Heavyweights

When Heavyweights came onto Netflix, I heard a bunch of people getting really excited. Apparently, which Heavyweights wasn't a commercial or critical success at all when it hit theaters, it has since gained a cult following. This was a very early movie in Ben Stiller's career and it's interesting seeing him back in the 90s and how he's grown and developed since. So many people raved about this movie that I felt it was about time I went and checked it out for myself. 

Heavyweights follows the story of a kid by the name of Gerald Garner (played by Aaron Schwartz).

He is a portly young kid and because of that and his lack of athletic skills, he is a social outcast and a pretty unpopular kid. As the school year comes to a close, his parents (his father is actually played by Jeffery Tambor) decide to send him to a fat camp that goes by the name of Camp Hope.

While Gerry is hesitant to go to fat camp, he soon figures out that the experience looks more fun than he thought with fun water activities and go carts. When Gerry gets there he meets a couple of nice kids and a small group of scrappy underdogs form (one of them being a very young Kenan Thompson). With fun camp counselors (one of them played by Tom McGowan), and fun activities, Gerry starts to think that maybe his summer won't be so bad after all.

But that soon changes when the kindly owners of the camp (played by Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara) announce that they were forced to sell the camp to a hyper fitness guru and infomercial maker by the name of Tony Perkis (played by Ben Stiller). On a side note, I know it was for dramatic purposes, but why would the counselors like Tom McGowan not know that the owners had sold the camp? I'm really not surprised that they lost the camp.

If you're trying to visualize what kind of character Tony Perkis is, imagine Ben Stiller's character from Dodgeball, White Goldman. I am convinced that Heavyweights is just a prequel to the character of White Goldman. Both of them came from rich families and both of them were fat at one point and overcame a lot of personal growth and challenges to become the fitness guru they are in both films. I really almost expected Tony Perkis to show up during the end credits, be really fat, and end up singing Milkshakes with his man boobs. I'm glad I didn't have to subject myself to that for a second time, but that was the mindset I had for the character of Tony Perkis the entire time.

The rest of the movie is this scrappy group of fat kids trying to survive the horror that is Perkis and work together to bring him down and bring Camp Hope back to the level of fun it used to be.

I do want to talk about the good things of this movie because while there are a lot of things that I need to say about this film that might make you think that I did not like this film or I think that it's bad, that isn't entirely true.

Heavyweights was made by Disney in the 90s. Heavyweights was right on the heals of another live action Disney classic, The Might Ducks. Something about those films were just fun and they all centered around a scrappy group of social outcasts and misfits. Heavyweights creates another group of scrappy misfits and they actually do a really good job at it. These kids weren't the cool kids, they establish that from the beginning. These are your underdogs and everyone likes a good underdog story. There's multiple moments in the film where it's just kids having fun.

The only downside of this being a Disney film is that its a pretty safe PG rated movie. There's a lot of jokes they could have made throughout this movie but they couldn't because this is a family picture. That doesn't mean the writers didn't have fun with veiled humor and going to extremes that most realistic films can't go to. However, the movie as a whole is pretty tame.

Those not as memorable as kids in other movies about scrappy misfits, Heavyweights does have a pretty decent cast and at the very least, creates a cast of kids you want to root for. The emphasis is more on the normalcy of the kids and their desire to just have fun juxtaposed with the batshit insanity of Ben Stiller's character.

Apart of me thinks that Kenan Thompson wasn't originally in the script but they wrote him in as a token black kid. I say that not because I don't think he should have been in the movie, I only say it because all of Roy (Thompson's) lines and actions in the movie really could have been replaced with Josh (Shaun Weiss's character). And then I realized that any of these characters could be interchangeable. With the exception of the British kid and the big dumb kid who doesn't say anything, these kids could be pretty interchangeable. It's not a matter of having a token black friend, it's the matter of having a token fat friend, and that's kind of difficult when EVERYONE is the token fat friend.

Funny side note, Aaron Schwartz is now incredibly fit and not a bad looking individual. Good for him.

Now inevitably I would have to talk about the issues this movie has and there are a good amount of them. 

The first is that the movie is in all senses of the word, pretty predictable. 

Heavyweights is in reality just a by the numbers kids film and there isn't a lot that can't be predicted

or to be expected for an eventual outcome. The only exception to this rule isn't even done in a way that I really want to give them credit for.

Eventually in the film, they finally get tired of Tony Perkis's evil ways and decide to take matters into their own hands and take Tony down.

Now since, there have been multiple movies that have had kids taking down authority figures. Usually these movies have a G or PG rating holding them back but if done correctly, that can make for some really funny circumstances in which the kids get back at the adult. In Heavyweights though, they kidnap Tony, make him fall into a hole and hold him prisoner in a barn on the camp. Not only do they hold him captive, they hold him captive in a fenced in area that is protected by electricity. They basically Guantanamo Bay the shit out of this guy and it is definitely torture. I don't really think this movie could be made today with all the questionable things these kids do to this guy who has been shown to be a little bit mentally unstable. And the worst part is, the adults totally go along with it.

I mean I get it, the adults are affected just as much by Tony as the kids are, but there's a difference between hating your boss and not letting him out of an electric fence that he's being tortured in.

And then there's a part in the movie where the kids are basically in charge. Now I knew that this was

a Disney film and that it wouldn't get too out of hand. At the end of it Tom McGowan says I think we've all learned a valuable lesson about self control and implores the kids to start thinking about their weight seriously.

I think in reality, this scene would have gone a little bit differently. In reality, I think the kids would have seen Tom McGowan as trying to tell them what to do and before you know it, he's right next to Ben Stiller in an electrical cage as Gerald and the rest of the kids devolve into a Lord of the Flies scenario where all the adults are murdered and then there's a game of politics to decide who really runs Camp Hope. I mean they already put Tony in an electrical cage and tortured him, I wouldn't put it past these kids to drop all conventions and just let loose after that.

But of course, that's not how a Disney movie is going to end. The plunky kids learn a lesson, Stiller gets his cumuppins and even the good guy adult Tom McGowan even gets the girl... even though he really shouldn't be a role model for these kids. I mean I don't wanna knock someone for being overweight but the guy had been at the camp for 12 years and never really lost weight. I mean his lanky buddy should have run the camp but Noooooooo he wasn't as cool as Tom McGowan.

Obviously I would have done things a little bit different with a story about some lovable misfits torturing Ben Stiller but as it is, Heavyweights is a fine movie. It's cute, it's short, and simple. It's not something you really need to look too hard at because if you do you're probably not gonna like what you find. Is it a great movie? I don't think so. I guess I understand if it has a cult following but I think it's a small cult following. The humor is childish and not really as funny as it could be and the story, while unique, is really predictable. Check it out if you want, it's on Netflix, but you don't really NEED to see it.

But those are my thoughts on Heavyweights. What did you think? Are you part of the cult following? Tell me what you think of this film. Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. If you haven't noticed, I've been falling behind a little bit, I actually watched Heavyweights a while ago. But I'm back now and I'm going to be doing a review for Wonder Woman tonight because I saw it last night! Enjoy!