August 13, 2025 • 47 mins
Jimbo and Bond take on Meatballs! starring Bill Murray in his first feature film role. Find out if Bond or Jimbo liked this summer camp movie on this episode. Enjoy!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
The Tragedy of Cinema podcast is intended as a family
friendly program that, by extengen strives to be inclusive to
all people, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, creed, or any
other identifying factors in this incredibly diverse world of ours.
With that said, some of the films we discuss may
contain serious subject matters or have content considered morally objectional
by today's standards. We do not intend to condone or
(00:26):
dismiss these aspects of these films, but our primary focus
beyond what we believe our film succeeds at some fun
facts and our personal enjoyment factors of each film. With
that said, we help you enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
On Lights, Shingles, Jolty Slights eighty three, Lights in the Realm,
Light movies, and TV food through the stories we all know,
st Screen Tails, on Food in Magic State, the Stu
(01:12):
Fronty Sitema, every Shimmer Joys.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
If we tell Hills we have some.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
You saw what he did to Saturday Night? Now watch
Bill Murray Demolish Summer See three hundred Kids from the
(01:56):
City Escaped to the Woods called Our Summer of Fulsome
in the Sun.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
On the program, director Jerry aldine.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Is that a pry you're wearing or are you expecting
an assassination account?
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Can I have what doctors call very active plans to brews?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Are some seriously.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Really meet the head counselor who knows the facts of
life but forgot them?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
What's going on here?
Speaker 5 (02:23):
So this year each camper will stalk and kill his
own bear in our private wildlife preserves.
Speaker 6 (02:32):
The camp rules. Or you would like hill take a
look at these europe.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Want to check these out a little bit later.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
I would like, yeah, for now, but if you don't win,
we cut it off.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
But more important than the score of this game is
to score at the big social at our place than I.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
It's not how you'd play the game, but how you
win that counts. Let's tell you you get read hand
at Hunter for the cover the human rest.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Welloth for real excitement. Of course, it's gonna come at
(03:45):
the end of the summer during Sexual Awareness Week for
two hundred propers from around the world. In each camper
armed with only a furnace of coffee two thousand dollars cash.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Trying to visit as many countries as he can, and
the winner, of course.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
Is named King of Sexual Awareness Week.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
You'll be cheering for Bill Murray this summer in Meatballs.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
All right, welcome back to the Tragedy of Cinema podcast.
As you just heard on that trailer, that trailer's poor
quality too. I don't know what the deal is with that,
but I let Bond pick out another movie, and he
chose from nineteen seventy nine, the movie Meatballs. I am
your host, Jimbo, and I'm joined by the meathead himself. Bond,
(04:39):
why would you pick this movie?
Speaker 5 (04:42):
This movie's a comedy classic, is it? Yeah? It stars
one of one of all time eighties comedians, Saturday Out
Live Alone. When I go through this movie, you're gonna
come out loving it. This was his first role, so
his first lead role man.
Speaker 6 (04:59):
In the film. So, Bond, what is your favorite Bill
Murray movie? That's a good that's a deep one.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
My favorite Bill Murray movie is probably What About Bob?
Speaker 6 (05:15):
Great movie. I'll tell you what. I'll tell you one
of my favorites. A lot of people don't like it,
but man, groundhog Day is pretty funny.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Groundhog Day is I was gonna actually say that, that's
like one of my top two or three.
Speaker 6 (05:28):
I mean, screwgs.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
You just pretty good too, Ghostbusters. But I don't say
that's a Bill Murray movie, right, Yeah, If you're talking
about him carrying the lead.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
I have to go with what about Bob or groundhog Day?
Speaker 5 (05:41):
You're saying groundhog Day?
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Yeah? All right, bon Well, that's all I had. I
want you to go ahead and take it away.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
All right, man, Let's let's break this one down.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
Break it down.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
Please.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
I'm dying to hear what you gotta say.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
About I'll pick out. I'll pick out. I'll pick the
two thorns out of the movie, and then the rest
will be a rose. It'll be a rose to you.
We're gonna let it.
Speaker 6 (06:02):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Meatball's nineteen seventy nine comedy film directed by Ivan Rightman.
Ivan Rightman is a legend, a legend. He produced Animal House.
If you go through his biography, you'll see movies like Stripes, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters,
Two Twins, Kindergarten, Cop Space Jam. Stripes was a really
(06:24):
good Bill Murray movie too, exactly. I mean, Ivan Rightman,
he's gold when it comes to eighties comedies and eighties movies.
Everyone has seen an Ivan Rightman movie is written by
Lenn Blum, Dan Goldberg Janice Allen, but mostly written by
Harold Ramis. Harold Ramis, of course, is egon from Ghostbusters
(06:47):
one to two and the New Ghostbusters. Of course, he's
also in Stripes. He plays off of Bill Murray's character
in Stripes, so he's a legend. He actually co wrote
Animal House. Yeah. He has directed movies like Vacation, Caddy Shack,
Groundhog Day, So he's a legendary director, legendary writer, and
(07:09):
a legendary comedian, Harold Raymons and Gone Too Soon. Yeah,
I agree, I agree. Daniel Goldberg produced this one. This
movie stars all Right, Here we Go. As we mentioned,
it stars Bill Murray in his favor his first starring
role where he was the Starry in the Headliner as
trip Our Tripper Harrison. He's known from the nineteen seventy
(07:33):
five SNL crew with some of the original crew, I
would argue the best Saturday Night Live crew. So maybe
that first five years he's in movies like Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters,
Zombie Land, Scrooged, Caddy Shack. What about Bob Little Shop
of Horrors. Yep, he's in that one too, and way
(07:56):
too many movies to mention. He's in so much stuff
now he's a legend. He's a Hollywood legend. Now you'll
also see Harvey Atkin as Morty Mickey Melnick, right, the
camp director of the Does he own the camp or
is he just a camp director?
Speaker 6 (08:15):
I think he's just the camp director.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
Amy Okay, Well, Harvey Atkin, Morty Mickey Melnick. He is
the voice of King Coopa in the Mario Brothers cartoons.
I thought that was awesome. He's also on TV's Cagney
and Lacy back in the I guess That's early nineties.
Speaker 6 (08:34):
That was a great show too.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
That was and he won a Genie Award for his
role as Mickey. A Genie is a film award that's
based in Canada. This is a Canadian movie. Not many
people know that, but this this movie is a Canadian movie.
It was filmed in Canada. It's the whole productions in Canada.
(08:56):
Harold Ramis is Canadian, so the whole thing is a
Canadian movie. He won a Genie Award, which is an
acting award in U in Canada for this role. So
it is an award winning movie. So that's one point
for me, Right, that's one point for me because I
get a word movie. It also stars. Uh, Katie Lynch
(09:18):
as Rock sand I guess that's a tripper or Bill Murray's.
Speaker 6 (09:21):
Okay, Well, here's where you're gonna lose a point. Did
you find that whole relationship a little bit weird? Like
scene you get into the sexual assault. Yeah, yeah, I
was gonna say that. That's where I had a little
bit of a problem there, buddy, we can get.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
To there is that one awkward scene. Oh, she, by
the way, won a Genie Award for the Best Supporting
Actress in this movie. That's two Genie Awards. Now they're
handing out these Genie Awards. I can't I was gonna say,
do this.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
Can hear everybody you show up? You get one?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Is that?
Speaker 5 (09:53):
Like the kid's choice of awards was nominated?
Speaker 6 (09:57):
Say? She the only nomination.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
But okay, since you mentioned it, let's talk about the
awkward sexual assaults.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
There's a scene in the movie where the two camp counselors,
the head the head camp counselor for the boys and
the head camp counselor for the girls, are supposed to
be going over the schedule, the master's schedule for the
camp for the week, and Morty, the camp director, says
I'm going to leave you two alone. You guys go
over the schedule. Then it just becomes awkward.
Speaker 6 (10:29):
I was like, what am I watching this one. He's like,
I don't know, man, he was like an uncaged animal.
And then she's like, no, get off me, and I'm like, oh, okay,
we're going there already. It's like at the beginning of
the movie.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
And then it's I'm thinking nineteen seventy nine, maybe that
was considered for play and sexy, but translated to twenty
twenty five, that was not that.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
No no no yeah, no no means no man. And
then it turns out fun I don't want to say funny,
but like basically he's on top of her on the
couch and she kind of pushes him off, and he
grabs onto her and rolls where he's on top of her,
and he's like, uh, let me go, let me go,
and the counselor walks back back in, you know, or
the head guy walks back in. So I don't know, man.
(11:18):
I I didn't find I felt I felt uncomfortable during
that scene. I didn't find it funny.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
I just found it kind of weird watching it through
today's eyes, I felt the same way. Yeah, they're on
he's on top of her and she's like, I'm gonna
scream and he goes.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
Me too, screamed together.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
Yeah, and then yeah, he rolls her on top of him.
And then when Mickey comes in, he's like, oh, you
saved my life. She was an animal.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
But then, but then the whole the problem I had
with this movie is the whole premise is basically about
the boys getting with the girls, or scoring with the girls,
if you will, because if you remember when they're walking through, uh,
the counselors and training or whatever. When he's walking through
and he goes, oh, this this is the fourteen year
old girls cabin, he's like, but you stay away from
(12:03):
don't touch them their jelbait or whatever, you.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
And there's just that whole awkward scene there, and then
there they go to like the six year old boys
cabin and which you know, you know, something they never
did come back to about that poor kid's froggy that
was dead. I was waiting for him to come back.
I was waiting for him to come back and say,
you know, have the guy go find a new one
and put it in there or something. But no, they
just left that poor Froggy, you know. So it's so
(12:28):
it was really weird. I couldn't even tell you the
plot of this movie.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
Well, let me go, let me finish up some quick cast. Yeah, yeah,
I'm not going to go through every single c I
T counselor training. There is Bobby Crockett played by Russ Brandon.
He actually grows up and becomes like a pretty predominant
financial reporter for the Wall Street Journal. So yeah, I
was pretty He's a writer for Forbes magazine. Now, okay,
(12:55):
we have Christine Debelle as a l She was a
player boy model and she's in a movie called Big
Brawl with Jackie chan Hm. So yeah, your favorite and
my favorite team member, Spaz is played by Jack Blum.
