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Lunch Has Been Canceled: Heavyweights vs. Camp Nowhere
276 Plays1 year ago
It’s almost summer so Rock & Rob decided to grab the s’more supplies, throw on some bug spray and sit around the fire debating whether Heavyweights (1995) or Camp Nowhere (1994) is the ultimate 90's summer camp movie. Listen in as they put both films through the PerkiSystem, while also discussing important topics such as camp names; bankruptcy law; and one of the greatest 90’s villains of all time: Tony Perkis.
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Transcript
Introduction to Movie Showdown Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention? Brothers don't shake hands.
00:00:25
Speaker
What is up campers and welcome to the movie showdown with Rock and Rob. My name is Rob Mansfield and with me, the last remaining disciple of the Percuss system, it's Alex Rockline.
00:00:36
Speaker
What's going on, Rob? Are you ready for summer? I'm always ready for summer. I'm ready for summer. Well, this is going to be a fun episode.
Listener Reviews and Engagement
00:00:43
Speaker
Before we jump into it, I wanted to read a new review that was left of the show. Ooh, fun. So this comes from E-M-F-O. That's a lot of E's and a lot of H's in there. The title, new podcasting high score. Is that bad? I like that callback. Nice callback to our grandma's boy episode.
00:01:02
Speaker
Movie Showdown? More like Movie Show Up, like the two thumbs I'm holding right now. The perfect listen for all your cinephilic podcast needs. Wow. That's great. Wow. What a great review. So that was a very nice five star review. I'm a big fan. Right back at you. Five stars to you.
00:01:19
Speaker
Remember, write in a review. We'll read it on the show. We really appreciate anybody who rates and reviews. It helps us get more listeners. That's how the Spotify Apple Music algorithms send it out into the podcast world. So anybody out there, rate us, review us. Five stars only
Personal Summer Camp Stories
00:01:38
Speaker
though.
00:01:38
Speaker
the rock question of the week did you go to summer camp growing up no no i was not a summer camp kid i was definitely a homebody but there was one summer so my mom was a teacher so she was home with us all summer i don't know how she did it now that i work from home full time and evelyn her last day of school was today so now she'll be home with us she'll be going to day camp but she'll be home some days and i'm like how
00:01:59
Speaker
How did my mom do it? All summer with three kids. Crazy. She was crazy. That's Krista. Yeah, that's Krista. There you go. She gets it. She did make me go to a day camp once and probably in like middle school. I did not want to go. I faked sick. I spent the whole first day in the nurse's office and then she did not make me go back. And I knew she knew I was faking. So if she didn't, mom, I know you're going to listen to this episode. There you have it. Why were you so anti-camp?
00:02:25
Speaker
I don't know, I was just, what did you want to do instead? Nothing, just be home, probably play Legos or something.
00:02:33
Speaker
I don't know, man. When I think back to it, I was like, that was actually a pretty sweet camp. They had everything. I'm sorry, mom. I tried. I tried, but I really didn't try. I used to go to one or two weeks of an overnight summer camp growing up. I never understood how somebody would go away for a whole summer to a camp. That's like a different world. I went to a summer camp in South Jersey called Camp Hala Wasa. Ooh.
00:02:59
Speaker
Great name. It was fun. We would call the counselors like uncle and aunt. Okay. The best part was we would play night games. It would be like capture the flag, but at night and they would have the staff members of the camp hiding and they'd like come out and you've got caught. Your team was done. I love that. I was in like the last kind of golden age before people started doing lawsuits. They would have like really physical games. Like they had this game called capture the wah wah man. Okay.
00:03:25
Speaker
which was essentially capture the flag on a football field, but it was full contact. So for you to go to like the jail, you would have to get tackled. Oh, wow. Look, I'm a decent athlete, but I could have been a professional capture the Wawa man player. That's how unbelievably good I was at that game. Maybe you need to start your own camp. Bring that back. Sign the waivers. My brother actually was a counselor at that camp. Uncle Dave.
00:03:51
Speaker
Well Alex, this is our second to last episode of season one before we take a break for the summer.
Season Finale Preview: Heavyweights vs. Camp Nowhere
00:03:57
Speaker
So we thought what better way to celebrate summer than by battling out two 90s summer camp movie classics. Those two movies, Heavyweights and Camp Nowhere.
00:04:08
Speaker
Yeah, Rob, when we were trying to decide, it was actually shocking that there weren't as many camp movies to choose from. There were a few others that we considered, but I feel like this would be such a hot topic, especially back in the 90s. I did too, but I'm excited to get into
Movie Summaries: Heavyweights and Camp Nowhere
00:04:22
Speaker
this. This week, I will be representing Heavyweights, a movie I grew up absolutely loving, watched probably multiple times a year. The summary of Heavyweights, a kid returns home from the last day of school, only to be told he is going to a quote unquote fat camp.
00:04:36
Speaker
He is made at first, but then learns this camp is the greatest place on earth with go-karts and the blob. But all that changes when the camp is taken over by a man who is so terrible because he, wait a second, let me check my notes here, actually wants the kids to get healthy, albeit in mostly unsafe ways. Very unconventional. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:04:56
Speaker
Released on February 17th, 1995, directed by Stephen Brill. And if that name is familiar to listeners of the show, that's because he wrote The Mighty Ducks. Written by Stephen Brill and Judd Apatow. That's a pretty good one to punt in the writing room. This was Judd Apatow's first movie. Judd Apatow of 40 Year Old Virgin knocked up like super Hollywood producer and writer director now.
00:05:23
Speaker
I could not find a budget for heavyweights, but I cannot imagine it was very high. Agreed. Box office of $17.6 million, Rotten Tomatoes score of 38%, but a Google audience score of 77%. Wow.
00:05:37
Speaker
Alright, so this week I will be taking camp nowhere. Quick summary, a bunch of kids do not want to go to the summer camps their parents want them to go to, so they employ Doc from Back to the Future to commit fraud by posing as different camp directors, take their parents hard earned money, and let the kids live by themselves at their own makeshift camp for the summer. Pretty spot on.
00:05:56
Speaker
Every kid's dream, really, if you think about it. This movie came out August 26th, 1994. A quick note, I looked up what other movies came out this day. Police Academy 7, and It's Pat the Movie. Okay. Not much competition there. This movie was directed by Jonathan Prince, written by Andrew Kurtzman, Elliot Wald. Actually, both of them were SNL writers and wrote, See No Evil, Hear No Evil. That is a Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder comedy.
00:06:23
Speaker
That's like one of their biggest movies. Great duo there. Yep. Again, could not find a budget for this movie. Must be a camp movie thing. Box office brought in ready for this $10,471,613. Thank you for your precision. We're all about the math on this podcast. Rotten tomato score of 17 and a Google audience score of 64. Very nice. We like doing these quick drafts.
Favorite 90s Kids Movies Draft
00:06:47
Speaker
How about we do a quick draft 90s movies starring kids?
00:06:51
Speaker
So what we're looking for is PG rated movies, must star at least one kid. I'm not taking any movies that I've taken before in this, but I will have heavyweights. Alex will have Camp Nowhere. We'll do four movies each. You can go first. Okay. Ready? Go. I'm going to start off with the Sandlot, probably all time, 1A baseball movie for me. That was going to be my first pick too.
