2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A surprisingly good independent film ..., August 3, 2005
This review is from: Camp Stories (DVD)
I found out about this movie in a fairly unusual way: the summer camp used as a location for filming was owned by close relatives and I watched the video while visiting my relatives at the actual location where as a 10-year-old I'd been a camper myself, only a few years after the era portrayed in this film.
The actual camp, Camp Mohawk, was nothing like the Orthodox Jewish camp portrayed in the film. It was not a religious camp and discipline was merely the bare minimum necessary to keep campers from drowning each other in the lake. It was pretty casual.
The summer camp shown in Camp Stories, on the other hand -- if writer/director Biegel is to be believed -- was more akin to eight weeks spent at a Young Communist camp in the Soviet Union: a maniacal head counsellor on a power trip, an Orthodox Jewish camp owner who thinks rock and roll is obscene, religious rules that kept boys and girls on opposite sides on the camp, the slightest infraction punished by dangerous physical torture -- and a sign posted near the mail room promising campers that any mail complaining to their parents would be censored.
As I said, the actual summer camp this movie was filmed at was nothing like that.
But as an independent film, this picture is of studio quality, with a remarkable cast including Elliot Gould, Jerry Stiller, Jason Biggs, and Paul Sand. I thought the acting was good throughout, the writing and directing appropriate to the subject, and good use was made of the locations.
The script is a not-untypical story of minor teenage rebellion against the artificially repressive sexual code of the 1950's -- or at least how the Baby Boom campers remember it. It's a boy-meets-girl-on-the-other-side-of-the-tracks story, a sexy-wife-cheats-on-her repressed husband story, and a religious-culture-meets-the-outside-world story. The Orthodox Jews portrayed in this movie are only one step less out-of-touch than the Amish portrayed in Witness -- in other words, clueless. And, of course, any healthy teenager without salt peter in the food is not going to take to this sort of religious repression without a fight.
Technically -- for writing, acting, directing, cinematography, editing, and musical score -- I gave this movie a 4 out of 5.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
ridiculous, December 7, 2008
This review is from: Camp Stories (DVD)
this may have been the worst movie i ever saw. such bad acting, even from the accomplished actors. the story line is virtually non existent. it is so monotonous and goes no where. it doesn't even deserve one star. horrible!
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Arguably the worst movie of all time..., November 5, 2005
This review is from: Camp Stories (DVD)
"Camp Stories" is a movie that ironically does not have a story, let along stories. David (played by Zach Zaylor) is forced to attend a Jewish all-boys camp when he would rather stay home and watch movies all summer. His parents tell him the reason he must go is, "Because your Jewish!" I knew I was in for a long 90 minutes when I heard that line. David quickly establishes himself as a hot-shot when he accepts a challenge from the reigning rafterball champ, Paul (Kris Park) and beats him. From there, David's camp adventures just get more and more exciting (YEAH RIGHT). The movie suffers from a lack of anything that would keep a viewer interested. The actors just plod along in a very episodic manner, there is literally nothing that happens in this movie that you will remember 5 minutes after you finish watching it. I served as an extra in this movie, and was unfortunate enough to see how poorly this film was made. How they got the actors they did (Elliot Gould, Jason Biggs, Jerry Stiller) is beyond me, but sadly I don't think any actor could have saved this script.
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