He is a Canadian writer and producer. Now so he's
(13:17):
done a lot of writing, he does a lot of producing.
He was in a movie called Happy Birthday to Me,
a classic horror movie from around that time, and he
was also in the six million Dollar Man made for
TV movie. H Yeah, it's pretty cool. Keith Knight plays
his best friend Larry fink Finkelstein.
Speaker 6 (13:36):
He's funny too. The hot dog eating contest.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Oh Man or the part where he's like he gets
his pants, the girls take his pants off while he's
underneath the building. He's a spaz.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
What are you doing?
Speaker 6 (13:47):
They're hitting with the fly swatter.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Oh yeah, they're spaking with the flight slaughter. He was
in My Bloody Valentine and he is a predominant voice actor.
But here's something kind of tragic about Keith Knight. He actually,
at age fifty one, he died really young from brain cancer.
So it's a shame, man, It's a shame because I
really like him in this movie. Now, the arguably the
(14:12):
second main character is the camp counts, the camper Rudy Gerner.
Rudy is the curly haired boy who comes in. He's
all depressed. Apparently his mom had died right before camp,
right before, and his dad kind of like doesn't know
how to deal with him, so just drops him off
at camp to deal with his grief. And so he's
(14:34):
on the verge of leaving. He's about to jump a
train bus and get out of there. But Chris make
Peace plays the role of Rudy Gerner. He was in
another movie that I like, I haven't seen it forever,
called My Bodyguard.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
I don't know if I've ever seen it.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
Yeah, it's a it's a great movie.
Speaker 6 (14:51):
Oh yeah, wait hires the big guy the helped fight
his fights for him.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
Yeah, this other guy, Yeah, the other guy like with
a leather jacket. Yeah, Smoker hires him to like be
his bodyguarden.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
I've seen it. It's spent a long time.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
He was also a made for TV movie Mazes and
Monsters with Tom Hanks. You see the Tom Hanks made
for TV movie Mazes and Monsters.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
I don't remember it. Maybe if I saw it.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Was a play like it was a playoff Dungeons and Dragons.
Speaker 6 (15:21):
Huh.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
That was when Dungeons and Dragons was really big. And
so they made a made for TV movie called Mazes
and Monsters.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
Glad to check it out.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
And he was nominated for a Genie Award for his
role as Rudy Gerner, but he didn't win. He was
not made, but he didn't win.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
Did they win anything besides a Genie Award?
Speaker 5 (15:41):
I'm afraid not.
Speaker 6 (15:42):
Okay, so that's one for me.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
I'm afraid that they actually, uh, they did very well
in the Canadian market words right here in America not
so much. The movie was a big hit. The movie
was a big hit, all right. So our budget for
our movie was about one point two million dollars in
nineteen seventy nine, right, which is about five point three
million today. So that's a really low budget. I don't
(16:09):
know how much of that went to Bill Murray, but
that's a really low budget. The movie worldwide grossed seventy
million dollars in nineteen seventy nine. That's equal to three
hundred and nine million today. To think about that five
million to make it made three hundred and nine a
(16:31):
lot of most profits in each profits man in this movie.
Oh did it come out nineteen seventy nine, like I said,
June twenty nine, and uh, it had a running time
in ninety four minutes. Ninety four minutes. So that's the
that's the cast of Meatballs. A great film. So I
(16:53):
get another point for the profit of course, because it
made it.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
It was a big pro You're just trying to get
points because you know with all the this movie.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Okay, so this movie is about a rundown camp. I'm
not gonna say it's too rundown to me. It seemed
like an average camp and the only one just across
the lake was the rich camp. So you have Camp
north Star, which is like for the every man, and
that's where that's where I would end up going to
Camp north Star, the every man. You know there, every
you know, everyday kid would go to that one. And
(17:21):
then across the river is Camp Buhawk and that's like
for the rich kids. And I don't know this movie.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
I liked it.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
I thought it had a lot of good funny parts. Man,
how could you, I mean, how could you not think
there were funny scenes in this movie?
Speaker 6 (17:38):
There is funny scenes, But as far as telling a
cohesive story, like a linear story, it goes all over
the place. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 5 (17:50):
I'll agree with that. Okay, So here's here's the two
things that I struggle with in this movie. First, I
love this movie. I think it's hilarious. I'm not gonna
I'm not gonna chop it up too much. But the
two problems I have is one, the music in this
movie sometimes becomes distracting me. Are You Ready for the Summer? Yeah?
I like what we all saw the meat balls. I
(18:13):
like that song. I like the are You Ready for
the Summer?
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I like that.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
I think because those movies are those songs fit this movie, right.
If this movie is supposed to be silly, funny, sexy,
you know, nineteen seventy nineteen sexy, If it's supposed to
be all of those things, then those two songs fit.
I'll even say, when they're at the social, all the
CITs are at the social and they're all dancing together,
(18:38):
they're I'm making it do Do. That's fine too. But
every once in a while they'll stake in a song
that's like real slow and sappy. Like there's like that
one running scene where Bill Murray and make Peace are
running together and as they're doing their long distance run there,
it's like this long, drawn out, sappy nineteen have any song, yep,
(19:02):
and it just kills the mood. It kills like the
whole Is this movie supposed to be silly? Is it
supposed to be fun and funny? Because that song drains it? Oh?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (19:11):
I think I think the problem with this movie is
it didn't really know which direction to go because you
were trying to have Bill Murray play a serious, almost
like a father figure to this kid, comforting this kid
that had just lost his mom, while also being over
the top like he would wake up every morning because
he was the morning guy on the radio, put on
his helmet and do all the announcements over the radio,
(19:32):
and you know, just pulling gags like he would pull
a gag on the director where he puts his bed
on the side of the road, you know, or in
the middle of the lake at the end of the movie.
It's just it was it was kind of going back
and forth, like I understand, like you would have a
scene where the girl pulls up on the boat and
pulls the one guy in and she's like I like you,
(19:55):
and she's he's like, yeah, but aren't you with the
other guy he was with on the dot. He's like, yeah,
well he's a total jerk. And he's like I'm a
total jerk, you know. And then then the next thing.
I mean, they never go back into any conflict between
those two characters or anything. It's just like a drive byke,
you know what, like a like patches of stories like that,
or like the lady that's spray painting the baseball field,
(20:19):
remember and she does something. Yeah, So there's little like
there's little like segments of stories that they didn't finish.
It was like they gave you this lead way here
but they didn't complete it.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
I agree. I think they needed to add another thirty
minutes on make this movie inn even two hours thirty
minutes on. Like you said at the beginning, resolve the
part about the dead frog, right, the little cutest little
boy in the world. He's got this heat frog and
the box and his little friends with they nine or
something like. He's sleeping. He's not deady sleepy, he's tired.
(21:01):
He's just tired.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
And the councilor says, I'll take you guys, go get
some some sleep. I'll take care of the frog. And
he shuts the box. That's the last thing you hear from.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Yeah, like you said, he should have. They should have
shown a scene where he picks up a frog from
the side of the lake, puts it in the box
and it gives it back to the kid and said, hey,
he's better now. He he's awake. I guess he had
a good nap.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
And you can tell you and the kid could go,
that's not my frog, or you know, just something. Uh so, yeah,
that's it was all over the place for me. I
ain't gonna lie.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
That's not Dennis Hopper, that's the name of frog.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
That's Warner J Frog, Hello, my baby, exactly.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
But I get that there's a lot of strings out
there that work tied up. Yeah, Like you said that
would be romance, there's a lot of would be romances
out there that are stuck tied up. Does Spaz ever
get with his tomboy girlfriend?
Speaker 6 (21:55):
I I thought if they would have explored the two
that they're playing tennis with, I thought that was gonna
be Spas and Fink's girlfriends or attempts to be a
But they never really do anything with Fink's character beside
beating the stomach or whatever at the hot dog eating contest.
You never see him get and he looks any love
any screen time basically. But I mean Spas gets a lot.
(22:18):
But I don't know, it's just it was a little
bit sow for me and those the storytelling.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
And then my second thorn that I have in this movie,
Like I said, I have two. My second thorn is
make pieces role. You know I'm saying, Rudy, Rudy Gardner.
I don't know. I just every time he comes in
the movie, it drags it down. I mean, I get
he's supposed to be depressed.
Speaker 6 (22:45):
Which one Which one's kid?
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Yeah, the Little Kid. Yeah, you know Bill Murray's friend
Rudy Gerner, and it's like every time he comes on
the screen, it just brings the movie down. It's like, oh,
this movie's fun, it's lighthearted, there's good jokes. You know,
I want to go to this camp and they show
the scene and the music change.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
Now we're going to be a serious movie.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yeah, And I get what they try to do. They
try to like add heart, right, you want to have
the heart to the movie, and like Bill Murray's character
is the heart of the movie and he's trying to
help this little boy get over his grieving process. I
get all that, but it drags this movie down way
too much.
Speaker 6 (23:28):
All good, all valid points.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
So what do you think about the competition between the
camp Mohawk, the Olympiads or they've lost like eleven or
twelve in a row.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
It's typical camp movies. It's like, you know, like, what
was it Ernest goes to camp? It's like, what's another
camp movie where they did it? That's like a typical
camp thing. Oh, it's us against them, you know what
I mean? But basically usually a.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
Movie set that standard, though, I mean, are there other
movies like that.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
Because of this movie, was trying to think of some
other camp movies that I know of, and all I
came up with was Ernest Goes to Camp. This one
parent trap has one at the beginning. I think there
was the same campsite for this is used in the movie.
I think it's called Camp Rock or I got it
(24:19):
in my nose somewhere camp something, Camp Rock, I think
in two thousand and eight. So because this is a
real campsite they used in Canada.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Yeah, yeah, it's a real camp.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
So I mean, I've been to summer camp and I've
been on those teams, you know, and and I will say,
like when they go to the mess hall and everybody
gets up and starts doing the different cheers, we had
to do that at our camp. We had to, you know,
each table like ours was yo baby, Yo baby, Yohio,
our cabin was Yohio. You know, you got to be
(24:47):
a rascal or you gotta go, you know what I mean.