00:07:11
Speaker
I am going to go with The Little Giants. Yes. Best football play ever, the annexation of Puerto Rico. I'm going to follow that up with The Parent Trap, the remake. Nice. Double Lindsay Lohan and Dennis Quaid. It's just a fun movie. I love that movie. My next pick, I'm going to take Free Willy. I was obsessed with this movie when it came out.
00:07:33
Speaker
I couldn't tell you because I haven't seen this so long if it's actually good. Especially the Michael Jackson song. Like, I don't know. It's everything for me. My next pick, I am going to take Richie Rich. Always wanted a McDonald's in my house. Dangerous. I am going to take Jumanji. Yes.
00:07:49
Speaker
We've talked about Jumanji before, but I've never taken it. I love the first Jumanji movie. And I will follow that up with three ninjas. Ooh, nice. Rocky loves Emily. That's all I remember for that movie. All right, last pick. Oof. A couple of chews from here. Let's go The Little Rascals. I found a dollar. I found a dollar. I'll trade you a pickle for a nickel. Great movie. Well, that was fun. Alex, what do you say? Ready to jump into this? Let's do
Deep Dive: Heavyweights Cast
00:08:16
Speaker
it. All right, round one. Best cast.
00:08:20
Speaker
So, Heavyweights stars Aaron Schwartz as Gerald Jerry Garner. He is the main kid who the audience is taking through his eyes on the journey of Fat Camp. Also, I should say to the audience, we will be saying Fat Camp a lot. We do not mean it in a derogatory way. It's literally what they say in the movie. We are not body shaming. We love people of all shapes and sizes on this podcast.
00:08:46
Speaker
I don't think I would ever talk about it this way outside of this one episode. Me too. We have Keenan Thompson back from our Mighty Ducks episode. He is Roy Murphy. He once again crushes this movie. His intro is so funny. Jerry's on the plane flying out to Camp Hope and Keenan pops up next to him.
00:09:07
Speaker
And it's a fat camp. Jerry's like, no, why do you say that? Because you're fat. Is that your dad? No. Why do you say that? Because he's fat too. And then Jerry's like, well, so are you. I know that's why I'm going to fat camp. Really sets the tone for the whole movie. Speaking of that, though, these kids are not that old. They're just flying by themselves to this camp. Yeah, right. Oh, gosh, I would never have done that. Nineties were crazy, man. But even like you and I were only a few years younger than how old these kids were when this came out. Like my parents would never send me off to fly by myself. Absolutely not.
00:09:36
Speaker
We have Sean Weiss, aka Greg, the goalie, Goldberg. He plays Josh Birnbaum. Weiss was originally not interested in acting the film, but he changed his mind when he found out that if he didn't act in heavyweights, he wouldn't be allowed to act in D3, The Mighty Ducks. Tom McGowan is counselor Pat Finley. Pat's awesome. When he first meets Jerry, he's just like, where are you from? Long Island? Never heard of it. He gives off summer camp counselor vibe. He's very likable from the start.
00:10:04
Speaker
You know, he's a former camper and has been at the camp for the longest time. Him being nervous around the new nurse, Julie, when he first meets her is great. This is where it gets good though, Alex. We have Ben Stiller as Tony Perkis Jr. He also plays Tony Perkis Sr., aka Papa, a Western Pennsylvania lamp store guru. Tony Perkis is absolutely one of the top 90s bad guys. Absolutely.
00:10:30
Speaker
He has so many iconic moments, some of the best lines that are still quoted to this day. He really like threw himself into that character. Even like the fact where like he goes on the run and someone tries to talk to him, he starts curling the bike. I love that. Oh my goodness. You know, that wasn't in the script. He was so into that character.
00:10:47
Speaker
You see a lot of comparisons between Tony Perkis and Ben Stiller's character, White Goodman, from Dodgeball. I think Tony Perkis walked so White Goodman could fly. There's a lot of theories out there about how Tony Perkis turned into White Goodman. I don't want to step on other people's toes. Just Google Tony Perkis White Goodman. I'm not going to go as far as saying that, but I will say that I think Ben Stiller absolutely channeled Tony Perkis when he was playing White Goodman. Absolutely.
00:11:16
Speaker
But watching this movie and thinking of Tony Perkis made me think of the best Ben Stiller villains. Okay. I want to list out to you my top Ben Stiller villains. Oh, I'm ready. Honorable mention, I'm going Arturo Mendez from Anchorman. He shows up in the street fight scene. He doesn't have many lines, but when he shows up, he's just like,
00:11:38
Speaker
Coming in at number three is Hal L, the Orderly from Happy Gilmore. This is a hilarious character. He was taking advantage of some old people, which is kind of a tough look, but so many classic lines. I got good news! We're extending arts and crafts time by four hours today! My fingers hurt. Oh, well, now your back's gonna hurt. Because you just pulled landscaping duty. Anybody else's fingers hurt? I didn't think so.
00:12:04
Speaker
Such a good 90s villain. Controversial pick here. I'm going white Goodman from Dodgeball at number two. Author of some of the best lines still quoted today. Nobody makes me bleed my own blood. I read about it. In a book. In a book.
00:12:19
Speaker
But at number one, I am going from heavyweights, Tony Perkis. So White Goodman and Tony Perkis are so intertwined, but I don't think we get White Goodman if it wasn't for Tony and his Perkis system. Also, we got so much more of White Goodman and he was the main antagonist through the entirety of that movie. There was a lot more opportunities for him to dial it up, be more involved, have some more hilarious lines.
00:12:45
Speaker
Tony Perkis was elite. At his core, he wanted to make money, but he's also trying to get kids healthier, which is like, that's good. That's true. Probably one of the greatest lines in movie history.
00:13:02
Speaker
We also have Tim Blake Nelson as Roger the Camp Salesman. Tim Blake Nelson is going on. He's been to like some Marvel things, I think. He was in Watchmen, the limited series, yeah. Jeffrey Tambor as Maury. This is Jerry's father. Jeffrey Tambor, probably most known from Arrested Development. Maury, such an a-hole. Big time. When he shows up for the parents' day and he's like, he hasn't lost a pound. That was hilarious, but yeah, he is.
00:13:27
Speaker
Nurse Julie is played by Leah Lael. The whole time of watching this, I just kept thinking she looked like Alicia Silverstone. She really did. Now that you mentioned that, I was like, she looks like someone else and I couldn't put my finger on, but yeah, totally. Paul Feig is Uncle Tim. You may know Paul Feig as the director of Bridesmaids. He helped create Freaks and Geeks with Judd Apatow. I love when we first are introduced to Paul. They do the kind of reverse fat shaming like they're making fun of him for being the skinny guy. Yeah, because he actually got into shape.
00:13:55
Speaker
Jerry Stiller and Anne Mira as Harvey and Alice Bushkin, the original owners of Camp Hope. We have Alan Covert as Kenny the Cameraman. Alan Covert from Grandma's Boy. He got a lot of repeat characters from past episodes. I know. I want to mention Tom Hodges as Lars, but only because of his body system. Don't worry, I have them on the body system. Body system? Yeah, have a look.
00:14:29
Speaker
I still don't know if he's saying body or buddy. I'm pretty sure he's saying body and buddy. Oh buddy. I love that. We have a cameo from Pete Berg. He's the cafeteria chef who when they're talking about Josh being missing says, well, he's dead.
