Product Details

• Actors: Brad Renfro, Dominique Swain, Keram Malicki-Sánchez, Emily Bergl, Jordan Bridges
• Directors: Daniel Waters
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: New Line Home Video
• DVD Release Date: June 18, 2002
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000067J13
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #46,535 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Happy Campers" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Happy Campers vacillates from being a ridiculous parody of summer-camp life to being a genuine examination of adolescence. Camp counselors Brad Renfro (Apt Pupil, The Client) and Dominique Swain (Face/Off, Lolita) have very different approaches (she's super-perky, he's a moody rebel), but find themselves irresistibly attracted to each other as the camp falls into chaos over the course of the summer. What keeps this basic plot from being completely cheesy is a basic honesty about youth--Happy Campers doesn't shy away from the cruelty, sexual frustration, and general awkwardness of being a teen. Despite its inconsistencies of tone, the movie is a more compelling portrait of adolescence than any John Hughes movie, and the attractive, likable cast--also featuring James King (Pearl Harbor) and Emily Bergl (The Rage: Carrie 2)--will keep you engaged. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description
A comedy about a group of teen-aged counselors who take charge and spice up the everyday routine of the camp. Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 02/03/2004 Starring: Dominique Swain James King Run time: 94 minutes Rating: R

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Awakening Passions at Camp Bleeding Dove, June 22, 2002

By	interested_observer "interested_observer" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

"Happy Campers" examines a group of summer campers at Camp Bleeding Dove, somewhere near the Carolinas.

The focus of the film is found in the relationships between seven camp counselors. Wichita (played by Brad Renfro) wants to get through the summer by being practical and honest with the campers and without entanglements from the other counselors. Wendy (Dominique Swain) wants a more romantic and ideal environment, which includes having an enduring relationship with Brad. The other counselors eye each other, with a couple looking extra hard at Brad.

The kids have their traditional issues: homesickness, bee-stings, epileptic fits, crushes, ogling, lampooning the other sex, reading porn magazines, and the like.

I suppose the "R" rating comes from a few mild sex scenes, displays of condoms, and a bit of quasi-lesbian foreplay. After satirizing camp life, the immanent return to the outside world triggers some political correctness. [Though having the one gay counselor tell the possibly gay-to-be kid to wait until he is 18 before trying anything is not necessarily consistent with what the other kids get to hear.]

The counselors' acting is pretty good. The standouts are Brad Renfro, Dominique Swain, and Justin Long (of "Jeepers Creepers"; here he is a geeky counselor with a hopeless crush on Wendy and is the buff leader of the kids' water condom-balloon attack on most of the other counselors).

There is the usual hokiness (like an unexpected hurricane), smarmy emerging sexuality, and happy-enough ending. The DVD had no commentary track or behind-the-scenes materials. "Happy Campers" has a few interesting characters and segments in a familiar setting.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great sleeper hit! WATCH This movie ASAP, November 13, 2003

By	John La Rocca (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Today, teen comedies involve a lot crude humor and the kids just never learn anything. "Happy Campers" has BOTH, and mixes them well which will satisfy a wide audience. Why I never saw this movie get a national release is beyond me. This movie was ten times better then American Pie's or any of the other lousy and souless teen movies.

What was written in this movie growing up I lived through. One character in the movie goes off on the same feelings I once had.
This story really taps into what kids go through today. This is a must watch folks, sit back and enjoy some laughs as well as somethings to think about from you youth or if you are in this age group of the kids in the film they might cover issues and feelings you are currently going through.

Fantastic movie!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars get out of my head man!!, September 8, 2002

By	"cheezer98" (DeKalb, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happy Campers [VHS] (VHS Tape)

WOW!! That movie was so explicitly and explicitly expressive about so many truths about knowing yourself and others. Not to mention the fact that they picked the perfect venue, for I've never found a more intensive place to grow and learn than at a summer camp for the entire summer. A very poignant thumbnail sketch of the intricasies of the mind of a camp counselor, and camp counselors of all kinds, to top it off.