Murray stars as Tripper Harrison, head counselor at Camp North Star. He and the camp owner, Morty (Harvey Atkin), are in charge of the current crop of CIT’s – counselors in training: Roxanne (Kate Lynch), Crockett (Russ Banham), A.L. (Kristine DeBell), Candace (Sarah Torgov), Spaz (Jack Blum), Fink (Keith Knight), Wendy (Cindy Girling), Hardware (Matt Craven) and Wheels (Todd Hoffman). Tripper spends his summer chasing female staffers, cracking jokes, and plotting the demise of their rich rivals the snotty at nearby Camp Mohawk. At the same time, Tripper takes a special interest in Rudy (Chris Makepeace) a socially awkward young man sent to North Star for the summer. Slowly Tripper is able to help Rudy overcome his shyness, while leading the camp in a series of pranks and assorted mischief.
Credited to four different writers—Len Blum, Dan Goldberg, Janis Allen, and Harold Ramis—the remarkably simply story has an improvisational feel in many of the film’s funniest scenes. At this point in his career, Bill Murray was not yet a movie star, free of expectations, and able to shape the character as he wanted. Murray has certainly been funnier, but nowhere else was he able to be a full-on doofus and go for broke.
Tripper exudes confidence, and he’s more than happy to help kids like Rudy ‘learn’ from his example. Chris Makepeace makes a nice film debut as Rudy, effectively playing a young man whose confidence grows as the summer weeks pass. Harvey Atkin has a couple of memorable moments as Morty. The poor guy is not only forced to endure his cot being moved to several unfortunate locations as he sleeps, but he must tolerate campers and staff regularly calling him “Mikey.”
Framed at 1.78.1, this 1080p transfer is anything but consistent. The image quality ranges from poor to slightly above average. Many long shots are extremely fuzzy, revealing no detail at all. However, close-ups contain notable detail; much closer to what one would expect from a high definition transfer. While colors aren’t as vibrant as one would expect from a newer title, they are correct. Flesh tones look good, while black levels are decidedly milky.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix won’t blow anyone away, but it does the job. Dialogue is always easy to understand. Sound effects sound a bit week, but Elmer Bernstein’s score and the rest of the soundtrack come across nicely.
English, English SDH, and Spanish subtitles are available.
The following special features are included:
- Audio Commentary with Director Ivan Reitman and Co-Writer and Co-Producer Dan Goldberg. If you’re a fan of the film this is worth listening to. With Reitman leading the way, they discuss Bill Murray’s reluctance to do the film, shooting style, and reshoots in order to develop the Tripper/Rudy relationship.