And then there was another one that was We're awesome,
We're awesome. Hit him in the head with a big
dead possum, you know, Ei, there's different chance you learn
and you do.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
So ours was whenever somebody said whenever they came out
and said, oh, yes we have some announcements, then everybody
go announcements, announcements, an announcements. But yeah, there was there
is the camp chance chance and camp cheers and stuff.
Speaker 6 (25:13):
And let me ask you this question, did they ever
show like a camp nurse?
Speaker 5 (25:19):
No? No, no, there's I don't I don't think there
was a camp nurse.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
Well, I'm just saying I didn't know. You know, with
that depressed kid, you thought, maybe how did this kid
just go to a bus station?
Speaker 5 (25:32):
That bus station's got to be within walking it's.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
Gotta be closed, because I mean, I was like, well,
this kid is just.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
Part about that scene that bothered me the most was
the fact that Bill Murray ordered some fries, put ketchup
on it, ate one fry, and then they got up
and left, and I was like, but what about the fries?
You didn't eat your fries?
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Right?
Speaker 5 (25:52):
So this movie it was a very large pair of
pants from the flagpole.
Speaker 6 (25:56):
Yep, this movie is a train wreck. But uh, is
that all for the cast?
Speaker 5 (26:04):
Fun?
Speaker 6 (26:05):
Is that all you had for the cast? Before I
dive into some trivia.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
That's that's all I have for the cast?
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Man?
Speaker 6 (26:10):
All right, well we'll talk some trivia. See if it
changes my mind or your mind any So, here we go. So,
according to one of the featurettes on the DVD, several
of the shots in the movie were added after initial
filming ended. These scenes that were filmed include Rudy and
Tripper at the bus station and of them playing blackjack
(26:31):
for peanuts. That's another scene that was weird. Why did
they put this playing blackjack for peanuts in there? That
didn't need to be in there.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
They didn't bother me, And that one didn't bother me
because it's like Rudy doesn't have any friends at camp.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
It's Rudy has a camp counselor that has to be
accountable for him. Yeah, if he's missing, if he's missing
from your cabin, all this time getting up running with
Bill Murray and all this, and there's gonna be a problem.
But during the time off, Chris Makepeace had entered puberty
and had the beginnings of a mustache. Bill Murray decided
(27:10):
that if he had that, it had to go. So
he took make Peace over to a sink, lathered him
up a soap, and shaved off his mustache. So make
Peace received his first ever shave from Bill Murray.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Dang, I wish I had my first ever shave from
Bill Murray.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
Do you even shave? Jason? Every time I've seen you
got that baby face? I did have it.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
I'll have you know. I haven't shaved in three days.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
Yes, some move, says a baby's bottom. John Belushi convinced
Bill Murray to accept the part of Tripper, pointing out
that would be Murray's first film and he would be
the star. This is the first starring role, as we said,
of Bill Murray, and his name is above his top
billing above the movie posters. So the red shorts and
(27:53):
colorful Hawaiian shirt that Bill Murray is seen wearing in
the movie were his own clothes. So he actually owns
that stuff.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Okay, So here's what I had heard. I had heard
he didn't show up to filming.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
Till the first day of shooting.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Day.
Speaker 6 (28:06):
Yes, the first day of.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
Shooting, showed up in that clothes and short, in that
shorts and that Hawaiian shirt and said, okay, let's start. Yep,
that's why he doesn't wear a camp clothes.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
Yep. They actually wanted John Landis to do the filming
of this movie, but because of what he had did
on Animal House. But he turned it down because he
was too busy working on another movie, Bond from nineteen eighty.
Can you guess what it was? No, the Blues Brothers.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
Oh, that's a good reason not to do Meatballs.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
I don't know. Meatballs might be better than The Blues Brothers.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
I just I like the idea of The Blues Brothers
and Meatballs being filmed at the same time. Yep, that's awesome.
Speaker 6 (28:52):
So this movie was filmed in an actual summer camp
towards White Pine and Halliburton, Ontario, which is a few
hours north of toront On. Many of the extras in
the film were actual campers and counselors of the camp.
Some of the featured players were Canadian based actors. Most,
if not all locations were actual camp facilities, which include
the basketball courts, the mess hall, the swim docks, the cabins,
(29:15):
et cetera. The visitor Day scene montage was actually filmed
during the camp's visitors Day. White Pine also had a
similar yearly event to the Olympiad, though though rather than
being a inter camp competition, it was an intra camp
relay type competition that was just part of the overall
all Day themed event. These competitions were nicknamed Mohawk Relays,
(29:38):
perhaps serving as an inspiration for the name of the
rival camp. In this movie, all the cast members did
their own stunts, so we didn't have to pay any
stuntman for this. This was the first major studio picture
directed by Ivan Repman. All Right, bond, it's never explained
what a meatball is? What is a meat all by?
Speaker 5 (30:02):
That drives me crazy? Why is this movie called meatballs?
Speaker 6 (30:06):
Right, I'm asking you.
Speaker 5 (30:08):
It's just a term that means craziness, wackiness. Well, the
whole thing's just gone meatball.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
Well it's called it's a general term for a silly
person because if you remember, on the tennis court, Spas
gets called a meatball by fiend.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
True.
Speaker 6 (30:21):
So yeah, I was like, I didn't know why they
called it meatball. I don't know. Speaking of meatballs, do
you like meatballs, bond I? Do you ever had you
ever had you ever had the Buka Debeppo? Do you
got Buka Debeppo's down there? They got meatballs the size
of your fist. Oh they're good.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
So this this Texas is not somewhere to go if
you want meatball.
Speaker 6 (30:42):
Yeah, you want barbecue probably. But this filming was done
from August seventh, nineteen seventy eight, to September sixth, nineteen
seventy so it was just thirty days of filming. So
that's it's unbelievable that they can turn a movie around
that quick. Oh, the film was Camp Rock in two
thousand and eight, was use the same real life camp
facilities as this movie. Okay, the first day of production
(31:05):
shoot was also the first day of camp scene in
the movie. So now, Bond, if you were to direct
a movie, would you shoot your film scene by scenes,
starting out the beginning or would you jump around and
then try to splice them all together.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
I think you have to. You have to jump around.
You have to film all your all your mess hall
scenes have to be filmed in one day two days
at the most. And then anything having inside a camp,
like inside of the cabin, then you fill on all
those bunks and all the cabin scenes together. You film
all When the CI is go camping, you film all those.
(31:41):
You spend a week on the water filming all the
water scenes. I mean, that's why you storyboard a movie.
You storyboarded out so you can make stacks of bore
of cards and say this is all the scenes inside
the camp, this is all the scenes inside the mess hall.
We're gonna do this scene because if not, you end
up you can't film a movie in order. You can
(32:03):
can't do it? You can, well you shouldn't.
Speaker 6 (32:08):
Well, what I'm saying is, if this isn't a thing
where you have to build sets over and over and over,
you're at a campsite, so you could hease very easily
shoot this in order and not have to worry about
tearing down stuff and building stuff back up because it's
all going to be on the set already.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
That's probably where they saved a lot of money right there,
just on all sets they have to building sets. I
have impressed that the actors did their own stunts. I mean,
there's not a lot of stunts, but I'm thinking like
when they're on the water, and when Mickey is up
in the tree, you know what I'm saying, he's like
in a bed up in a tree, or he's out
in the middle of the lake kind of thing. Oh yeah,
(32:43):
there's not a lot of big stunts in this movie.
Well what about the basketball game? Where was it? Hardware
Ram's face first inside it into the pole. He breaks
his nose and they're like, it's going to get bigger.
All the girls were worried about his nose getting bigger.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
Of the film's three sequels, only Meatball's Three Summer Job
has any story connection to this movie, So maybe we
get a little bit of a backstory to this. According
to the book Are You Ready for This? Wild and
Crazy Guys? By Nick D. Simlin, Is that what you're reading, Bond?
Speaker 5 (33:18):
That's the book I just finished reading, right.
Speaker 6 (33:21):
Bill Murray didn't agree to make the movie until the
first day of shooting. Ivan Redman had been trying to
secure a deal with Murray for several weeks, but Murray
was disinclined to work that summer as he was following
a certain AAA baseball club on the road. He also
wasn't sure about making movies, as the sudden fame of
Saturday Night Live was overwhelming to him and he feared
(33:41):
a movie career might exacerbate the filling. In the end,
he did decide to make the movie, and when he
arrived on the set, the first thing he said to
director Ivan Redman was, this is kind of crap, referring
to the script. So I just thought that was great
because you just told me the other day that you
were reading this book, and I was like that, I
think that is the exact book.
Speaker 5 (33:59):
That the exact same book Wild and Crazy. Guys. I
just finished it yesterday, right, So I bond.
Speaker 6 (34:04):
If you wanted to go to Camp Mohawk in Canadian
dollars per week, it would have been one thousand dollars
per week in nineteen seventy nine, which be the equivalent
of three thousand, three hundred and fifty three Canadian dollars
per week and twenty twenty dollars per week.
Speaker 5 (34:20):
That's thousand a week.
Speaker 6 (34:22):
That is crazy. Then you know you had Rudy reading
a comic book featuring the Thing from the Fantastic Four,
and I did not know this. You may have, but
I didn't. A few years prior, Bill Murray provided the
voice of the Human Torch and Johnny Storm and a
Fantastic Four radio drama WHOA I did not know. I
(34:43):
did not know that, so I might have to find that.
See if I can find Bill Murray being the Human
Torture Johnny Storm, it could be good. And then of
course he would later join the Marvel Somac Universe in
Nateman in the Wasp, Quantum Mania in twenty twenty three.
So Bond, that's all the trivia I had. Why don't
you go and tell me persuade me that this was
a good movie, because I don't think it is.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
All right, So this is a great movie because every
comedy scene is a classic. I mean, the scenes with
Fink and Spas are great. They're out there playing tennis
with these girls and he on the serve. He throws
his racket over the net and when she returns it
to him, and I love Fink. His fing's like, see
(35:27):
the way she gave that racketback tea she wants it man,
It's that's hilarious. Just some of the sight gags are funny.
The hot dog eating contest is funny. The pep talk
that Bill Murray has because it just doesn't matter, It
just doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. That's fun. The
(35:51):
movie's fun. Like I said, there's a couple dragdowns where
you're like, come on, guys, this movie is kind of
getting funny. This movie is kind of getting fun, and
then there'll be a scene that kind of kills it.
