I think I could probably say, while not everyone is going to love it, I think a lot of people can put a lot of great stuff from it and enjoy at least a little bit of it. Wet Hot American Summer is definitely a movie that you will either love, or you will hate. You're either going to laugh your ass off or you're going to be really bored and not really believe that you're watching a movie like this. And while I say that you will either be on one end of the spectrum or the other, I actually find myself somewhere in the middle. I know what the movie was trying to accomplish, I appreciate it for what it is, I even laughed at a good number of parts. However, I feel like its not really a great comedy and is a little bit of an example of what happens when a cult following pushes for something to be brought back just out of nostalgia, and I will talk about the future of this property near the end of the review.

Its kind of hard to explain Wet Hot America Summer. The short explanation is that it follows the staff of a summer camp in the 80s. This is kind of comedic, especially since the movie was made in 2001.

Bradley Coopers, David Hyde Pierce, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Rudd Amy Poehler, Molly Shannon, a lot of really great actors and actresses were involved with this project and surprisingly enough, a lot of them got their start in movies from this movie. Its been fun looking at the filmography of a lot of these actors and actresses and seeing this movie at the very front of the films that they did.

Like I said, the premise is a little bit hard to explain but in essence, it is the last day of camp at Camp Firewood. The counselors are horny as hell and all of them want to continue screwing around with one another or they want to finally lose their virginity. Furthermore there's still things that need to get done with the kids and their time at camp, activities need to happen, and everyone is trying to find that special somebody to share a special moment with at the end of camp.

So why is it so hard to explain what is going on in this movie? Well its a style of comedy that can only be described as absurdist humor. Its ultimately the idea that the characters have little to no inherent purpose and represent that little of purpose with meaningless acts.

For example, one of the main characters Coop (played by Michael Showalter) wants to be the boyfriend of one of the counselors at the camp. He recruits the help of the crazy, slightly unbalanced cook making all the food and they go into a montage. Pretty standard for a comedy, but then they just start dancing for no reason. Or when a kid comes up to introduce himself at the talent show, he just puts up his arms and suddenly there's an inexplicable gust of wind. There's no explanation to it, its barely mentioned outside of the scene, and yet it happens, and people do acknowledge that it happened, but don't really question it.

I'm probably not explaining it the best that I can because its really something that's better to be seen. There's a lot of parts in this movie that really make no sense but they're just kind of there for the laugh. And once you get accustomed to the humor and how exactly jokes and humor is executed in this movie, you really have to ask yourself, do you like having this random out of no where humor?

And I get it, its a satire. Its not exactly suppose to make a lot of sense because its making fun of certain behaviors. Although I'm not always totally sure of what they're making fun of, it still has its moments and its times where it made me laugh.

This movie is a little bit different than spoofs and other satires because the majority of those you see, like Spaceballs, Blazing Saddles, and other films, are pointing at one particular thing to satirize. Spaceballs as satirizing Star Wars, Blazing Saddles was satirizing racism and old west movies.

I guess this could be satirizing summer camps, and sex comedies. Here's the thing, I definitely grew up in the wrong generation because I never really got the best of the best when it comes to satires and spoofs. The generation I grew up in unfortunately was one of Scary Movie, or Epic Movie, or those dumbass movies with the word movie in it. Instead of pointing out all the things wrong with a particular movie and being smart about it, those movies decided to just put as many cultural references in it as they could, spoof as many current movies as they can, and spin it all with fart jokes and dick jokes.

I'm not saying Wet Hot American Summer is incredibly high brow humor, it definitely isn't. But at least they attempted this project without the help of overly apparent pop culture references, and instead with its own humor.

Does it always land? Oh god no. Again, it really comes down to taking a good portion of the movie and understanding the humor before you really start to get the jokes.

So that's why I say, if you're into that absurdism and things not always being explained but that's part of the humor, you might actually like Wet Hot American Summer.

Another perk that I have to give the movie is that sometimes I forgot that this movie was made in 2001.

It actually felt sometimes that I was watching a movie made and set in the 1980s. This may have been due to the obviously low budget of the film, but there's a certain charm to it that I kind of liked. It took me a couple times to stop and think and remember that Amy Poehler was 10 years old during the time that she's playing a 16 year old in this movie. And for that I have to give the movie props.

So its a weird movie. Because of the style, you're not going to get really high quality acting, but that's not really the objective. Also because of the style, you're going to have a very bare bones story and its going to feel more like a compilation of situations from SNL sketches or something like that instead of a cohesive story.

It doesn't mean the movie is bad, it just means that its probably an acquired taste and if its not your style, its not your style.

Now, that's pretty relevant to the next thing that I'll be talking about, and that's the 8 episode prequel that Netflix just released.

Now I'm only a few episodes in so I can't give an incredibly in depth review or thoughts on the series quite yet.

I do have to give the show props once again as it seems like they've gotten the whole cast back for this reboot. And it does fit into the style of comedy for them to blatantly say, you're all 16 year olds and they definitely don't look 16.

Now this television show is kind of a symptom of what's been going on on Netflix for quite a while. Something got cancelled or panned a while back and because Netflix is a growing market, they have the capabilities and the low risk to do something like this, bring back something, even a movie with a cult following and see what they can do with it.

Now, traditionally, when its something that I've enjoyed and wanted to see come back, (I.E. Arrested Development season 4), I've really enjoyed Netflix's resolve to make the best that they can do. Is it always the best outcome, not always (I.E. Arrested Development season 4), but there is something about it that is clever and is definitely something I enjoy.

But unfortunately, I see this as a little bit of a waste. I mean if they can do this much, and put this much time into properties that had a cult following, I'm just wondering what they can do with something with a lot of popularity behind it. I know they're good with original content, I'd just like to see them take on something really well known and really well liked.

Perhaps part of it is the fact that the well known properties are more expensive and can get picked up by established channels, but I'd like to see Netflix's efforts go towards something a little bit better than Wet Hot American Summer. I think they can do better.

Again, I'm only about 3 episodes into the show and I kind of feel the same way about it as I did the movie. I'm kind of in the middle. I enjoy some parts, but I'm not jumping for joy for it.

But I would love to hear your thoughts on the movie and especially what you've thought of the TV show. Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 to send me your thoughts via tweet and you can also send me requests for future reviews. Stay tuned for future movie news and reviews that come out of the blog.

I'll leave you with this. One of the actors Michael Ian Black went on Seth Meyers and gave him his thoughts on the return of the show, its a little funny. Enjoy!