00:14:43
Speaker
Pete Burt, well-known director, creator of Friday Night Lights TV show. He was also roommates with Stephen Brill. That's cool. I wanted to rank the campers from heavyweights. Sure. Let's hear them. At number six, Nicholas, the random kid from England who decided to come to America for camp.
00:14:58
Speaker
And I rank him so low because he is just an awful guard when he is guarding Tony. He gave him the food and then gets tricked thinking that Tony Perkis has a Hershey kiss. Dude, you handed him the food. You know there was no Hershey kiss then. But Nicholas being in the movie did lead to a hilarious Tony Perkis moment when he says, I see the president of the United States of America. And then everyone's like, he's from England. That's true.
00:15:21
Speaker
Coming in at number five, I got Jerry, the main character of Heavyweights. He's fine. He's a little weirdly obsessed with go-karts. Coming in at four, I've got Sims. He's the silent kid. I just like when they're pulling in and he's standing at the front entrance just shaking his head so ominously. Coming in at three, Josh Birnbaum. I really like when he returns to camp and he fakes like he had the lobotomy. That was good. He pulled it off pretty well.
00:15:46
Speaker
Coming in at number two, I'm going with Salami Sam. Ooh, Salami Sam. The actor who played Salami Sam sadly passed away in 2018, but he's the kid that does like the massive belly flop into the lake. But I just really respect anybody who gives themselves a nickname Salami Sam. It's a great nickname. And coming in at number one, easy pick here. That's Roy played by Kenan Thompson. He's got one of the best lines of the movie when Pat asked them after their night of feasting on junk food,
00:16:15
Speaker
Who wants to tell us the lesson we learned here? Don't put Twinkies on your pizza. Which is a valuable life lesson. I totally agree. That's what I've got for heavyweights. Why don't you tell us about Camp Nowhere.
Deep Dive: Camp Nowhere Cast
00:16:26
Speaker
Our lead character is played by Jonathan Jackson. He plays Morris Himmel, who goes by the nickname Mud. How do you feel about that one? Terrible nickname. I think I would transfer schools if people were trying to call me Mud. His dad called him Mud. I think I would transfer families if my dad was calling me Mud.
00:16:43
Speaker
I wonder where it came from. I wish we knew. Jonathan Jackson, you might know him also from General Hospital and Nashville. I do like the idea of his dad trying to like push him to being a nerd. Yeah. Usually you get the dads who are like, I want the superstar athlete or the moms who are like, I need the pageant queen. And this dad's like, I want the nerdiest dude in the school. Even the mom was like, yeah, you're on a nerd camp. Playing opposite him, Christopher Lloyd, he plays Dennis Van Welker.
00:17:09
Speaker
Christopher Lloyd, we all know where he's been in the past, but he is so good in this movie. He's so funny. Growing up, Christopher Lloyd, obviously Doc Brown from Back to the Future franchise, that's what I knew him from. And every time I see him in something else, he'll always be Doc Brown to me.
00:17:24
Speaker
watching him in this movie though he's legitimately hilarious he's like that different type of actor who especially in the scene where he's acting as the different camp directors or whatever yeah just like the range of acting he has to do he's just really good and he's so funny he reminds me of like some of those like you know like a Robin Williams or
00:17:44
Speaker
You know, just someone who just, like, had complete command of the scene. When I think about him, I think of Back to the Future, obviously, or Angels in the Outfield, where he's a little goofier. But like, I feel like this one, he's like this totally different guy in it. He takes non-funny sentences that were written on the page and makes them hilarious. Very naturally, too, yeah.
00:18:22
Speaker
I was thoroughly impressed.
00:18:30
Speaker
I do like how in this movie, because he was initially like a drama school teacher or something. Yeah. And they say he got fired because he wanted to make Silence of the Lambs as a musical. Right. Which is a great throwaway line. Especially for like a middle school or something. Oh, that's hilarious. He also quotes Winston Churchill, who Mudd does not know who that is. Yeah. And so he's trying to give him some background. He goes, Oh, he's the Jimi Hendrix of the spoken word. And then Mudd's like, who's Jimi Hendrix? The Michael Jordan of the electric guitar.
00:18:56
Speaker
I like it. Yeah, it was pretty good. And then it was pretty funny. The kid who played electric guitar plays the Star Spangled Banner, which Jimi Hendrix has a very famous version of that. I don't know if that was a little callback, but I thought that was kind of cool. Returning for us, Andrew Keegan, you might remember him from our She's All That episode. He is Zach Dell. He's like the tough guy, but then you realize that he's actually really good friends with mud. He's like, yeah, I don't walk down my hallway. I'm going to take you in the bathroom to beat you up. And then they just like chat, but it's like, I have your paper I did for you. Nice little friendship that they have there.
00:19:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. You have Marnette Patterson. She plays Trish Prescott. Her dad was just, he was not a good guy. He kept getting her confused with his, with her sister, which camp she was going to. He wanted her gone longer. He was like, oh, you're saying this camp is longer? Like, yes, I do not want you at the house.
00:19:42
Speaker
He had no time for his kids, no. Melody K. She plays Gabby Nowicki. You have Em Emmett Walsh. He plays T.R. Polk. He took me a minute. I had to look it up. I was like, this guy looks so familiar. He was Jill's dad in Home Improvement. The Colonel. Oh, interesting. Who appeared in a few episodes.
00:20:00
Speaker
So I know him from Christmas with the Cranks. He's like the neighbor. Burgess Meredith. He plays this guy named Fine, who he's the one that rents them the cabins for the summer. He's in like five seconds. But he's a legend. He was in so many things. He's Mickey from Rocky. He was in a bunch of Twilight Zone episodes way back. Just a legend. It's kind of surprising that he's in this. Maybe there's a connection that somehow they landed Burgess Meredith for this one role.
00:20:26
Speaker
Kind of interesting, one of the kids confuses Star Trek IV, so that's the voyage home, and Rocky IV in one of the scenes. So Burgess Meredith plays Mickey in Rockies I, II, III, and V, but not Rocky IV, and Christopher Lloyd was in Star Trek III, which is the predecessor of Star Trek IV.
00:20:41
Speaker
Nice little connection there too. Sure. And then also last but not least, this is Jessica Alba's onscreen acting debut. She was hired as an extra for two weeks with no lines, but she had a fill in for a principal character and then she received her first onscreen credit. Nice. Good for Jessica Alba. You got any connections this week?
00:20:58
Speaker
So Jerry Stiller, Leah Lael actually appeared in Seinfeld. Obviously Jerry Stiller is Frank Astanza. He's in a bunch of episodes. And then Ben Stiller was actually in an episode of Friends, which is pretty cool. We have our Back to the Future connection, which is a huge one. One other one I have for you. Did you know that there is one actor who appeared in both of these movies? No.
00:21:18
Speaker
and appeared in a previous movie we did. That would be Patrick Labreck. So he was in both of these movies and he plays George in Rookie of the Year. So that's one of Henry's friends. Interesting. He was hitting up all the 90s kids movies. He was also in Beethoven, which I don't know if you ever saw Beethoven with the dog classic. He plays Dawson in Heavyweights and then in Camp Nowhere. He works at the grocery store.
00:21:41
Speaker
So there you go. All right, best cast, you know, Christopher Lloyd, Burgess Meredith, obviously very big deals. But Ben Stiller as Tony Perkis is a legend. Then you throw in Kenan Thompson, the other guys from Mighty Ducks. You've got Paul Feig. You've got a cameo from Pete Berg. I mean, I don't think you can go one on one with the Perkis system and win.