I we talked a little bit before. I kind of
agree with you in the fact that this movie doesn't
translate to twenty twenty five as well as it should.
(36:12):
You know, it's forty six years old, and it was
a lot funnier forty six years ago than it is today.
I watched it today and I was like, I remember
this movie being a lot better than it was. So
I'm not going to say it was a great movie,
but it was a great comedy. It was a I mean,
there's there's some funny parts. It's silly it Like you said,
(36:33):
what you mentioned like three camping movies, and this movie
is what sets the bar for camp movies and fun
movies like that. So I really liked it. I thought
it was really cool.
Speaker 6 (36:44):
But what are you rating at their bond? This is
really good at it. This is what we really want
to know.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I know, I know.
Speaker 5 (36:53):
Okay. First off, my prop is very easy. I want
a Camp T shirt. I want a Camp north Star
T shirt because if you walk around with a Camp
north Star T shirt on how many people are gonna
recognize that as as a meatball shirt?
Speaker 6 (37:08):
Well if you get a Camp Mohawks shirt, but oh.
Speaker 5 (37:11):
Because that what people hate me. I don't know what,
people hate me. I'm gonna give this movie a six
and a half.
Speaker 6 (37:22):
All right.
Speaker 5 (37:23):
It's it's not an average, it's above average. It launches
Bill Murray's career even further. It's above average. It's a
six and a half.
Speaker 6 (37:31):
All right. I'll probably get some hate from this, But
I'm not a big Bill Murray fan. I think there's
only a couple of movies I really liked him. Man,
He's just got a style that I don't really like.
And I'm not saying nothing bad against him because he's
he's been in a ton of stuff. He's made a
lot of money, and he was on Saturday Night Live
(37:53):
and all and all that. So for him, for it
being his first film and this, I I have to
agree with him. The script was kind of crap. I mean,
he said it. I'm gonna repeat what he said. It
was hard to follow. I don't know why. Even if
you were gonna make that zany comedy, you didn't even
(38:14):
need the boy in there, the depressed little boy. You
could have just had this has been a great movie.
You could have just had Spas be the hero, you know,
And when the Olympothod at Olympiad at the end, because
about you.
Speaker 5 (38:29):
Know, having the whole movie be about canceling counselors and training.
Speaker 6 (38:31):
Right right, and and you know, I like the song
at the end of the center around the campfire and
they're singing the C I T Song or whatever we
are t. Yeah, So I think I think that one.
I think that was good. I wish they would have
dove into the relationships more between all the characters because
there was so many counselors in training, and you they
(38:55):
got so little screen time because it was more focused
on this little kid and Bill Murray. And if it
wasn't the little knon Bill Murray, then it was Bill
Murray and that girl I did like. Spaz is probably
the best part of this movie. If you remember the
scene where they're in the canoes, like all the counselors
are coming back from the canoes and he's paddling and
(39:17):
the girl's laying in front of him in a bikini,
and he goes to he loses his paddle, right, he
acts like he's still but.
Speaker 5 (39:23):
He's still paddling. He's still paddling.
Speaker 6 (39:26):
So Spas is great in this movie. Remember what they
said he once took out six nurses on a day
and for him didn't show up to work the next day.
Speaker 5 (39:34):
Or something exactly.
Speaker 6 (39:35):
He's a living legend.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
You know.
Speaker 6 (39:37):
At the beginning, you're like, oh, Spaz, I think they're
looking at you, and he's like, go over there and
talk to him, and he goes and then they're like,
your flies down.
Speaker 5 (39:45):
That's hilarious. So the time where Spas and Fink they
crawl underneath the girl haven to listen to them.
Speaker 6 (39:53):
Because they're reading some sort of romance novel or something,
and yeah, and they get caught because one of them
sneezes I think are calls. I think I think our
Spas sneezes are calls.
Speaker 5 (40:06):
Yeah, and the girls hear it and they're.
Speaker 6 (40:08):
Like yeah, and they got aside with the fly swatter.
So to me, it had a couple of funny moments,
but it's not a haha funny movie, and it doesn't
age very well, like would the whole bill Murray seen
with that girl at the beginning where it's basically he's
trying to rape her, I guess is the easiest way
to say it. That was just a big turn off
(40:30):
and that may have affected the rest of the movie
for me, where I couldn't really get into the movie
because I'm like, man, this is this isn't right. So
but for me, I'm probably only going to give it
five and a half stars, and the half is just
from Spaz because that guy's funny or else it would
just be a five. Now, if they would have took
(40:51):
away the whole kid with Bill Murray, this probably goes
up to a seven or eight really easily. And if
they would have just fleshed out you could have had
a lot more funnier scenes with Spas and Feing trying
to get them girls to like them. It would have
been comedic genius. So maybe a Meatballs two, three or four,
maybe they go down there. I remember Meatballs two with
(41:13):
an alien if I vaguely remember that growing up, so
maybe we'll have to cover that someting.
Speaker 5 (41:19):
And there was an alien and yeah, that movie's rough.
Speaker 6 (41:22):
Well this one was rough too, so.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
But okay, so they wanted this movie to have heart.
So why didn't they, just like you and I had
talked about before, have that one counselor I think it
was hardware, save the little kids frog or get that
kid a frog, right, and have Spas get romantically involved
with his love interest.
Speaker 6 (41:41):
And then set it set and then and then set
fink up with a girl or whatever. You know what
I mean, you could you could have went in so
many ways instead of bringing this whole other character in
and and I don't know if maybe there's a deleted
scenes that were missing that maybe flesh it out of more.
I don't have the DVD, so I can't. I can't
tell you. The prop I'm gonna is probably gonna be
the space helmet that Bill Murray puts on or whatever
(42:03):
that helmet is at the beginning that he does his
announcements with.
Speaker 5 (42:07):
Yeah, he does his morning announcements, he puts on that helmet.
Speaker 6 (42:09):
Yeah, I don't know what it is, but that's something
I would That's something that would definitely go in my
man cave. So we'll see. I mean, I don't know.
I haven't seen this man. It's been at least thirty years,
thirty five.
Speaker 5 (42:28):
Years, so I think, and I vaguely remember this might
have been the first movie I ever saw at the
movie at the drive in. Really yeah, I think my
brother and I went with our babysitter. We had a babysitter,
and our babysitter took my brother and I to the
(42:48):
Thunderbird movie theater that's now long gone's been torn down
for decades. But I pretty much believe this might be
the first movie I saw that I can remember seeing
at the drive in movies?
Speaker 6 (43:01):
Bond, do you want to know how different we are?
Speaker 2 (43:02):
You know what?
Speaker 6 (43:03):
The first movie I ever saw at the drive in
was What's that? Honey? I Shrunk the Kids?
Speaker 5 (43:10):
Ooh nice?
Speaker 6 (43:12):
Yeah, so you know I haven't. I haven't went to
many drive in movies. That's something I'm a big movie fan,
and we have we still have several drive ins in
the area. Tips drive in is really popular here where
they show them. But the only one that I ever
went and seen was Honey, I Shrunk the Kids? So
I figure why?
Speaker 5 (43:31):
Said why into some other before that? But I've just
I was too younger, Rember.
Speaker 6 (43:35):
My thing is why sit out in your car and
burn up outside or when you could be inside a
nice company, reclinable see in the theater now? So yeah,
there you have it. That is our coverage of meat balls.
Let us know what you think about meatballs. I know
Bond's a little bit older than me, so his perspective
is going to be a little bit different because I
(43:56):
think he said he was about nine years old when
this came out. I was too, be one and a half,
so there's a little bit of age difference. So the
difference between Bond to me is the same as me
as it was to Kyle, So Kyle was younger than us.
So and don't feel bad. I'm still trying to get
Kyle on to give him a wrap up show. He's
just really busy right now, so you know, I'm gonna
(44:18):
let him do his thing. Bond stepped up, We're surviving,
we're still going, so I don't want Kyle to feel bad,
so we'll get him back on here soon.
Speaker 5 (44:25):
I definitely want people to go out watch this movie,
review it, let us know your thoughts, go to Facebook,
go to whatever, Instagram, all those kind of good things.
Speaker 6 (44:33):
And I want people to know if they if they
just remember watching this movie, go back and watch it
now and tell me what you think, because you may
have loved it back in the day, but you go
back and watch it now, it hits differently. It just
really does.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
And I one hundred percent agree because that's exactly the
way I went to this movie. I was excited about
watching this movie again. Watch this movie for the first
time in decades going, Oh, I remember I love this movie.
This movie's hilarious. Oh I'm gonna die laughing watching this thing,
and I didn't.
Speaker 6 (45:04):
But you know what, I'm gonna give you a Genie
Award for picking this movie because they like to give
those awards to everybody.
Speaker 5 (45:11):
Right, Hey, eat your heart out, Canada.
Speaker 6 (45:14):
Well we are the Tragedy of Sema podcast. If you
want to follow us, we are on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram,
but I don't do a lot on Instagram. I need
to start that back up. Maybe I'll put Bond on that.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
You know.
Speaker 6 (45:27):
I'm thinking about doing another Real Talk episode real soon
where we just bring everybody in on a big old
zoom meeting and just have a good old time. I
don't know if Bond's ever been on one of those
with us. I know one time we did like the
Nicest Person in the World. It was around a March
Madness and we had a big old sixty four people
bracket where I think the nicest person in the world
(45:50):
it came down between I think it was mister Rogers
and Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter, and Dolly Parton was
in the final four. I do believe so, I don't know.
It was really interesting, so maybe we'll do something like
that again soon, we'll come up with something. So but
I think this episode's coming to a close, and that's
a wrap.
Speaker 5 (46:09):
And cut.
Speaker 7 (46:16):
The tragedy cynem Well, then Marie Shima join us as
we toast to the tales we love.
Speaker 8 (46:24):
The most, Tiny up saying.
Speaker 7 (46:30):
Then Marie Shima join us as we toast to the
tales we love the most, we love the.
Speaker 8 (46:44):
Most, the tragedy of cinema and Mary Shimmer joys, if.
