Meatballs Part II

Back in the summer of 1979, a movie called Meatballs became a huge hit and made, in his first big screen starring role, SNL castmate Bill Murray a household name. It seems that a lot of people don't know that this little, summer camp classic spawned a franchise. And not just a direct to video one either, not counting the last one. I thought over my next few posts I would take a look back at the Meatballs library. I'm kicking it off with 1984's Meatballs Part II.

Giddy, Richard Mulligan, owner of Camp Sasquatch, is trying desperately to keep his camp from being bought out by Colonial Hershey, Hamilton Camp. Hershey owns the rival camp, the militant Camp Patton, and wants to expand it onto Giddy's property. The two make a wager. Whoever wins the big boxing match between the two camps wins the others land. Giddy thinks he has found a ringer with one of his counselors, a juvenile delinquent named Flash, John Mengatti. Hershey, however, plays dirty and will do what he can to make sure Flash doesn't make it into the ring.

There's a few side stories taking place as well. One involves a few of the boy campers finding an alien that they dub Meathead. And there's a bit of a love story as well between Flash and a good girl named Cheryl, Kim Richards, who doesn't know the first thing about boys.

Meatballs Part II has kind of an interesting history. It was originally intended to be an R rated film, but after the success of E.T., they decided to add the family friendly storyline about the alien, which, by the way, looks like a creepy baked potato. Two of the counselors, played by Misty Rowe and Archie Hahn, were supposed to have a few sex scenes. But those scenes were cut, making the scenes with these two a little confusing and out of place. Plus, there are a lot of sex jokes still left in the film giving it an odd vibe. It can't seem to make up it's mind who the audience is. Also, it's not a true sequel to the original. It only shares the name and the fact that it's set at summer camp.

Meatballs Part II isn't a great movie, or even that good for the most part. But I do sort of enjoy it, mostly for it's eclectic cast. Mulligan and Camp are enjoyable character actors. Plus this is around the time that Richards was trying to shed her good girl Disney image. She also did Tuff Turf around this period. She probably did a better job of shedding that image when she joined the Real Housewives. The supporting cast includes Paul "Pee Wee Herman" Reubens and John Larroquette in two funny roles. Donald Gibb, Ogre from Revenge Of The Nerds, even pops up as Flash's boxing rival.

This doesn't even come close to the original, but it's enjoyable enough.

It's available on dvd.