00:22:03
Speaker
I agree. And I think the child actors too are way better in heavyweights. And like, yeah, I know we mentioned some of the legendary actors in Camp of Nowhere, but yeah, heavyweights might be too much of a heavyweight. Pardon my pun. Nice. So heavyweights takes round one, heading into round two, best moments.
Best Scenes in Heavyweights
00:22:22
Speaker
I really like the entire opening of Heavyweights. So it's the last day of school scene. I don't understand why when movies do these last day of school scenes, it's like papers are getting tear apart. Books are flying everywhere. I've been a part of many last days of school. That doesn't happen. It looks fun for sure. Yeah. Also, never been my experience.
00:22:43
Speaker
But Jerry misses the bus. It's subtle, but when the bus drives away, he just says, dumb bus. Foul ball is hit right in front of him. They say throw it back. He keeps throwing the ball into the fence, which is so funny. It's actually a secret fear of mine. And this is coming from a college baseball player and a baseball coach. But I'm always like, oh, don't screw up throwing this ball back. And maybe it stems from this movie because they're just laughing at him. Right. Maybe he walks past the girls that has the lemonade stand and he just drinks the entire thing of lemonade.
00:23:12
Speaker
Then the dog's barking at him and he barks back but then sprints away. It's really funny. It kind of reminds me of the Tommy Boy opening. Yes. Very similar. It was a great opening scene. This is short, but the first time you see the blob in the camp advertisement video and then one of the first days of camp when they're using it, how bad did everybody want to try the blob just in life? You know, that was the first question to all the campers had, like when we do the blob. Yeah. I've never done a blob before, but I want to really badly.
00:23:39
Speaker
I love the scene when the guys show all their hidden snack areas. Jerry's like, don't tell anyone, but I snuck in some Oreos. And they're like, chipmunks, download. And they just take out all the hidden stuff. They're like, all right, new guy. I always kind of wanted that, like a hidden snack area, even though I don't know why I would have needed it. It's cool, man. The Tony Perkis intro is phenomenal. He's like, I'm looking forward to interacting with children for the first time.
00:24:05
Speaker
At the age of 12, I weighed 319 pounds. I had bad skin, low self-esteem, and no self-respect. Now, I eat success for breakfast with skim milk. And then the kids are like, eww. When he's like leaving to the music, he's got his hands up trying to high five. Nobody high fives him until like one kid at the end does. Yeah. It's perfect. Tony Perkis' morning announcements are the best. Lunch has been canceled today due to lack of hustle. Deal with it.
00:24:47
Speaker
a dance scene when a girls camp I guess is invited to a like a dance social and they're all just standing there awkward and then Uncle Tim gets everybody dancing like he's a hero for that this is in my opinion where Tony became the real villain when he shuts it down once he realizes that they're actually enjoying themselves because he's trying to shame them yeah like you're not skinny then the girls won't like you it's like okay
00:24:51
Speaker
the scene.
00:25:09
Speaker
I could get behind you wanting these kids to get healthier. That's where it's like, you know what? You're kind of just an a-hole. The midpoint weigh-in scene is so good. So Jerry steps on the scale. He's like, you've gained nine pounds. Have you been cheating? Turn off the camera. He's got the camera trying to make a infomercial to sell this weight loss camp with him. Who he is when the camera's on is very different than who he is when the camera's off. So he's like, okay, turn on the camera. Josh Birnbaum, step on up. Get on the scale, son.
00:25:39
Speaker
Hey, get off the scanner. So good. So good. I call this the goodbye Josh scene. So the chipmunk bunk gets knocked on by a former camper who eventually helps them, but he's like anti them at this point. I don't know. It was weird. It was a long clear. But so Tony finds all the hidden candy and snacks and he's like, oh, look, a deli meat, which is like, what? It's ridiculous. But this is when Tony's like, who does this candy belong to? He's really pushing them. And Josh is like, the candy belongs to Seymour Butz.
00:26:07
Speaker
Who's Seymour Butz? Nobody's Seymour Butz and you! Then it cuts to the next morning. Good morning, campers. Joshua Birnbaum is no longer with us. His bed is now available. So good. Did you know originally the Seymour Butz joke was supposed to be Peter Fitz? So it was gonna be Josh saying that the snacks belonged to Peter Fitz and then Tony would say, Peter Fitz, who's Peter Fitz? And Josh would say, anyone's Peter Fitz if you push hard enough. Ooh, yeah. So it was changed to be more family friendly. Yeah, I can see that. Okay.
00:26:33
Speaker
The whole Capture Tony sequence is great, so they're going on a hike, and he's like, we're gonna extend the hike indefinitely, which what? He's off the rails. So then they set up this elaborate trap, and they ask him if it's possible to do a sit-up if you can't see or hear. And he's just like, there's so many myths about the abdominal muscles. I'm happy to put this one to rest. Like, that's not a myth about the abdominal muscles. The video that they show the parents when they finally come is so funny. The whole sequence with Tony and Josh,
00:27:01
Speaker
Just say, I love the food. I love the food. Okay, good. Here we go. So Josh, how do you like the food here? I love the food. Wait till I finish the question. He's one of the greatest movie characters. He really is. He's so good. So they play the video. He's sitting in the window sill doing like the slow clap and he's like, the villain was a bit over the top and he jumps down, breaks the glass and starts walking. Walking on it, yeah. He turns like legit crazy. He's gone.
00:27:25
Speaker
Apache relay scene, this is the scene where they're supposed to take on camp MVP and they always lose. These are the things that we saw in the Apache relay. A sack race, making a goal on a soccer goalie from the opposing team, an obstacle course, including a balance beam, monkey bars, climbing wall and zip line, throwing a football through a tire, shaving a balloon, and then they've got like the Hall of Intelligence where they only showed one question and then they have the go-kart race. Yes.
00:27:50
Speaker
I think this was really poor management by the camp MVP coaches. There had to be at least one smart kid at that camp for the Hall of Intelligence round. And also, what do you think the rules were? Could you time out of this section? Because that one kid from Camp Hope, he was never going to make it up that climbing wall. It seemed like the camp MVP kid was never going to guess all the vice presidents.
00:28:10
Speaker
Yeah, you could give him as much time as you want and he's never going to figure it out. But that's a fun scene. You know, they win and it's a big deal. And the part where he jumps the go kart over. It's good. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's cool. I do like the shaving the balloon part. Just a callback to earlier where Josh is shaving. That was kind of cool. I was like, why would that be an event? But I'm glad that they introduced that concept. And he was really good at it. So that was pretty funny, too. But good scene. It was a good way to tie up the movie.
Memorable Scenes in Camp Nowhere
00:28:37
Speaker
And the good guys win.
00:28:38
Speaker
So Camp Nowhere, you know, I was thinking about this movie. There's not many like scenes that really jump out, you know, like if you mentioned Camp Nowhere. Oh, that's the movie with that part. A lot of like little things. It's more performances and some smaller little jokes, but one of like the
00:28:53
Speaker
things was all the kids before they start their own camp their parents are gonna make them go to summer camps that they don't want to go to and just the names of them are pretty funny so here's a few of the ones that we have camp micro Chippewa so that is the real computer camp and then the fake computer camp is binary pines computer camp we have camp Broadway which is the real theater camp and then Shakespeare hollows which is the fake one pretty sweet name I think
00:29:19
Speaker
Camp Slender-ella is the real weight loss camp and then camp sleek away.