Speaker 7 (47:17):
We dose through the tails we love the most, to
the tails we love the most, trage, I say, when
them Marie Killer join us, set me toast to the
tales we love the most, to the tells we love
(47:41):
the most, to the tales we love the most,
The Tragedy of Cinema podcast is intended as a family
friendly program that, by extengen strives to be inclusive to
all people, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, creed, or any
other identifying factors in this incredibly diverse world of ours.
With that said, some of the films we discuss may
contain serious subject matters or have content considered morally objectional
by today's standards. We do not intend to condone or
(00:26):
dismiss these aspects of these films, but our primary focus
beyond what we believe our film succeeds at some fun
facts and our personal enjoyment factors of each film. With
that said, we help you enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
On Lights, Shingles, Jolty Slights eighty three, Lights in the Realm,
Light movies, and TV food through the stories we all know,
st Screen Tails, on Food in Magic State, the Stu
(01:12):
Fronty Sitema, every Shimmer Joys.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
If we tell Hills we have some.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
You saw what he did to Saturday Night? Now watch
Bill Murray Demolish Summer See three hundred Kids from the
(01:56):
City Escaped to the Woods called Our Summer of Fulsome
in the Sun.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
On the program, director Jerry aldine.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Is that a pry you're wearing or are you expecting
an assassination account?
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Can I have what doctors call very active plans to brews?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Are some seriously.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Really meet the head counselor who knows the facts of
life but forgot them?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
What's going on here?
Speaker 5 (02:23):
So this year each camper will stalk and kill his
own bear in our private wildlife preserves.
Speaker 6 (02:32):
The camp rules. Or you would like hill take a
look at these europe.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Want to check these out a little bit later.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
I would like, yeah, for now, but if you don't win,
we cut it off.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
But more important than the score of this game is
to score at the big social at our place than I.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
It's not how you'd play the game, but how you
win that counts. Let's tell you you get read hand
at Hunter for the cover the human rest.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Welloth for real excitement. Of course, it's gonna come at
(03:45):
the end of the summer during Sexual Awareness Week for
two hundred propers from around the world. In each camper
armed with only a furnace of coffee two thousand dollars cash.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Trying to visit as many countries as he can, and
the winner, of course.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
Is named King of Sexual Awareness Week.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
You'll be cheering for Bill Murray this summer in Meatballs.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
All right, welcome back to the Tragedy of Cinema podcast.
As you just heard on that trailer, that trailer's poor
quality too. I don't know what the deal is with that,
but I let Bond pick out another movie, and he
chose from nineteen seventy nine, the movie Meatballs. I am
your host, Jimbo, and I'm joined by the meathead himself. Bond,
(04:39):
why would you pick this movie?
Speaker 5 (04:42):
This movie's a comedy classic, is it? Yeah? It stars
one of one of all time eighties comedians, Saturday Out
Live Alone. When I go through this movie, you're gonna
come out loving it. This was his first role, so
his first lead role man.
Speaker 6 (04:59):
In the film. So, Bond, what is your favorite Bill
Murray movie? That's a good that's a deep one.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
My favorite Bill Murray movie is probably What About Bob?
Speaker 6 (05:15):
Great movie. I'll tell you what. I'll tell you one
of my favorites. A lot of people don't like it,
but man, groundhog Day is pretty funny.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Groundhog Day is I was gonna actually say that, that's
like one of my top two or three.
Speaker 6 (05:28):
I mean, screwgs.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
You just pretty good too, Ghostbusters. But I don't say
that's a Bill Murray movie, right, Yeah, If you're talking
about him carrying the lead.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
I have to go with what about Bob or groundhog Day?
Speaker 5 (05:41):
You're saying groundhog Day?
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Yeah? All right, bon Well, that's all I had. I
want you to go ahead and take it away.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
All right, man, Let's let's break this one down.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
Break it down.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
Please.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
I'm dying to hear what you gotta say.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
About I'll pick out. I'll pick out. I'll pick the
two thorns out of the movie, and then the rest
will be a rose. It'll be a rose to you.
We're gonna let it.
Speaker 6 (06:02):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Meatball's nineteen seventy nine comedy film directed by Ivan Rightman.
Ivan Rightman is a legend, a legend. He produced Animal House.
If you go through his biography, you'll see movies like Stripes, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters,
Two Twins, Kindergarten, Cop Space Jam. Stripes was a really
(06:24):
good Bill Murray movie too, exactly. I mean, Ivan Rightman,
he's gold when it comes to eighties comedies and eighties movies.
Everyone has seen an Ivan Rightman movie is written by
Lenn Blum, Dan Goldberg Janice Allen, but mostly written by
Harold Ramis. Harold Ramis, of course, is egon from Ghostbusters
(06:47):
one to two and the New Ghostbusters. Of course, he's
also in Stripes. He plays off of Bill Murray's character
in Stripes, so he's a legend. He actually co wrote
Animal House. Yeah. He has directed movies like Vacation, Caddy Shack,
Groundhog Day, So he's a legendary director, legendary writer, and
(07:09):
a legendary comedian, Harold Raymons and Gone Too Soon. Yeah,
I agree, I agree. Daniel Goldberg produced this one. This
movie stars all Right, Here we Go. As we mentioned,
it stars Bill Murray in his favor his first starring
role where he was the Starry in the Headliner as
trip Our Tripper Harrison. He's known from the nineteen seventy
(07:33):
five SNL crew with some of the original crew, I
would argue the best Saturday Night Live crew. So maybe
that first five years he's in movies like Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters,
Zombie Land, Scrooged, Caddy Shack. What about Bob Little Shop
of Horrors. Yep, he's in that one too, and way
(07:56):
too many movies to mention. He's in so much stuff
now he's a legend. He's a Hollywood legend. Now you'll
also see Harvey Atkin as Morty Mickey Melnick, right, the
camp director of the Does he own the camp or
is he just a camp director?
Speaker 6 (08:15):
I think he's just the camp director.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
Amy Okay, Well, Harvey Atkin, Morty Mickey Melnick. He is
the voice of King Coopa in the Mario Brothers cartoons.
I thought that was awesome. He's also on TV's Cagney
and Lacy back in the I guess That's early nineties.
Speaker 6 (08:34):
That was a great show too.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
That was and he won a Genie Award for his
role as Mickey. A Genie is a film award that's
based in Canada. This is a Canadian movie. Not many
people know that, but this this movie is a Canadian movie.
It was filmed in Canada. It's the whole productions in Canada.
(08:56):
Harold Ramis is Canadian, so the whole thing is a
Canadian movie. He won a Genie Award, which is an
acting award in U in Canada for this role. So
it is an award winning movie. So that's one point
for me, Right, that's one point for me because I
get a word movie. It also stars. Uh, Katie Lynch
(09:18):
as Rock sand I guess that's a tripper or Bill Murray's.
Speaker 6 (09:21):
Okay, Well, here's where you're gonna lose a point. Did
you find that whole relationship a little bit weird? Like
scene you get into the sexual assault. Yeah, yeah, I
was gonna say that. That's where I had a little
bit of a problem there, buddy, we can get.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
To there is that one awkward scene. Oh, she, by
the way, won a Genie Award for the Best Supporting
Actress in this movie. That's two Genie Awards. Now they're
handing out these Genie Awards. I can't I was gonna say,
do this.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
Can hear everybody you show up? You get one?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Is that?
Speaker 5 (09:53):
Like the kid's choice of awards was nominated?
Speaker 6 (09:57):
Say? She the only nomination.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
But okay, since you mentioned it, let's talk about the
awkward sexual assaults.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
There's a scene in the movie where the two camp counselors,
the head the head camp counselor for the boys and
the head camp counselor for the girls, are supposed to
be going over the schedule, the master's schedule for the
camp for the week, and Morty, the camp director, says
I'm going to leave you two alone. You guys go
over the schedule. Then it just becomes awkward.
Speaker 6 (10:29):
I was like, what am I watching this one. He's like,
I don't know, man, he was like an uncaged animal.
And then she's like, no, get off me, and I'm like, oh, okay,
we're going there already. It's like at the beginning of
the movie.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
And then it's I'm thinking nineteen seventy nine, maybe that
was considered for play and sexy, but translated to twenty
twenty five, that was not that.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
No no no yeah, no no means no man. And
then it turns out fun I don't want to say funny,
but like basically he's on top of her on the
couch and she kind of pushes him off, and he
grabs onto her and rolls where he's on top of her,
and he's like, uh, let me go, let me go,
and the counselor walks back back in, you know, or
the head guy walks back in. So I don't know, man.
(11:18):
I I didn't find I felt I felt uncomfortable during
that scene. I didn't find it funny.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
I just found it kind of weird watching it through
today's eyes, I felt the same way. Yeah, they're on
he's on top of her and she's like, I'm gonna
scream and he goes.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
Me too, screamed together.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
Yeah, and then yeah, he rolls her on top of him.
And then when Mickey comes in, he's like, oh, you
saved my life. She was an animal.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
But then, but then the whole the problem I had
with this movie is the whole premise is basically about
the boys getting with the girls, or scoring with the girls,
if you will, because if you remember when they're walking through, uh,
the counselors and training or whatever. When he's walking through
and he goes, oh, this this is the fourteen year
old girls cabin, he's like, but you stay away from
(12:03):
don't touch them their jelbait or whatever, you.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
And there's just that whole awkward scene there, and then
there they go to like the six year old boys
cabin and which you know, you know, something they never
did come back to about that poor kid's froggy that
was dead. I was waiting for him to come back.
I was waiting for him to come back and say,
you know, have the guy go find a new one
and put it in there or something. But no, they
just left that poor Froggy, you know. So it's so
(12:28):
it was really weird. I couldn't even tell you the
plot of this movie.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
Well, let me go, let me finish up some quick cast. Yeah, yeah,
I'm not going to go through every single c I
T counselor training. There is Bobby Crockett played by Russ Brandon.
He actually grows up and becomes like a pretty predominant
financial reporter for the Wall Street Journal. So yeah, I
was pretty He's a writer for Forbes magazine. Now, okay,
(12:55):
we have Christine Debelle as a l She was a
player boy model and she's in a movie called Big
Brawl with Jackie chan Hm. So yeah, your favorite and
my favorite team member, Spaz is played by Jack Blum.
He is a Canadian writer and producer. Now so he's
(13:17):
done a lot of writing, he does a lot of producing.
