Heavyweights (1995) Disney/Comedy RT: 100 minutes Rated PG (rude language, gluttony, pranks) Director: Steven Brill Screenplay: Judd Apatow and Steven Brill Music: J.A.C. Redford Cinematography: Victor Hammer Release date: February 17, 1995 (US) Cast: Aaron Schwartz, Ben Stiller, Tom McGowan, Kenan Thompson, Shaun Weiss, Paul Feig, Leah Lail, Tom Hodges, Jeffrey Tambor, Nancy Ringham, Allen Covert, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, Tim Blake Nelson, Judd Apatow. Box Office: $17.6M (US)
Rating: ***
Think of Heavyweights as Meatballs crossed with a junior Weight Watchers meeting. It could have been nothing more than an extended fat joke, but it’s anything but. The fat kids are the heroes as opposed to the butt of every single joke.
Heavyweights is your basic underdog comedy, a “slobs vs. snobs” affair that pits the overweight youngsters at Camp Hope against the snooty athletic kids at Camp MVP in the finale. They are not the real enemy, however. That would be Tony Perkis (Stiller, Meet the Parents), the psychotic new camp owner who turns a fun place into a living hell. Ah yes, the fun-hating adult authority figure as nemesis. It’s a formula that tends to work more often than not in comedies aimed at the preteen and teen sets.
Although it bombed at the box office, Heavyweights has garnered a cult following over the years. One of its fans is filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights) who told co-writer Apatow it’s a film he loves. With that kind of endorsement, I’m surprised he didn’t immediately start to work on a sequel. I probably would have enjoyed it myself. Heavyweights is a funny, good-natured summer camp comedy with enough rude humor to please the 12YOs in the audience. It doesn’t pretend to be anything more than that. The only mistake Disney made was not releasing it in early summer just as school let out. It’s the ideal movie for that time of year.
On the last day of school, Gerry (Schwartz, The Mighty Ducks) learns his parents have signed him up for Camp Hope, a weight loss camp for boys. He doesn’t want to go, but changes his mind after seeing a promotional video that shows the campers having a blast. It doesn’t take him long to make new friends like veteran camper Roy (Thompson, SNL) and longtime counselor Pat (McGowan, Ghost World). It’s shaping up to be a great summer until he and the rest of the camp learn that the original owners (Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, Ben’s parents) went bankrupt and had to sell Camp Hope to fitness entrepreneur Perkis.
The new owner, a real meanie, announces his plans to initiate an intense exercise program and film the campers’ progress for a weight loss infomercial. Camp Hope quickly becomes Camp Hell as the lunatic confiscates all the junk food smuggled in by the campers and cuts off their contact with the outside world. He demotes Pat to groundskeeper after bringing in his own staff. He dismantles the go-karts and deflates “The Blob”, a huge moonbounce that sits on the lake. Instead of showing the kids a good time, he humiliates them with regular weigh-ins and verbal abuse. Some of the kids decide enough is enough and devise a plan to bring Tony down.
I could sit here and talk about whether or not Heavyweights is responsible with its message about a positive self-image in the context of a comedy about fat kids. I won’t do that because the fact that these kids are fat is precisely what makes it work. There’s never been a movie where this subject has been approached as anything other than a joke. How many teen comedies of the 70s and 80s had fat slobs in them? A few come to mind- Animal House, Meatballs, Joysticks, Screwballs and Up the Creek, just to name a few.
In Heavyweights, the fat kids are the main characters while the jocks are the villains. By way of a climax, the two camps compete in an annual contest involving much physical activity. Yep, it’s pretty much the same conclusion as Meatballs. It’s completely predictable, but it works just the same. We’ve come to like the chubby underdogs and root for them to put those conceited jocks in their place.
That being said, I’d like to point something out about Heavyweights, something that may escape the viewer’s notice. I’ve already stated that the fat kids are NOT the target of ridicule. That position is taken by Tony Perkis, a stand-in for all those obnoxious, in-your-face self-improvement gurus who hawk their programs on annoying, in-your-face infomercials in the wee hours of the morning. These people are ridiculous and director Steven Brill (Mighty Ducks 1 & 2) takes full advantage of this. Perkis is a complete idiot in addition to being a sadistic bully. Ben Stiller turns in a hyperkinetic performance worthy of Jim Carrey.
In short, I like what Brill does with Heavyweights. I don’t want to make this picture sound like it has any gravitas. Perhaps I’ve overanalyzed it a bit? It’s a fun, lightweight comedy that’s sure to entertain the kids. The soundtrack is pretty good with vintage 70s tunes like “You Sexy Thing” (Hot Chocolate), “Saturday Night” (Bay City Rollers) and “Love Machine” (The Miracles). My only real complaint is that I would have liked to have seen the romance between Pat and the attractive camp nurse Julie (Lail, Little Nicky) developed a bit more. Still, it’s an enjoyable little movie about a bunch of big kids with bigger hearts. Disney should go back to making cool flicks like this instead of expensive wannabe blockbusters. Please spare us Pirates of the Caribbean 5 and the like.