00:29:25
Speaker
is the fake one. Those are pretty solid. Camp Steelgrave, that is the real military camp. Alpha Charlie is the fake one. Both pretty cool. Yeah. Each of these camps, Christopher Lloyd's character dresses up like the director. He does a really good job, I think, like actually look like he would fit the role. So when he comes in for the computer camp, he looks exactly like Mud's dad, which is pretty funny. Why are so many of the camp names Native American themed?
00:29:50
Speaker
That's a good question. So like the New England area, obviously, is there's a lot of even like areas that are still named after Native American tribes and stuff. But something I read, which I'm like, this is pretty interesting, is people would just name it that to make it sound like romanticize it more. Interesting. Even if it had like no affiliation. So I was like, I don't know. It's kind of weird. But like, does that make it seem like more legit as a camp? It's interesting. Like was just an assumption because camp you're in a cabin or a tent or something.
00:30:17
Speaker
It is a good question. Something I had not thought about, but wouldn't mention it. It's like, yeah, that's true. Yeah. Anyway. So when the director for Camp Microchippewa, so the real computer camp comes, one of the parts goes, if your son goes to Camp Microchippewa, he'll learn more than just computer skills. How about basketball? That's right. Learn to shoot like a keem and the shack.
00:30:37
Speaker
Once counselor Dave shows you the trajectory, that was pretty funny. That was a laugh out loud scene. I like how, well, they call him the shack, but then I also like how they're trying to be like, look, you could do basketball, but they're talking all about the math of basketball. It'd be like going to a baseball camp and only doing advanced analytics. Right, right. Exactly. That's exactly it. So the fake computer camp then is called binary pines computer camp, which is a play on twin pines mall from back to the future. Like it.
00:31:01
Speaker
Great scene was when the kids all go to Dennis's, so that's Christopher Lloyd's character, go to his trailer, then the collections agent comes and he is looking to collect on a car that he bought in the past and hasn't paid up on. And so the kids kind of overhear what's happening and they're able to kind of get him out of that mess by, you know, moving the car when the guy goes and checks the garage and mud plays his son. And it's a fun little scene of like, you know, how are they, how are they going to get out of this one?
00:31:28
Speaker
That was a good scene. Another fun scene, which is, I mean, it's totally absurd, but I mean, hey, that's this movie. So they order all that stuff with all the money they have and then all the delivery trucks come at the same time. Yeah, naturally. But that was awesome. Like they open the truck and it's just all this awesome stuff. Anything you could want. As a 90s kid, it was like, oh my goodness, like they have it all.
00:31:48
Speaker
It reminded me of the Nickelodeon Toys R Us Super Toy Run. Oh, definitely, yes. Used to have like five minutes to load up as much in your shopping cart. I don't know, I guess what, do you just call and order that stuff? We would like 100 Super Soakers, a TV, I don't know. I don't know how they figured it out, but I like it.
00:32:05
Speaker
me too. So mud gets hurt, he gets injured, and Dennis then has to take him to a doctor and he's like, listen, like, let's get out of hand, whatever. But there were some good parts to like when he goes and meets a doctor who he immediately is like, wow, I like this doctor, they have some good back and forth to she's like, Oh, I need to see you again next week. And then Dennis is like, Oh, okay, I'll bring the kid to
00:32:25
Speaker
Just like some of those lines were pretty funny. So then like after they come back from the doctor, which I thought those two together, they were really good. Great chemistry and they played off each other really well. Mud asks, oh, are you sure you don't want to come in? We're all going to watch Beavis and Butt-Head. Phenomenal. I'm sure like none of those kids were allowed to watch that show, but now they're at summer camp by themselves. And at this point, too, Dennis is kind of living in his own cabin. He's like not affiliating with the kids. He's just there. Yeah. If something crazy happens.
00:32:50
Speaker
He's also hiding from the collection station. It's working out for both of them. Yes, we're all going to watch videos about it. And then he responds, you know, back in the sixties, when we said we wanted to change society, maybe we should have been more specific as a good line, get a lot of good, like throwaway lines that were just like pretty funny. What scene that kind of drove me crazy. I don't know how you felt about it. The one day it rains. And then like, all sudden the kids are like, we want to go home. This camp stinks. It's like, well, first off, it's not a camp. Yeah. Right.
00:33:15
Speaker
Second, you signed up for this. You could have gone to some of the place. But third, it's one day of rain when you're going to quit. And they're all like, we have no cable. But they just talked about watching Beavis. I don't know, man. We'll get there. But that scene drove me a little crazy. I do like then Mud asked Dennis for some help. Dennis sets up these Mud Olympics. At the camp I went to, we actually had Mud Olympics as well. So they would have like a whole field. They got super muddy and we'd do these things. I actually slashed the top of my foot so bad. I still have a scar on it. Do you?
00:33:44
Speaker
I was running through a tire and I hit the edge of a tire. And I don't know if there was like a nail or if it was just like a ripped hardened part of like the top of a tire. Oh, man. But yeah, I did like the mud scene. I mean, yeah. So the rainy day part, which drove me crazy, kind of it did lead to that scene, which was pretty good.
00:34:01
Speaker
And then again, like we mentioned Biff from Back to the Future, he's a cop. And so Dennis is now trying to trick him to think he's not doing whatever he's up to right now. So he's at the car wash and he's now pretending to work at the car wash and he's guiding the police cruiser in. He's like, oh, it's on me. Like I'll pay acting like he works there. And so he's walking through the car wash with the car.
00:34:40
Speaker
Family Day scene, it's great. It's kind of like the climax at the end where it's very elaborate. It's cool. It reminds me of like some scenes from like the Sandlot. It's fun how all the parents are coming at different times, but they're coming to the same camp. So how do you disguise the camp? And so the banner that hangs over, they have different ways of changing it. All the banners are kind of stacked. And so they rip one off and then the next one shows whatever camp it is. So that was cool. And then when it comes to the computer camp, they are simulating that they are like hacking into the Pentagon or something. Yeah.
00:34:54
Speaker
his pants get stuck.
00:35:09
Speaker
And the whole time kind of like a running thing is like the camp is right near some sort of airport where there's jets, like military jets doing some exercises or whatever. And so they're pretending to hack into the Pentagon, but they're actually playing a computer game where you scramble jets and then the jets kind of take off. So that was kind of cool how they tied that back in. That was kind of fun. Yeah, making it seem more realistic. Where do you think they got all the computers?
00:35:31
Speaker
I don't know, like where did those show up? Did they order them when they did their crazy ordering? There's a couple more, you know, some dentist lines that were funny. After Mud goes to the doctor, he's like, all right, don't forget your pills, four every hour. Mud's like, no, no, no, that's one every four hours. And he takes a bottle and he goes, it's not the first time that mistake's gotten me in trouble. And then the part in the grocery store where Zach is gonna buy beer, he's like, oh, I'm buying it for my dad and my dad can't come in, whatever. And the grocery checker, can I see your ID? You gotta be 19 to buy this stuff. Which again, 19, this is before, you gotta be 21.