He was in a movie called Happy Birthday to Me,
a classic horror movie from around that time, and he
was also in the six million Dollar Man made for
TV movie. H Yeah, it's pretty cool. Keith Knight plays
his best friend Larry fink Finkelstein.
Speaker 6 (13:36):
He's funny too. The hot dog eating contest.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Oh Man or the part where he's like he gets
his pants, the girls take his pants off while he's
underneath the building. He's a spaz.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
What are you doing?
Speaker 6 (13:47):
They're hitting with the fly swatter.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Oh yeah, they're spaking with the flight slaughter. He was
in My Bloody Valentine and he is a predominant voice actor.
But here's something kind of tragic about Keith Knight. He actually,
at age fifty one, he died really young from brain cancer.
So it's a shame, man, It's a shame because I
really like him in this movie. Now, the arguably the
(14:12):
second main character is the camp counts, the camper Rudy Gerner.
Rudy is the curly haired boy who comes in. He's
all depressed. Apparently his mom had died right before camp,
right before, and his dad kind of like doesn't know
how to deal with him, so just drops him off
at camp to deal with his grief. And so he's
(14:34):
on the verge of leaving. He's about to jump a
train bus and get out of there. But Chris make
Peace plays the role of Rudy Gerner. He was in
another movie that I like, I haven't seen it forever,
called My Bodyguard.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
I don't know if I've ever seen it.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
Yeah, it's a it's a great movie.
Speaker 6 (14:51):
Oh yeah, wait hires the big guy the helped fight
his fights for him.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
Yeah, this other guy, Yeah, the other guy like with
a leather jacket. Yeah, Smoker hires him to like be
his bodyguarden.
Speaker 6 (15:03):
I've seen it. It's spent a long time.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
He was also a made for TV movie Mazes and
Monsters with Tom Hanks. You see the Tom Hanks made
for TV movie Mazes and Monsters.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
I don't remember it. Maybe if I saw it.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Was a play like it was a playoff Dungeons and Dragons.
Speaker 6 (15:21):
Huh.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
That was when Dungeons and Dragons was really big. And
so they made a made for TV movie called Mazes
and Monsters.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
Glad to check it out.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
And he was nominated for a Genie Award for his
role as Rudy Gerner, but he didn't win. He was
not made, but he didn't win.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
Did they win anything besides a Genie Award?
Speaker 5 (15:41):
I'm afraid not.
Speaker 6 (15:42):
Okay, so that's one for me.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
I'm afraid that they actually, uh, they did very well
in the Canadian market words right here in America not
so much. The movie was a big hit. The movie
was a big hit, all right. So our budget for
our movie was about one point two million dollars in
nineteen seventy nine, right, which is about five point three
million today. So that's a really low budget. I don't
(16:09):
know how much of that went to Bill Murray, but
that's a really low budget. The movie worldwide grossed seventy
million dollars in nineteen seventy nine. That's equal to three
hundred and nine million today. To think about that five
million to make it made three hundred and nine a
(16:31):
lot of most profits in each profits man in this movie.
Oh did it come out nineteen seventy nine, like I said,
June twenty nine, and uh, it had a running time
in ninety four minutes. Ninety four minutes. So that's the
that's the cast of Meatballs. A great film. So I
(16:53):
get another point for the profit of course, because it
made it.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
It was a big pro You're just trying to get
points because you know with all the this movie.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Okay, so this movie is about a rundown camp. I'm
not gonna say it's too rundown to me. It seemed
like an average camp and the only one just across
the lake was the rich camp. So you have Camp
north Star, which is like for the every man, and
that's where that's where I would end up going to
Camp north Star, the every man. You know there, every
you know, everyday kid would go to that one. And
(17:21):
then across the river is Camp Buhawk and that's like
for the rich kids. And I don't know this movie.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
I liked it.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
I thought it had a lot of good funny parts. Man,
how could you, I mean, how could you not think
there were funny scenes in this movie?
Speaker 6 (17:38):
There is funny scenes, But as far as telling a
cohesive story, like a linear story, it goes all over
the place. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 5 (17:50):
I'll agree with that. Okay, So here's here's the two
things that I struggle with in this movie. First, I
love this movie. I think it's hilarious. I'm not gonna
I'm not gonna chop it up too much. But the
two problems I have is one, the music in this
movie sometimes becomes distracting me. Are You Ready for the Summer? Yeah?
I like what we all saw the meat balls. I
(18:13):
like that song. I like the are You Ready for
the Summer?
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I like that.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
I think because those movies are those songs fit this movie, right.
If this movie is supposed to be silly, funny, sexy,
you know, nineteen seventy nineteen sexy, If it's supposed to
be all of those things, then those two songs fit.
I'll even say, when they're at the social, all the
CITs are at the social and they're all dancing together,
(18:38):
they're I'm making it do Do. That's fine too. But
every once in a while they'll stake in a song
that's like real slow and sappy. Like there's like that
one running scene where Bill Murray and make Peace are
running together and as they're doing their long distance run there,
it's like this long, drawn out, sappy nineteen have any song, yep,
(19:02):
and it just kills the mood. It kills like the
whole Is this movie supposed to be silly? Is it
supposed to be fun and funny? Because that song drains it? Oh?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (19:11):
I think I think the problem with this movie is
it didn't really know which direction to go because you
were trying to have Bill Murray play a serious, almost
like a father figure to this kid, comforting this kid
that had just lost his mom, while also being over
the top like he would wake up every morning because
he was the morning guy on the radio, put on
his helmet and do all the announcements over the radio,
(19:32):
and you know, just pulling gags like he would pull
a gag on the director where he puts his bed
on the side of the road, you know, or in
the middle of the lake at the end of the movie.
It's just it was it was kind of going back
and forth, like I understand, like you would have a
scene where the girl pulls up on the boat and
pulls the one guy in and she's like I like you,
(19:55):
and she's he's like, yeah, but aren't you with the
other guy he was with on the dot. He's like, yeah,
well he's a total jerk. And he's like I'm a
total jerk, you know. And then then the next thing.
I mean, they never go back into any conflict between
those two characters or anything. It's just like a drive byke,
you know what, like a like patches of stories like that,
or like the lady that's spray painting the baseball field,
(20:19):
remember and she does something. Yeah, So there's little like
there's little like segments of stories that they didn't finish.
It was like they gave you this lead way here
but they didn't complete it.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
I agree. I think they needed to add another thirty
minutes on make this movie inn even two hours thirty
minutes on. Like you said at the beginning, resolve the
part about the dead frog, right, the little cutest little
boy in the world. He's got this heat frog and
the box and his little friends with they nine or
something like. He's sleeping. He's not deady sleepy, he's tired.
(21:01):
He's just tired.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
And the councilor says, I'll take you guys, go get
some some sleep. I'll take care of the frog. And
he shuts the box. That's the last thing you hear from.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Yeah, like you said, he should have. They should have
shown a scene where he picks up a frog from
the side of the lake, puts it in the box
and it gives it back to the kid and said, hey,
he's better now. He he's awake. I guess he had
a good nap.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
And you can tell you and the kid could go,
that's not my frog, or you know, just something. Uh so, yeah,
that's it was all over the place for me. I
ain't gonna lie.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
That's not Dennis Hopper, that's the name of frog.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
That's Warner J Frog, Hello, my baby, exactly.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
But I get that there's a lot of strings out
there that work tied up. Yeah, Like you said that
would be romance, there's a lot of would be romances
out there that are stuck tied up. Does Spaz ever
get with his tomboy girlfriend?
Speaker 6 (21:55):
I I thought if they would have explored the two
that they're playing tennis with, I thought that was gonna
be Spas and Fink's girlfriends or attempts to be a
But they never really do anything with Fink's character beside
beating the stomach or whatever at the hot dog eating contest.
You never see him get and he looks any love
any screen time basically. But I mean Spas gets a lot.
(22:18):
But I don't know, it's just it was a little
bit sow for me and those the storytelling.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
And then my second thorn that I have in this movie,
Like I said, I have two. My second thorn is
make pieces role. You know I'm saying, Rudy, Rudy Gardner.
I don't know. I just every time he comes in
the movie, it drags it down. I mean, I get
he's supposed to be depressed.
Speaker 6 (22:45):
Which one Which one's kid?
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Yeah, the Little Kid. Yeah, you know Bill Murray's friend
Rudy Gerner, and it's like every time he comes on
the screen, it just brings the movie down. It's like, oh,
this movie's fun, it's lighthearted, there's good jokes. You know,
I want to go to this camp and they show
the scene and the music change.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
Now we're going to be a serious movie.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yeah, And I get what they try to do. They
try to like add heart, right, you want to have
the heart to the movie, and like Bill Murray's character
is the heart of the movie and he's trying to
help this little boy get over his grieving process. I
get all that, but it drags this movie down way
too much.
Speaker 6 (23:28):
All good, all valid points.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
So what do you think about the competition between the
camp Mohawk, the Olympiads or they've lost like eleven or
twelve in a row.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
It's typical camp movies. It's like, you know, like, what
was it Ernest goes to camp? It's like, what's another
camp movie where they did it? That's like a typical
camp thing. Oh, it's us against them, you know what
I mean? But basically usually a.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
Movie set that standard, though, I mean, are there other
movies like that.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
Because of this movie, was trying to think of some
other camp movies that I know of, and all I
came up with was Ernest Goes to Camp. This one
parent trap has one at the beginning. I think there
was the same campsite for this is used in the movie.
I think it's called Camp Rock or I got it
(24:19):
in my nose somewhere camp something, Camp Rock, I think
in two thousand and eight. So because this is a
real campsite they used in Canada.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Yeah, yeah, it's a real camp.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
So I mean, I've been to summer camp and I've
been on those teams, you know, and and I will say,
like when they go to the mess hall and everybody
gets up and starts doing the different cheers, we had
to do that at our camp. We had to, you know,
each table like ours was yo baby, Yo baby, Yohio,
our cabin was Yohio. You know, you got to be
(24:47):
a rascal or you gotta go, you know what I mean.
And then there was another one that was We're awesome,
We're awesome. Hit him in the head with a big
dead possum, you know, Ei, there's different chance you learn
and you do.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
So ours was whenever somebody said whenever they came out
and said, oh, yes we have some announcements, then everybody
go announcements, announcements, an announcements. But yeah, there was there
is the camp chance chance and camp cheers and stuff.
