Wet Hot American Summer discussion (*spoilers*)

Dr.Strangefate

He Sees You When You're Sleeping. He Knows When Yo
Joined
Oct 24, 2004
Messages
10,075
Location
New York, NY
So, I'm going to come right out and say it before Planet-Man shows up with a hatchet and tries to kill me...

I saw "Wet Hot American Summer" for the first time this weekend, and while it had some great moments, some touching moments, and some ****ing hilarious moments, the film was INCREDIBLY unbalanced. It just didn't seem to know what it wanted to be.

And this is coming from someone who loves Stella. I love them at their weirdest... But the show Stella accomodated that weirdness with characters that balanced them out. They got away with the insanity....

Too much of WHAS is down to earth in the way they handle the love-stories, so that when the line gets crossed into weirdsville, its funny, but it doesn't quite work. And then at somepoint they cross over to where rather than having a normal plot expressed bizarrely, they had a bizarre plot expressed a little too close to reality. And it reaaaally seemed like David Hyde Pierce was phoning it in.

On the other hand, It made me nostalgic for camp... Which is good...

But overall I was disapointed. I expected a lot more and a much better movie than I ended up seeing.
 
Last edited:
Might not get a lot of hits, but as long as we're talking about it I'd like to do it right.

So, I'm going to come right out and say it before Planet-Man shows up with a hatchet and tries to kill me...

I saw "Wet Hot American Summer" for the first time this weekend, and while it had some great moments, some touching moments, and some ****ing hilarious moments, the film was INCREDIBLY unbalanced. It just didn't seem to know what it wanted to be.

And this is coming from someone who loves Stella. I love them at their weirdest... But the show Stella accomodated that weirdness with characters that balanced them out. They got away with the insanity....

Too much of WHAS is down to earth in the way they handle the love-stories, so that when the line gets crossed into weirdsville, its funny, but it doesn't quite work. And then at somepoint they cross over to where rather than having a normal plot expressed bizarrely, they had a bizarre plot expressed a little too close to reality. And it reaaaally seemed like David Hyde Pierce was phoning it in.

On the other hand, It made me nostalgic for camp... Which is good...

But overall I was disapointed. I expected a lot more and a much better movie than I ended up seeing.

That's more or less how I felt the first time I saw it. It was a very funny and interesting film, not quite as funny as Stella but good overall, if a bit.... off, somehow.

I asked for it for Christmas and I liked it even more the second time, and then the third started to truly love it and, I dunno. Since then I can barely watch it without longing nearly to the very core to just go there and never leave. I've never denied that about half of the reason it's my favourite movie is completely subjective stuff I take from it and apply to it on my own.

Stella, to me, although it's not obvious or even vital to notice, is largely about true friendship. Wet Hot takes all that stuff and lauches it into the stratosphere. In a world where it's nearly impossible to have a message like that without being corny or preachy, the movie had the brilliance to be so over-the-top corny and preachy that it becomes hilarious, and then goes beyond and becomes true again. You know what I mean?

A lot of it is little things too, like during the talent show there's a ten second bit with three girls finishing a song about lifelong friendship. I'm not sure it's intentional, but the pure innocence and simplicity of that little bit is one of the best and most memorable bits of the movie for me.

Same thing with the gay wedding, with Susie playing the flute in the background. The idea of this sad little play-wedding that they're having hidden in the forest, having accepted that the world won't accept them and making due anyway, it ends up being the happiest thing. It's my favourite wedding scene in anything.

I can relate EXTREMELY well to Coop's entire story througout the movie( and will leave it at that).

The whole thing is just this bittersweet little story about this innocent group of characters in the rawest stage of living dealing with true love and true friendship, set in an already-cool place like summer camp, but secretly REALLY set in this amazing fantasy world completely driven by emotion, where anything can happen and any thought taken to its extreme.

That's how I'd put it. I always try to urge people not to go into it with any expectations other than the fact that it is, on the surface, a very funny and refreshingly different movie, and as I've said, tons of its greatness might just be in my head(although I know I'm not alone, there are others out there who live and die by the film and a good deal of the input I've seen from the filmmakers is encouraging), but I think this is a pretty good summation of why I love it.

Also, the music is consistently and thoroughly awesome.
 
Moved my post over here to make things less funky.

You make some interesting points, and there are plenty of movies that I loved only after long hard reflection... There's a lot here to like, and if this is a "see it again" sort of flick, I'll just have to see it again. I just don't think its going to be that high on my list of priorities simply based on how underwhelmed I was by it.
 
Well, if it really takes you that long, David Wain mentioned, in one of the happiest news releases of my life, that they were hoping to do an Anniversary DVD release of the movie with more footage, FINALLY a soundtrack release(packaged with it), and, either as a part of this set or released seperately, a PREQUEL of some kind taking place earlier in the same summer(!!!:heart:::D:cry::please::lol:).

"Anniversary" probably means 10th, which would make it 2011. So at the very least, maybe you'll end up seeing it again three years from now.;)

Also, did you watch the deleted scenes or making of or any of that stuff?
 
Finally got around to seeing this tonight. Laughed 'till I cried. My suitemates kept peeking into my room to see what all the fuss was about.

I'll post more later...
 

Latest posts

Back
Top