00:36:00
Speaker
Which I don't, I mean, I feel like the drinking age has been 21 since like, I was a state thing. I don't know. Whatever. That wasn't that long ago either. And so he's checking the ID. Oh, you're born in 1963. Zach. Yeah. And that would make you access 21. He's like wrong. It's 1994. That would make you 31. But then Trish comes in. She's like wrong. If he was born in 1963 and he's 21, then it's 1984. Like she's so dumb that she's like, no, you're wrong. You're off by 10 years. Pretty funny. That was good. That was good.
00:36:27
Speaker
I don't know, I mean, Camp Nowhere, definitely some good parts. It's an enjoyable watch, and there's some really funny lines in it, specifically from Dennis, but I mean, Tony Perkis, once again. Yeah. All of those scenes with him are so good. And then the Apache relay at the end is really good.
00:36:46
Speaker
It almost takes on like an underdog sports movie kind of feel. It does. That's the part that gets me. Like you kind of assume with any of these movies that they're going to win. Yeah. But like it was a very unique scene just like with all the different events. But then like that final like jump. That was cool. That was really cool. All right. So we'll go heavyweights here for round two. Heading into round three. Better title or soundtrack.
00:37:08
Speaker
The title, Heavyweights, like it's cool. It's catchy. You say heavyweights. Most people know what you're talking about. I mean, it's kind of a mean title. Heavyweights. Yeah. I mean, it works. But at the same time, it's like if you weren't aware of the movie, would you think it's boxing or something? Yeah. So it's fine, but it's not like the greatest title I've ever heard. To me, Camp Nowhere sounds more like horror movie esque.
00:37:29
Speaker
But did you know that there's actually a bar named Camp Nowhere in Providence, Rhode Island, and it was actually named after this film, and the bar is themed after the film? That's pretty cool. So I think if we're going like title to title, I guess I lean Camp Nowhere, because at least it says camp in it, so you kind of know what you're getting. And the fact that a bar is named after it is cool. For the soundtrack, Camp Nowhere has like
00:37:53
Speaker
The Camp Nowhere song, which is fine. Has the song Linger by the Cranberries, which is fine. Apatow Movies are always known for having great music. This has some really good music in it, Heavyweights. Closer to free by the Bodines. That's the song playing in the opening scene. They've got La Freak, which is that freak out. Classic. Has You Sexy Thing and I Want Candy. Good music. So I feel like for music, I would lean Heavyweights. Yeah. That puts it at a one-to-one. When that happens, we always go to the poster.
00:38:23
Speaker
Gotta go to the poster for the tiebreak. So you want to describe the posters, Alex? The poster for Camp Nowhere. We'll pick one of them because I have multiple. It's just illustration of just this crazy scene of kids doing all sorts of their crazy stuff. You know, someone looks like they're jumping off.
00:38:38
Speaker
a roof into the water, someone on a bicycle dressed up as they were for the relay race. All sorts of fun little scenes within it. It reminds me a lot of the Wet Hot American Summer poster. Also grandma's boy and animal house. Exactly. You know that style. It's a lot of fun. You can pick out all these little Easter eggs in it, which is pretty cool.
00:38:58
Speaker
The heavyweight poster is the campers holding like a submarine sandwich with Lars in it over their heads. He's the deli meat. It's fine. It's fine. I read a quote from writer Judd Apatow who said the studio showed him a bunch of potential posters and he was like, these are all great, except for this one. Don't use this poster. And the poster that they used was the one he was like, don't use.
00:39:23
Speaker
So I feel like I'm going to concede the poster battle to Camp Nowhere. But also, I like that style poster. Hidden Easter eggs, hidden parts of the movie. It's fun. The drawing on it is cool because you don't see that too, too much. Like the cartoonish poster. Yeah, if you see that now, it's almost like retro. So Camp Nowhere takes round three. Heavyweight still leads two to one, heading into round four. Plot holes, cringiness, random questions.
Plot Holes in Heavyweights: Does it Make Sense?
00:39:52
Speaker
All right, Rob, I will go first for you. So I will be pointing out plot holes for heavyweights, cringiness, and I will ask you some random questions. So to start with some plot holes for heavyweights. First of all, would you be able to sell the camp when the kids were actually there? So like the camp starts and the kids are there and then they're like, oh yeah, we sold it. Cause we went bankrupt.
00:40:10
Speaker
I mean, I'm not fully up on bankruptcy law, but I feel like you wouldn't be able to be accepting people's money and campers to a camp if you were in bankruptcy court. It's a little sketchy, right? Yeah. There's channels you would have had to go through. I don't think it's just like, oh, you've been here for a couple of days, but we don't have the camp anymore.
00:40:28
Speaker
It's not like going and buying an ice cream. It doesn't work the same way. Okay. I thought about this so much. When they go on their indefinite hike, they kind of trap Tony and the hole in the ground that they make. How did they get them out of there? Yeah. Into the makeshift jail. And how did they get them all the way back? Cause you know, they hiked for a long time. That's a phenomenal question.
00:40:45
Speaker
And then even like to build off that, how did they then capture all of the other counselors and tie them up to a tree? I don't know, but I did like when they put honey on Mars. That was pretty funny. And they're like, there's no bears in this and they hear him screaming. And it's, uh, what was the animal? It was like a deer, right? Yeah. Yeah. It was like licking them. Yeah. That was funny. All right. So where did all the money come from? So the money that I'm referencing, they had like the secret stash, like in a tree stump that they would leave money in and then someone would put food in it, like take the money. Like where's all that money coming from?
00:41:14
Speaker
I guess maybe if you go to camp for an entire summer, your parents would give you like a hundred bucks or something. Yeah. But they were buying so much. And it's like, I don't know if their parents would continue to send money because we did find out that Tony was hiding the outgoing mail. And then also where'd all the money come for that massive junk food party that they had? Yeah, right, right. Who's bankrolling this? Yeah, I don't know. It's good questions.
00:41:37
Speaker
Alright, some cringy. I mean, we lived the 90s, but like looking back on it, it's crazy the stuff that... Yeah. Like this movie does not get made in 2024. No. With like body shaming and... It's kind of sad. I mean, I feel like there should be a way that you could figure out a way to do this movie, but it wouldn't. They would never make a movie about like this type of situation.
00:41:55
Speaker
And if they did, you know, it'd be the talk of the town like, Oh my goodness, can you believe? All right. This might be like one of the more cringier things. So end of the movie, they win the Apache relay. Pat gets a trophy. He throws into the lake and then camp MVP. It's like, you know, obviously that's all they want is a trophy. So like, you're crazy. And they like run after it to go retrieve it. But then he says, you bet them crazy, crazy about my gal. And then he just kisses her, which it's like, they had no relationship to that point, right?
00:42:22
Speaker
no she showed like some inklings of like this is a nice guy yeah i would want to get to know him but he was so shy and not that the whole movie i mean when i was a kid watching it i never thought of it but watching it this time around i'm like okay crazy about my gal is one of the worst lines
00:42:40
Speaker
It's not that we have had in any of the movies we've done and we have had some bad lines. Yeah, that one was bad. I'm fine with them ending up together. I didn't like it tied in that way. Yeah, right. Right. Right. If I was her, I'd be like, oh, actually, yeah, sorry. Never mind. So I thought we were friends.
00:42:58
Speaker
Some random questions for you. Camp MVP shows up. They play softball. The coach shows up with their team wearing baseball pants. All the players are in shorts. That was random. Also, here are the runs scored by inning Camp MVP 7-11-9-16-9-9. Little podcast math that gives us 61 runs. Yeah. Which. Yeah. Ever hear of a 10 run rule? Yeah. I mean, that game would not continue probably after the second inning. They'd be like, what are we doing here? Waste of time.