Speaker 6 (25:13):
And let me ask you this question, did they ever
show like a camp nurse?
Speaker 5 (25:19):
No? No, no, there's I don't I don't think there
was a camp nurse.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
Well, I'm just saying I didn't know. You know, with
that depressed kid, you thought, maybe how did this kid
just go to a bus station?
Speaker 5 (25:32):
That bus station's got to be within walking it's.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
Gotta be closed, because I mean, I was like, well,
this kid is just.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
Part about that scene that bothered me the most was
the fact that Bill Murray ordered some fries, put ketchup
on it, ate one fry, and then they got up
and left, and I was like, but what about the fries?
You didn't eat your fries?
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Right?
Speaker 5 (25:52):
So this movie it was a very large pair of
pants from the flagpole.
Speaker 6 (25:56):
Yep, this movie is a train wreck. But uh, is
that all for the cast?
Speaker 5 (26:04):
Fun?
Speaker 6 (26:05):
Is that all you had for the cast? Before I
dive into some trivia.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
That's that's all I have for the cast?
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Man?
Speaker 6 (26:10):
All right, well we'll talk some trivia. See if it
changes my mind or your mind any So, here we go. So,
according to one of the featurettes on the DVD, several
of the shots in the movie were added after initial
filming ended. These scenes that were filmed include Rudy and
Tripper at the bus station and of them playing blackjack
(26:31):
for peanuts. That's another scene that was weird. Why did
they put this playing blackjack for peanuts in there? That
didn't need to be in there.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
They didn't bother me, And that one didn't bother me
because it's like Rudy doesn't have any friends at camp.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
It's Rudy has a camp counselor that has to be
accountable for him. Yeah, if he's missing, if he's missing
from your cabin, all this time getting up running with
Bill Murray and all this, and there's gonna be a problem.
But during the time off, Chris Makepeace had entered puberty
and had the beginnings of a mustache. Bill Murray decided
(27:10):
that if he had that, it had to go. So
he took make Peace over to a sink, lathered him
up a soap, and shaved off his mustache. So make
Peace received his first ever shave from Bill Murray.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Dang, I wish I had my first ever shave from
Bill Murray.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
Do you even shave? Jason? Every time I've seen you
got that baby face? I did have it.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
I'll have you know. I haven't shaved in three days.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
Yes, some move, says a baby's bottom. John Belushi convinced
Bill Murray to accept the part of Tripper, pointing out
that would be Murray's first film and he would be
the star. This is the first starring role, as we said,
of Bill Murray, and his name is above his top
billing above the movie posters. So the red shorts and
(27:53):
colorful Hawaiian shirt that Bill Murray is seen wearing in
the movie were his own clothes. So he actually owns
that stuff.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Okay, So here's what I had heard. I had heard
he didn't show up to filming.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
Till the first day of shooting.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Day.
Speaker 6 (28:06):
Yes, the first day of.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
Shooting, showed up in that clothes and short, in that
shorts and that Hawaiian shirt and said, okay, let's start. Yep,
that's why he doesn't wear a camp clothes.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
Yep. They actually wanted John Landis to do the filming
of this movie, but because of what he had did
on Animal House. But he turned it down because he
was too busy working on another movie, Bond from nineteen eighty.
Can you guess what it was? No, the Blues Brothers.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
Oh, that's a good reason not to do Meatballs.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
I don't know. Meatballs might be better than The Blues Brothers.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
I just I like the idea of The Blues Brothers
and Meatballs being filmed at the same time. Yep, that's awesome.
Speaker 6 (28:52):
So this movie was filmed in an actual summer camp
towards White Pine and Halliburton, Ontario, which is a few
hours north of toront On. Many of the extras in
the film were actual campers and counselors of the camp.
Some of the featured players were Canadian based actors. Most,
if not all locations were actual camp facilities, which include
the basketball courts, the mess hall, the swim docks, the cabins,
(29:15):
et cetera. The visitor Day scene montage was actually filmed
during the camp's visitors Day. White Pine also had a
similar yearly event to the Olympiad, though though rather than
being a inter camp competition, it was an intra camp
relay type competition that was just part of the overall
all Day themed event. These competitions were nicknamed Mohawk Relays,
(29:38):
perhaps serving as an inspiration for the name of the
rival camp. In this movie, all the cast members did
their own stunts, so we didn't have to pay any
stuntman for this. This was the first major studio picture
directed by Ivan Repman. All Right, bond, it's never explained
what a meatball is? What is a meat all by?
Speaker 5 (30:02):
That drives me crazy? Why is this movie called meatballs?
Speaker 6 (30:06):
Right, I'm asking you.
Speaker 5 (30:08):
It's just a term that means craziness, wackiness. Well, the
whole thing's just gone meatball.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
Well it's called it's a general term for a silly
person because if you remember, on the tennis court, Spas
gets called a meatball by fiend.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
True.
Speaker 6 (30:21):
So yeah, I was like, I didn't know why they
called it meatball. I don't know. Speaking of meatballs, do
you like meatballs, bond I? Do you ever had you
ever had you ever had the Buka Debeppo? Do you
got Buka Debeppo's down there? They got meatballs the size
of your fist. Oh they're good.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
So this this Texas is not somewhere to go if
you want meatball.
Speaker 6 (30:42):
Yeah, you want barbecue probably. But this filming was done
from August seventh, nineteen seventy eight, to September sixth, nineteen
seventy so it was just thirty days of filming. So
that's it's unbelievable that they can turn a movie around
that quick. Oh, the film was Camp Rock in two
thousand and eight, was use the same real life camp
facilities as this movie. Okay, the first day of production
(31:05):
shoot was also the first day of camp scene in
the movie. So now, Bond, if you were to direct
a movie, would you shoot your film scene by scenes,
starting out the beginning or would you jump around and
then try to splice them all together.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
I think you have to. You have to jump around.
You have to film all your all your mess hall
scenes have to be filmed in one day two days
at the most. And then anything having inside a camp,
like inside of the cabin, then you fill on all
those bunks and all the cabin scenes together. You film
all When the CI is go camping, you film all those.
(31:41):
You spend a week on the water filming all the
water scenes. I mean, that's why you storyboard a movie.
You storyboarded out so you can make stacks of bore
of cards and say this is all the scenes inside
the camp, this is all the scenes inside the mess hall.
We're gonna do this scene because if not, you end
up you can't film a movie in order. You can
(32:03):
can't do it? You can, well you shouldn't.
Speaker 6 (32:08):
Well, what I'm saying is, if this isn't a thing
where you have to build sets over and over and over,
you're at a campsite, so you could hease very easily
shoot this in order and not have to worry about
tearing down stuff and building stuff back up because it's
all going to be on the set already.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
That's probably where they saved a lot of money right there,
just on all sets they have to building sets. I
have impressed that the actors did their own stunts. I mean,
there's not a lot of stunts, but I'm thinking like
when they're on the water, and when Mickey is up
in the tree, you know what I'm saying, he's like
in a bed up in a tree, or he's out
in the middle of the lake kind of thing. Oh yeah,
(32:43):
there's not a lot of big stunts in this movie.
Well what about the basketball game? Where was it? Hardware
Ram's face first inside it into the pole. He breaks
his nose and they're like, it's going to get bigger.
All the girls were worried about his nose getting bigger.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
Of the film's three sequels, only Meatball's Three Summer Job
has any story connection to this movie, So maybe we
get a little bit of a backstory to this. According
to the book Are You Ready for This? Wild and
Crazy Guys? By Nick D. Simlin, Is that what you're reading, Bond?
Speaker 5 (33:18):
That's the book I just finished reading, right.
Speaker 6 (33:21):
Bill Murray didn't agree to make the movie until the
first day of shooting. Ivan Redman had been trying to
secure a deal with Murray for several weeks, but Murray
was disinclined to work that summer as he was following
a certain AAA baseball club on the road. He also
wasn't sure about making movies, as the sudden fame of
Saturday Night Live was overwhelming to him and he feared
(33:41):
a movie career might exacerbate the filling. In the end,
he did decide to make the movie, and when he
arrived on the set, the first thing he said to
director Ivan Redman was, this is kind of crap, referring
to the script. So I just thought that was great
because you just told me the other day that you
were reading this book, and I was like that, I
think that is the exact book.
Speaker 5 (33:59):
That the exact same book Wild and Crazy. Guys. I
just finished it yesterday, right, So I bond.
Speaker 6 (34:04):
If you wanted to go to Camp Mohawk in Canadian
dollars per week, it would have been one thousand dollars
per week in nineteen seventy nine, which be the equivalent
of three thousand, three hundred and fifty three Canadian dollars
per week and twenty twenty dollars per week.
Speaker 5 (34:20):
That's thousand a week.
Speaker 6 (34:22):
That is crazy. Then you know you had Rudy reading
a comic book featuring the Thing from the Fantastic Four,
and I did not know this. You may have, but
I didn't. A few years prior, Bill Murray provided the
voice of the Human Torch and Johnny Storm and a
Fantastic Four radio drama WHOA I did not know. I
(34:43):
did not know that, so I might have to find that.
See if I can find Bill Murray being the Human
Torture Johnny Storm, it could be good. And then of
course he would later join the Marvel Somac Universe in
Nateman in the Wasp, Quantum Mania in twenty twenty three.
So Bond, that's all the trivia I had. Why don't
you go and tell me persuade me that this was
a good movie, because I don't think it is.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
All right, So this is a great movie because every
comedy scene is a classic. I mean, the scenes with
Fink and Spas are great. They're out there playing tennis
with these girls and he on the serve. He throws
his racket over the net and when she returns it
to him, and I love Fink. His fing's like, see
(35:27):
the way she gave that racketback tea she wants it man,
It's that's hilarious. Just some of the sight gags are funny.
The hot dog eating contest is funny. The pep talk
that Bill Murray has because it just doesn't matter, It
just doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. That's fun. The
(35:51):
movie's fun. Like I said, there's a couple dragdowns where
you're like, come on, guys, this movie is kind of
getting funny. This movie is kind of getting fun, and
then there'll be a scene that kind of kills it.
