Movie Review: Happy Campers Starring Brad Renfro, Dominque Swain, and Emily Bergl

There are a couple of types of films that are quite distinct even within a set genre...to date I've become somewhat of an expert on all the facets of slapstick comedy by dint of being forced to watch them by the significant other who adores them. This method of achieving viewing prowess has triggered many feelings of nausea, boredom, and any other sort of aversion you can think of as well as uncovering a few rare nuggets amongst the rubbish...and of course a system of classification within the sub-genre. Of the many different groups I've come up with there's one readily recognizable to most...the "teen sex romp". This auspicious group includes such raunchy classics as Porky's, American Pie, and now Happy Campers.

We follow 40 days in the lives of seven counselors at a summer camp in the mountains, Camp Bleeding Dove. These counselors are all 18-19 years old and much more interested in each other than the kids they're supposed to be helping. Namely, we've got a soap operaesque tale about a brooding but "smoking hot" (their words, not mine) counselor named Wichita (Brad Renfro) whose affections have attached to the over-peppy Wendy (Domonique Swain), much to the dismay of his best friend and classmate Talia (Emily Bergl) who had hoped to make use of the time together in the middle of nowhere to let him know about her true feelings for him.

Thrown into the mix are Pixel (Jaime King), a kooky bisexual of ambiguous morals as well as Don (the geek, played by Justin Long) Jaspar (the gay, played by Keram Malicki-Sanchez), and Adam (the jock, played by Jordan Bridges). Of course we can't overlook the head of the camp, one "Big Chief Oberon" (Peter Stormare) who seems to think everything that ever happens in a co-ed camp is "the root of anarchy" and is definitely not all there...even before he gets hit by lightning.

I could detail the entire plot here and you'd probably say "oh, that sounds just like (insert other substance less comedy based on teenagers obsessed with sex here)" and you'd be right...I really didn't see much of anything unique in this film except for the eventual realization that though the world may revolve around sex (the teenage world anyway) it isn't everything.

The acting was surprisingly decent in some areas despite the flat characters depicted by the script. I've previously only ever seen Brad Renfro in a secondary role in which he did a decent...but not great...job and in his role as Wichita he just seemed to conform exactly to the stereotype he was supposed to depict and completely lacked on-screen chemistry. In fact as far as on-screen chemistry goes I only really noticed the performance of Jaime King whose expressive eyes (and body, as comes into play quite a few times in this film) go far to truly convince viewers of her character's authenticity. Peter Stormare has played some very good roles in the past and furnished some of the only laughs in the film as Big Chief Oberon before his character was reduced to a slobbering imbecile.

Overall there were a couple of good laughs, but a couple of good laughs can be found in a minute of a good stand-up comedian's routine. The script was definitely lacking, the majority of acting was mediocre at best, and the story definitely felt like something that's been told many times over. There are a couple of deviations from a traditional slapstick sex movie but not many...if you're looking for laughs there are definitely better films to get them in but if you're looking for some good boob shots there are a few. All in all, not horrible but certainly not good and something I'm glad I didn't have to spend any money for and will likely never see again.