00:43:25
Speaker
I did find it funny that Camp Hope only had one helmet that they were rotating. So the person would bat and then like toss the helmet to the next. That part was funny. They'll go back to the nurse and they're all like banged up and stuff.
00:43:36
Speaker
Okay, so the main characters in the movie, they are all in the chipmunk bunk, but was this the only bunk at the camp? Because everything revolves around just the characters in that bunk. Yeah, and it seemed like Tony Perkis was very focused on that bunk. Yes. In the beginning of the movie, they alluded to multiple bunks and different age groups, but then it was like, you'd have to imagine like Tim had a bunk, like there were other counselors that probably had bunks, but we never saw any of those kids doing anything. Yeah, right. Yeah, weird.
00:44:03
Speaker
I actually have a random question. What do you think happened to Tony Perkis after he gets taken away from camp and his father pays everybody or whatever to not press charges? Yeah. So what happens after the Perkis system? So there is a post credit scene where we do see Tony and he's going. Oh, I miss that. He's going door to door and he's attempting to sell healing crystals or what he calls transformational facilitators. OK. But he gets the door slammed in his face.
00:44:45
Speaker
One question I had about the movie Heavyweights is how much of this was inspired by the Bill Murray comedy Meatballs from 1979. Besides both movies being centered around a summer camp, there are a number of similarities between the two films. And the writer-director of Heavyweights Stephen Brill had done this before with The Mighty Ducks being a more kid-friendly version of the Bad News Bears, another 70s classic. So here are the major similarities I found.
00:44:52
Speaker
So, another unsuccessful business venture.
00:45:11
Speaker
Both movies use camp morning announcements for joke purposes. One of the funniest lines in Heavyweights is Ben Stiller's character, Tony Perkins announcing, attention campers, lunch has been canceled today due to lack of hustle. And in Meatballs, Bill Murray has an announcement saying, arts and crafts has been canceled due to bad taste.
00:45:28
Speaker
Pretty similar there. Both movies feature an awkward dance social and family day scene. Both movies have a rival camp that is used as a major plot point. In heavyweights it is camp MVP and in meatballs it is camp Mohawk. Both movies have a scene where the good camp plays the rival camp in baseball and both movies finale involves the good camp competing against the rival camp in an end of summer competition.
00:45:51
Speaker
In Heavyweights, Camp Hope has never won the Apache Relay, while in Meatballs, Camp Northstar has lost the Olympiad 12 straight years. And yes, both of the good camps defeat their rivals in this competition with a last second win in a race. In Meatballs, it was a running race. In Heavyweights, it was go-karts.
00:46:09
Speaker
So while this does nothing to stop my love for the movie heavyweights, writer Steven Brill definitely took some liberties borrowing from a beloved 70s movie the same way he did with The Mighty Ducks and Bear News Bears. Very interesting.
Plot Holes in Camp Nowhere: Believability Check
00:46:21
Speaker
Let me talk to you about the plot holes I have with Camp Nowhere. So I think these kids would have gotten caught way faster.
00:46:27
Speaker
I know the internet wasn't really a big thing at this point, but I still think like none of the parents talked to each other. They weren't suspicious about only having one bus for four different camps. Yeah. Then they're going into town and they didn't make it seem like this camp was that far away from where they all live. They were going to like the mall.
00:46:45
Speaker
When Andrew Keegan tries to buy beer, they're doing stupid things that I just think would have led to them being caught. Absolutely. The internet makes this idea almost impossible to pull off now. Right. The 90s, you could potentially get away with it, but I just think those kids weren't careful enough. No. Or also, all those kids' parents were just not involved in their lives at all.
00:47:06
Speaker
Well, we know like one set definitely were, but yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. Only cringiness I had was similar to heavyweights. There's some fat camp language that wasn't great. Mudd talking to that other girl about how she was lumpy and was going to grow a chest. Like they were trying to do it for comedic purposes, but it was weird. She was not fat either at all. Yeah, that drew me crazy. I was like this poor girl. I don't know how old the actress was, but she couldn't have been more than like 13, 14 years old. Yeah.
00:47:32
Speaker
Right. I always think that when these actors are playing parts that are getting like ridiculed for something physical, that's got to hurt a little bit. Oh, yeah, totally. She wasn't out of shape at all. Anyway, some random questions. Who are these camp salesmen that go and visit people's houses and play a videotape of the camp advertising? Both movies had it. I've never seen it in real life.
00:47:53
Speaker
Again, as a non-camp kid, was this a thing in the 90s? Did people actually do this? I don't know. I could potentially think, if it was a church camp, maybe somebody goes to a church and sets up a table at a church or something, but who's going to people's houses? I don't think any camp is that flush with resources to pay somebody to do that. Right, totally.
00:48:12
Speaker
So you'd mention this but when it was raining they said they didn't have cable but earlier they were watching 90210 on TV which was definitely a cable show. Yeah. The one kid burned his cello I just think that was a poor decision. Yeah that wasn't smart. You're gonna need it at some point. Trish says at one point that it's 30% off at the mall. I'm not sure that's how malls work. Like I don't think it's just 30% off everything in the mall.
00:48:32
Speaker
Everything at every store. Yeah, that was weird. When Mud's having dinner with Dennis and the doctor, he says he hates lima beans. Dennis doesn't want to pay you a dollar for everyone to eat. He eats 70 lima beans. I'm not sure I've ever eaten a lima bean. I just wanted to say that. If you lined up 10 beans, I could not tell you which one is a lima bean.
00:48:49
Speaker
So what would the crime have been against Dennis? It would have been fraud, right? Yeah. He'd be going to jail regardless of if they were pressing charges, I would think. Right. Like the police were still there. Yeah, right. Exactly. He's getting in trouble. I also felt like the doctor lady got over the fact that Dennis lied to her really fast. Yeah, she's like, whatever. Like she found out and wasn't even mad. No.
00:49:10
Speaker
They also got that camp cleaned up exceptionally fast for parents day. Very fast. It looked great. It did. All right, Rob, I have a question for you. Was the movie Accepted inspired by Camp Nowhere? Just real quick, the movie Accepted came out in 2006 and stars Justin Long. And it's about a group of high school seniors who have just graduated who create their own college. So right off the bat, we have some similarities between kids who create a college versus kids who create a camp.
00:49:36
Speaker
So Camp Nowhere came out in 1994, whereas Accepted came out in 2006. So just thinking about the timeframe between the two movies, it kind of sets it up nicely for the kids who watched Camp Nowhere to have grown up and then will watch Accepted and kind of make the connections between the two. I feel like the nostalgic factor kind of plays in. Both movies involve characters using their parents' money that they have been given to use to spend on whatever they want to spend it on.
00:50:02
Speaker
Both of them enlist an eccentric older character to help them facilitate their new institution. And actually both of them work at the mall. Yep. So Louis Black in Accepted works at a shoe store and Christopher Lloyd works at like a cheese place in the mall.
00:50:19
Speaker
Both of them start off as really low key plans, which eventually blow up when the word of mouth spreads to everyone else who wants to get involved. Both of them have Parents Weekend, which in both movies they have to create an elaborate plan to then trick their parents. Both movies eventually they get caught and there are no repercussions.
