RETROSPECT: “Heavyweights” (1995)

(Source: IMDb) 

Growing up in the 1990s, there were very few movies and TV shows featuring characters and groups of people that I genuinely identified with, particularly outcasts and those who weren’t perceived as “cool kids” by comparison. From the earliest Nicktoons (Doug Funnie, anyone?) to Saturday morning fun on ABC (looking at you, Recess), and, of course, several live-action comedies from Disney, it’s these categories, in retrospect, that have held up against the more popular types for me. With the latter in mind, one of the funniest entries in this roster (especially for us Millenials) was a comedy about overweight kids who attend a summer camp, only for the new owner to turn it into a weight loss regimen. 

Right off the cuff (or should I say, scale?), I’m not sure Heavyweights (a co-production with Joe Roth’s former Caravan Pictures company) is the kind of movie that could be made today, what with all the apparent fat shaming. (Eddie Murphy’s remake of The Nutty Professor was released around the same time.) Yes, the comedy is rude, sometimes crass, with numerous pranks, pratfalls, and slapstick. Ditto moments of kids sneaking candy, snacks, and fast food into the eponymous “Camp Hope” as contraband, a sequence where they take the new counselors hostage and party like crazy, a chain-smoking cameraman, and brief references to bulimia and pre-teenage hormones. 

At the same time, the camaraderie among these kids (along with competition and ridicule from rival camps, and cringe and fears over dances) is sincere and relatable. Some of these cast members (including Aaron Schwartz, Kenan Thompson, and Shaun Weiss) were previously in Disney's Mighty Ducks series. Ditto that first film’s writer Steven Brill, who made his directorial debut with this movie (and co-wrote the script with future comedy veteran Judd Apatow). Furthermore, some of the cast and crew (including Paul Feig) later got involved with the short-lived but acclaimed TV series Freaks and Geeks. 

Ben Stiller’s crazed fitness guru Tony Perkis was something of a precursor to the equally over-the-top White Goodman in Dodgeball the following decade. His late parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, play the original camp owners, while Tom Hodges’ European instructor Lars steals every scene he’s in. All four provide some of the most quotable and hilarious moments in the movie. It’s equally fun watching scenes involving go-karts and the ever-popular “Blob.” Hit tracks by BoDean, the Bay City Rollers, Bow Wow Wow, and select classical music, pervade the soundtrack. 

It’s clear that Tony has poor social skills, and that his unethical, questionable methods (brutal, critical, demeaning) are having a negative, unlikable effect on everybody. Just a theory, but it could partly be a result of him projecting his own failures and disappointments. Ultimately, Heavyweights is about kids who learn self-respect, how to stand up for themselves and be responsible, and choose to be better—not for anybody else (including rival camps) nor by forcing it, but for themselves. All things considered, it packs several laughs and Nineties vibes and goes out like a champ. 

(Source: IMDb)