Main Cast: Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Michael Showalter, Marguerite Moreau, Paul Rudd
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 97 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
1980s teen comedies finally get the parody they so richly deserve with Wet Hot American Summer, the first feature film from writer/director David Wain and co-screenwriter Michael Showalter, formerly of the sketch comedy troupe the State. It's the last day of the summer season at Camp Firewood, and as camp director Beth (Janeane Garofalo) prepares to wrap things up, the staff of teenage counselors realize this is their last chance to do something about the summer romances that have been brewing for the past three months. Sweet but shy Coop (Michael Showalter) is crazy about pretty Katie (Marguerite Moreau), but there's the problem of her severely moody boyfriend Andy (Paul Rudd). Meanwhile, Victor (Ken Marino) is trying to score with sexy Abby (Marisa Ryan), who is known to make friends easily, and McKinley (Michael Ian Black) and Ben (Bradley Cooper) attempt to keep their hot and heavy relationship a secret. Meanwhile, arts and crafts teacher Gail (Molly Shannon) turns to her students for comfort as her marriage falls apart, drama coach Susie (Amy Poehler) tries to whip the talent show into shape with Ben's help, and camp chef Gene (Christopher Meloni) deals with his unique sexual quirks with the help of a talking can of vegetables (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin). Beth even finds time for romance with socially inept astrophysicist Henry (David Hyde Pierce), but first Henry has to save Camp Firewood from a large piece of space junk about to re-enter Earth's atmosphere. Like Wain and Showalter, Ken Marino, Michael Ian Black, and Joe Lo Truglio (who appears in a small role) were also members of the State; fellow State alumnus Kerri Kenney was cast in a supporting role in the film, but her character didn't appear in the final cut. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Sex, drugs, car wrecks, spacecraft, radio celebrities, David Hyde Pierce, and more: Wet Hot American Summer has it all! Loaded with absurd laughs, this film is a refreshing twist on '80s teen angst and summer camp. Viewers who like to forget they're watching a film, beware: The characters and the film itself are constantly aware of themselves as a spectacle, and a lot of the humor relies on a viewer's ability to laugh at filmmaking. Writers David Wain and Michael Showalter (The State) found creative ways to "adhere" to action film conventions and create laughs in unusual places by their characters' strange reactions to the events in the script. Subtly downplayed, many big names like Jeannine Garofalo, Michael Showalter, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd, Marguerite Moreau, and the aforementioned David Hyde Pierce appear in a hilarious mess of events intertwined by one thing: the last day of summer camp. Director David Wain's first full-length feature made its debut at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, and due to limited distribution, only screened in selected lucky theaters. ~ Sarah Sloboda, All Movie Guide
Zak Orth - J.J.; Christopher Meloni - Gene; A.D. Miles - Gary; Molly Shannon - Gail; Gideon Jacobs - Aaron; Ken Marino - Victor; Joe Lo Truglio - Neil; Michael Ian Black - McKinley; Liam Norton - Arty; Amy Poehler - Susie; Bradley Cooper - Ben; Marisa Ryan - Abby; Elizabeth Banks - Lindsay; Gabriel Millman - Caped Boy; Kevin Sussman - Steve; Kevin Thomas Conroy - Mork Guy; Christopher Cuzumano - Medieval Kid; Madeline Blue - Cure Girl; Cassidy Ladden - Mallrat Girl; Nina Hellman - Nancy; Peter Salett - Guitar Dude; Judah Friedlander - Ron; Jordan Maclean - Alexa; Michael Showalter - Alan Shemper; Jake Fogelnest - Silas
Credit
Susan Ferris - Casting, Michael Showalter - Co-producer, David Wain - Co-producer, Jill Kliber - Costume Designer, David Wain - Director, Meg Reticker - Editor, Jill Rubin - Line Producer, Theodore Shapiro - Composer (Music Score), Craig Wedren - Composer (Music Score), Peter Salett - Songwriter, Mark White - Production Designer, Ben Weinstein - Cinematographer, Howard Bernstein - Producer, Dan Ferat - Sound/Sound Designer, Michael Showalter - Screenwriter, David Wain - Screenwriter
On August 18, 1981, it is the last day of summer camp at the Camp Firewood, a fictitious Jewish summer camp located near Waterville, Maine. Being that it's the last day means that it is also last day for each camper and counselor to find someone to kiss at the end of the big talent show that night. Beth (Garofalo), the camp director, struggles to keep her counselors in order—and her campers alive—while falling in love with Henry (Pierce), an astrophysics associate professor at the local college. Henry has to devise a plan to save the camp from a piece of NASA's SkyLab, which is falling to Earth. Coop (Showalter) has a crush on Katie (Moreau), his fellow counselor, but has to pry her away from her rebellious, obnoxious and obviously unfaithful boyfriend, Andy (Rudd). Only Gene (Meloni), the shellshocked Vietnam warveteran and camp chef, can help Coop win Katie – with some help from a talking can of vegetables (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin). And meanwhile, Victor (Marino) is attempting to sleep with Abby (Marisa Ryan) and leaves his friend Neil (Joe Lo Truglio) and some camp kids behind in the woods with nothing but a raft. All the while, Gary (Miles), Gene's unfortunately chosen apprentice, and J.J. (Orth) attempt to figure out why McKinley (Black) hasn't been with a woman; and Susie (Poehler) and Ben (Cooper) attempt to put on the greatest Talent Show Camp Firewood has ever seen.
Background
The movie is based on the experiences Wain had while attending Camp Modin, a Jewish camp, then located in Canaan, Maine, and Showalter had at Camp Mohawk in the Berkshires in Cheshire, Massachusetts[3]. During one scene in the movie, the counselors take a trip into Waterville, Maine, which is not far from the camp. It is also a parody of, and homage to, summer camp movies made during the 1980s such as Meatballs.
Filmed in the late spring, it rained for a large portion of the filming schedule. Exterior shots were filmed catch-as-catch can, and in many scenes, rain can be seen outside during an interior scene, and in the next scene the characters will leave the building and the sun is shining. The film itself follows the irreverent humor of The State, with lots of absurdism, non-sequiturs, and toilet humor.
The film was shot at Camp Towanda in Honesdale, PA[4] and is rated R for adult humor, language, and sexual content.
Wet Hot American Summer received mostly negative reviews from critics. As of April 2007, it has a 42/100 rating on Metacritic and a 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an 11% rating from their "Cream of the Crop" critics. Notably, Roger Ebert rated the film with one star out of four, and despised it so much that his review took the form of a sarcastic tribute to Allan Sherman's Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh.[5] In contrast, Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman awarded the film an "A" and named it as one of the ten best films of the year. Numerous other critics have praised the film as a witty pop satire and it has gone on to achieve a cult following.
Possible prequel
Wain has confirmed that there may be a prequel to Wet Hot American Summer. The movie would be set earlier in that same summer, and part of the joke would be that the cast who was ten years too old to be playing their parts would now be playing younger versions of those same roles, but this time be 20 years too old. The movie would star the same cast from the original.[6][7]