I we talked a little bit before. I kind of
agree with you in the fact that this movie doesn't
translate to twenty twenty five as well as it should.
(36:12):
You know, it's forty six years old, and it was
a lot funnier forty six years ago than it is today.
I watched it today and I was like, I remember
this movie being a lot better than it was. So
I'm not going to say it was a great movie,
but it was a great comedy. It was a I mean,
there's there's some funny parts. It's silly it Like you said,
(36:33):
what you mentioned like three camping movies, and this movie
is what sets the bar for camp movies and fun
movies like that. So I really liked it. I thought
it was really cool.
Speaker 6 (36:44):
But what are you rating at their bond? This is
really good at it. This is what we really want
to know.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I know, I know.
Speaker 5 (36:53):
Okay. First off, my prop is very easy. I want
a Camp T shirt. I want a Camp north Star
T shirt because if you walk around with a Camp
north Star T shirt on how many people are gonna
recognize that as as a meatball shirt?
Speaker 6 (37:08):
Well if you get a Camp Mohawks shirt, but oh.
Speaker 5 (37:11):
Because that what people hate me. I don't know what,
people hate me. I'm gonna give this movie a six
and a half.
Speaker 6 (37:22):
All right.
Speaker 5 (37:23):
It's it's not an average, it's above average. It launches
Bill Murray's career even further. It's above average. It's a
six and a half.
Speaker 6 (37:31):
All right. I'll probably get some hate from this, But
I'm not a big Bill Murray fan. I think there's
only a couple of movies I really liked him. Man,
He's just got a style that I don't really like.
And I'm not saying nothing bad against him because he's
he's been in a ton of stuff. He's made a
lot of money, and he was on Saturday Night Live
(37:53):
and all and all that. So for him, for it
being his first film and this, I I have to
agree with him. The script was kind of crap. I mean,
he said it. I'm gonna repeat what he said. It
was hard to follow. I don't know why. Even if
you were gonna make that zany comedy, you didn't even
(38:14):
need the boy in there, the depressed little boy. You
could have just had this has been a great movie.
You could have just had Spas be the hero, you know,
And when the Olympothod at Olympiad at the end, because
about you.
Speaker 5 (38:29):
Know, having the whole movie be about canceling counselors and training.
Speaker 6 (38:31):
Right right, and and you know, I like the song
at the end of the center around the campfire and
they're singing the C I T Song or whatever we
are t. Yeah, So I think I think that one.
I think that was good. I wish they would have
dove into the relationships more between all the characters because
there was so many counselors in training, and you they
(38:55):
got so little screen time because it was more focused
on this little kid and Bill Murray. And if it
wasn't the little knon Bill Murray, then it was Bill
Murray and that girl I did like. Spaz is probably
the best part of this movie. If you remember the
scene where they're in the canoes, like all the counselors
are coming back from the canoes and he's paddling and
(39:17):
the girl's laying in front of him in a bikini,
and he goes to he loses his paddle, right, he
acts like he's still but.
Speaker 5 (39:23):
He's still paddling. He's still paddling.
Speaker 6 (39:26):
So Spas is great in this movie. Remember what they
said he once took out six nurses on a day
and for him didn't show up to work the next day.
Speaker 5 (39:34):
Or something exactly.
Speaker 6 (39:35):
He's a living legend.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
You know.
Speaker 6 (39:37):
At the beginning, you're like, oh, Spaz, I think they're
looking at you, and he's like, go over there and
talk to him, and he goes and then they're like,
your flies down.
Speaker 5 (39:45):
That's hilarious. So the time where Spas and Fink they
crawl underneath the girl haven to listen to them.
Speaker 6 (39:53):
Because they're reading some sort of romance novel or something,
and yeah, and they get caught because one of them
sneezes I think are calls. I think I think our
Spas sneezes are calls.
Speaker 5 (40:06):
Yeah, and the girls hear it and they're.
Speaker 6 (40:08):
Like yeah, and they got aside with the fly swatter.
So to me, it had a couple of funny moments,
but it's not a haha funny movie, and it doesn't
age very well, like would the whole bill Murray seen
with that girl at the beginning where it's basically he's
trying to rape her, I guess is the easiest way
to say it. That was just a big turn off
(40:30):
and that may have affected the rest of the movie
for me, where I couldn't really get into the movie
because I'm like, man, this is this isn't right. So
but for me, I'm probably only going to give it
five and a half stars, and the half is just
from Spaz because that guy's funny or else it would
just be a five. Now, if they would have took
(40:51):
away the whole kid with Bill Murray, this probably goes
up to a seven or eight really easily. And if
they would have just fleshed out you could have had
a lot more funnier scenes with Spas and Feing trying
to get them girls to like them. It would have
been comedic genius. So maybe a Meatballs two, three or four,
maybe they go down there. I remember Meatballs two with
(41:13):
an alien if I vaguely remember that growing up, so
maybe we'll have to cover that someting.
Speaker 5 (41:19):
And there was an alien and yeah, that movie's rough.
Speaker 6 (41:22):
Well this one was rough too, so.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
But okay, so they wanted this movie to have heart.
So why didn't they, just like you and I had
talked about before, have that one counselor I think it
was hardware, save the little kids frog or get that
kid a frog, right, and have Spas get romantically involved
with his love interest.
Speaker 6 (41:41):
And then set it set and then and then set
fink up with a girl or whatever. You know what
I mean, you could you could have went in so
many ways instead of bringing this whole other character in
and and I don't know if maybe there's a deleted
scenes that were missing that maybe flesh it out of more.
I don't have the DVD, so I can't. I can't
tell you. The prop I'm gonna is probably gonna be
the space helmet that Bill Murray puts on or whatever
(42:03):
that helmet is at the beginning that he does his
announcements with.
Speaker 5 (42:07):
Yeah, he does his morning announcements, he puts on that helmet.
Speaker 6 (42:09):
Yeah, I don't know what it is, but that's something
I would That's something that would definitely go in my
man cave. So we'll see. I mean, I don't know.
I haven't seen this man. It's been at least thirty years,
thirty five.
Speaker 5 (42:28):
Years, so I think, and I vaguely remember this might
have been the first movie I ever saw at the
movie at the drive in. Really yeah, I think my
brother and I went with our babysitter. We had a babysitter,
and our babysitter took my brother and I to the
(42:48):
Thunderbird movie theater that's now long gone's been torn down
for decades. But I pretty much believe this might be
the first movie I saw that I can remember seeing
at the drive in movies?
Speaker 6 (43:01):
Bond, do you want to know how different we are?
Speaker 2 (43:02):
You know what?
Speaker 6 (43:03):
The first movie I ever saw at the drive in
was What's that? Honey? I Shrunk the Kids?
Speaker 5 (43:10):
Ooh nice?
Speaker 6 (43:12):
Yeah, so you know I haven't. I haven't went to
many drive in movies. That's something I'm a big movie fan,
and we have we still have several drive ins in
the area. Tips drive in is really popular here where
they show them. But the only one that I ever
went and seen was Honey, I Shrunk the Kids? So
I figure why?
Speaker 5 (43:31):
Said why into some other before that? But I've just
I was too younger, Rember.
Speaker 6 (43:35):
My thing is why sit out in your car and
burn up outside or when you could be inside a
nice company, reclinable see in the theater now? So yeah,
there you have it. That is our coverage of meat balls.
Let us know what you think about meatballs. I know
Bond's a little bit older than me, so his perspective
is going to be a little bit different because I
(43:56):
think he said he was about nine years old when
this came out. I was too, be one and a half,
so there's a little bit of age difference. So the
difference between Bond to me is the same as me
as it was to Kyle, So Kyle was younger than us.
So and don't feel bad. I'm still trying to get
Kyle on to give him a wrap up show. He's
just really busy right now, so you know, I'm gonna
(44:18):
let him do his thing. Bond stepped up, We're surviving,
we're still going, so I don't want Kyle to feel bad,
so we'll get him back on here soon.
Speaker 5 (44:25):
I definitely want people to go out watch this movie,
review it, let us know your thoughts, go to Facebook,
go to whatever, Instagram, all those kind of good things.
Speaker 6 (44:33):
And I want people to know if they if they
just remember watching this movie, go back and watch it
now and tell me what you think, because you may
have loved it back in the day, but you go
back and watch it now, it hits differently. It just
really does.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
And I one hundred percent agree because that's exactly the
way I went to this movie. I was excited about
watching this movie again. Watch this movie for the first
time in decades going, Oh, I remember I love this movie.
This movie's hilarious. Oh I'm gonna die laughing watching this thing,
and I didn't.
Speaker 6 (45:04):
But you know what, I'm gonna give you a Genie
Award for picking this movie because they like to give
those awards to everybody.
Speaker 5 (45:11):
Right, Hey, eat your heart out, Canada.
Speaker 6 (45:14):
Well we are the Tragedy of Sema podcast. If you
want to follow us, we are on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram,
but I don't do a lot on Instagram. I need
to start that back up. Maybe I'll put Bond on that.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
You know.
Speaker 6 (45:27):
I'm thinking about doing another Real Talk episode real soon
where we just bring everybody in on a big old
zoom meeting and just have a good old time. I
don't know if Bond's ever been on one of those
with us. I know one time we did like the
Nicest Person in the World. It was around a March
Madness and we had a big old sixty four people
bracket where I think the nicest person in the world
(45:50):
it came down between I think it was mister Rogers
and Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter, and Dolly Parton was
in the final four. I do believe so, I don't know.
It was really interesting, so maybe we'll do something like
that again soon, we'll come up with something. So but
I think this episode's coming to a close, and that's
a wrap.
Speaker 5 (46:09):
And cut.
Speaker 7 (46:16):
The tragedy cynem Well, then Marie Shima join us as
we toast to the tales we love.
Speaker 8 (46:24):
The most, Tiny up saying.
Speaker 7 (46:30):
Then Marie Shima join us as we toast to the
tales we love the most, we love the.
Speaker 8 (46:44):
Most, the tragedy of cinema and Mary Shimmer joys, if.
Speaker 7 (47:17):
We dose through the tails we love the most, to
the tails we love the most, trage, I say, when
them Marie Killer join us, set me toast to the
tales we love the most, to the tells we love
(47:41):
the most, to the tales we love the most,
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