00:50:37
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of plot beat similarities there for sure. It's also funny that at the end of Camp Nowhere, they allude to starting a fake college. They do, which is pretty funny. They kind of have like a wink, wink moment. I like it.
00:50:52
Speaker
Alright, so for round four, I think it comes down to what do you think is more of a plot hole? The kids in camp with nowhere not getting caught? Or the kids in heavyweight being able to transport Tony and the rest of the counselors to their holding cell tied up to the tree?
00:51:09
Speaker
When I think about it, I just don't see any world where Tony Perkis gets transported from that hole to their makeshift jail. No, me neither. And then like they even created this makeshift jail, which is pretty impressive in itself. That to me seems like a little more on the unbelievable side. So we're going to give this point to camp nowhere. So we are two to two heading into round five, our miscellaneous question of the week. Which camp would you rather go to?
00:51:39
Speaker
Is this a Tony Perkis Camp Hope or is this a after the fact that he is gone? This is after Perkis is gone, Pat is running the camp. Think about it. I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of a kid going to camp with like all your friends, no adults, doing whatever you want. I have all this money. Sounds pretty awesome. But at what point are you just like, man, I hate this. I don't want to make my own food.
00:51:59
Speaker
I don't know. I just want to be a kid. I want an adult to take care of everything. I think that Camp Nowhere would be fun for a week. I think Camp Hope would be fun for the summer. I think you need a little bit of structure. You need something to build towards, so that Apache relay, there's more to do at Camp Hope. Camp Nowhere is basically sit around, swim in the lake, watch TV, but you're making your own food. Even if the food at Camp Hope isn't great, it's still being made for you. Exactly.
00:52:27
Speaker
I'm going Camp Hope here. Yeah, and Camp Hope is being kept up by someone too. Okay, so Heavyweights takes that, three to two, heading into round six, Better Trivia. While Ben Stiller played the parts of both Tony Perkis and his father, the Bushkins were played by his actual parents, Jerry Stiller and Anna Mira. Jonathan Jackson's soap opera mother, Jeannie Francis, has a small role as Arnold's mother. Arnold's father is played by her real life husband, Jonathan Frakes.
00:52:56
Speaker
While filming the scene where the kids have a party after locking up Tony Perkis and restoring camp back to the way it was, Aaron Schwartz, that's Jerry, injured his arm. His cast had to be hidden in scenes featuring him after that. Oh, I had no idea. All right, Rob, you're going to like this one. Andrew Keegan and Hilary Tuck both guest starred on the season three episode of Boy Meets World, entitled The Happiest Show on Earth, each of them playing a potential love interest for Topanga and Corey, respectively.
00:53:24
Speaker
Jonathan Jackson, who plays Mudd, plays Ricky Ferris, a potential love interest for Topanga in the season five episode entitled Starry Night. I love a little Boy Meets World trivia. I know you do. I'll also give you a little bonus for the Back to the Future connection. That's true. Biff and Doc. So I think we go camp nowhere here. I love Boy Meets World. I love Back to the Future. That takes it. Agreed. Three to three heading into round seven. Better story, better script, more fun.
Which Movie Wins? Heavyweights vs. Camp Nowhere
00:53:54
Speaker
Heavyweights is a very fun movie. It's funny. It seems like even the villain is a fun villain. Camp Nowhere is pretty funny, too. They have like that random dropout storyline where Andrew P. character is like, I'm going to drop out of school. And it's like, I don't care about this. Yeah.
00:54:12
Speaker
Agreed. I kind of forgot about that, but it did not do anything for me. Camp Nowhere was way better than I thought it was going to be. Yep. And I think it's better than the filmmakers thought it was going to be. It felt like it was filmed almost as like a B movie, like a TV movie. Yeah. I honestly thought it was like a Disney Channel original movie. Sure. It kind of gave off that vibe, but the script was pretty good. There was funny lines and Christopher Lloyd did a phenomenal job.
00:54:39
Speaker
But it's really difficult to pick against a movie like Heavyweights where there are multiple moments throughout that movie that still resonate with people today. Tony Perkis and his quotes still resonate with people today.
00:54:57
Speaker
chipmunk bunk and hiding all of the snacks in the cabin. I think many people will have strong recollection of that. And then a small thing, but you say the blob to anybody that's seen this movie even at once and they know what you're talking about. Absolutely. I think the setups like the setup to Camp Nowhere was really good, almost better than the setup to heavyweights, but the finish of heavyweights was better.
00:55:22
Speaker
Yes. The buildup to the Apache Relay, like I said earlier, it kind of turns this into a sports movie. And who doesn't love a good underdog story? Yeah, absolutely. Camp Nowhere just ends like, okay, you got us, kids.
00:55:37
Speaker
whatever, nothing bad is happening. Whereas, heavyweights actually built to being like, look, you guys can do these things that you didn't think you had any chance of doing. And there's a little bit more of a heart to heavyweights. Yeah, when I think about Camp Nowhere, I mean, immediately I'm like, if Christopher Lloyd was not in this movie, how bad would it be? I don't think it's a bad movie. I had a ton of fun watching it. I'll probably watch it again at some point.
00:56:00
Speaker
It's good. I like what you said. I think the build up, the camp nowhere, you kind of get a little bit of a backstory of who these kids are, where they're being pushed. And they're just like, I don't want to do that. Whereas heavyweights, like the opening scene is hilarious. It's great. But then all of a sudden he's at fat camp. It's like almost too quick for me, but it doesn't get any worse as the movie goes on. No, it just builds.
00:56:20
Speaker
And yeah, that final scene is great. It's long, which is fine. It's probably like the final third act, but it ends on such a high note. Things pay off. It's great. Yeah, the way Camp Noor ends, it almost seems like an afterthought. Like, oh shoot, we have to end this movie. All right. Like, all right. We'll see you later. Like we'll go our separate ways. Had way more potential, I think. And I think you're right. Like it does seem like you would have just seen this movie on TV and then been like, Oh, that was actually pretty good. With heavyweights, it's interesting. Cause it's like, I wanted more. Yeah.
00:56:46
Speaker
When Camp Nowhere was done, I was like, that was fun, but like I'm good. Exactly. I don't want more. I'll watch it again, but I don't want more. Heavyweights, that was a world I liked being in. If they had a sequel to it, I wish I don't know how you do a sequel, but I would have been fine with a sequel. So for me, Eileen Heavyweights, that's the better story. Me too. So Heavyweights wins this movie showdown, camp match up. What do you rank in these films? Heavyweights, I'm going to go with an even 80 and Camp Nowhere, I'm going to give a 67.
00:57:15
Speaker
I am going heavyweights in 88 and Camp Nowhere 68. All right, then. You have anything you want to close out with? Yeah, the only thing I'm going to say is, I mean, more camp movies, more fun camp movies, not horror movies. All right. More fun camp movies. And this is coming from a guy that hates camp. Yeah, you're right. You know what? Like now, as an adult, I appreciate the idea of camp way more. Maybe we should go to one of those adult camps. Doing it as an adult, I think, would be a lot more fun. Have a little break from the kids. Yeah, we'll go to camp.
00:57:44
Speaker
Well, this has been the movie showdown with Rock and Rob. Make sure to like, subscribe, rate, and review all that fun stuff. And follow us on all the socials at Rock and Rob Show. Until next time, peace. I'm out of here. Lunch has been canceled today due to lack of hustle. Deal with it. Nice.