Meatballs (1979) * * *

Directed by:  Ivan Reitman

Starring:  Bill Murray, Kate Lynch, Harvey Atkin, Kenneth Knight, Russ Banham, Chris Makepeace

Meatballs was shot in Canada on a small budget with a mostly Canadian cast of unknowns, except of course for its star, Bill Murray, who is American.    Meatballs is Murray's feature film debut following a successful Saturday Night Live run and he runs with it.     The film is a comedy with a distinguished amount of energy and it works most of the time.     There isn't much of a plot, except for an inter-camp Olympics between rival summer camps where our underdog heroes rise to the occasion and show up the snobs once and for all.

Meatballs is mostly a showcase for Murray, a master of laid-back sarcasm he would display in many future films.     He plays Tripper, the supervisor of a ragtag group of counselors at Camp North Star.     The counselors are rarely seen doing any actual work with the kids.     The movie is more interested in the after-work routine of intra-staff romances and bawdy pranks.     Tripper befriends a misfit camper who plays a big part in the finale.     He likes the kid and helps him restore his self-confidence.     We see the caring side of Tripper, who mostly rolls through life with a "What, me worry?" attitude and sufficient amounts of verbal jousting ability at his disposal.  

Tripper's boss is the feckless Morty (Atkin), a nice guy whose bed is somehow moved in the middle of the night...with Morty still sleeping in it.     In one instance, he wakes up in his bed on the side of the road.     He must be a very, very heavy sleeper.     But the gag is consistently funny as the gang comes up with increasingly inventive places to move the bed.      Murray also uses the camp PA system to make announcements about "Sexual Awareness Week".    And you thought M.A.S.H. cornered the market on this joke.

Meatballs is Animal House light.   It is a PG-rated comedy with a certain innocence about it.    The snobs vs. slobs feud started in Animal House, continued here, and then carried on in Caddyshack one year later.     It is fun to see the rival Camp Mohawk get what's coming to them, which happens more than once.     The rivals are not developed much as individuals.     We root against them because they collectively play dirty and they are not, well, Camp North Star.     Camp Mohawk members are almost cult-like in their efforts to play dirty. 

Meatballs is a charming comedy with Murray leading the way.    He and Ivan Reitman would go on to make Stripes (1981) and Ghostbusters (1984), which cemented their respective legacies in film.     Murray walks through Meatballs with infectious confidence we will see again many times over.     This movie does not reach the greatness of Animal House, but it reminds the viewer of it, which is good enough.

Note:   For those who ever wanted to know, Tripper's first name is Dennis.    It is emblazoned on his polo shirt in several scenes.