I cannot believe that the original Meatballs is from 1979! I have seen all the movies in this franchise, but for some reason the first two I always thought were from the mid-80s. Anyway, Meatballs is a classic summer camp comedy and one of the things that it is most notable for is being the first movie where Bill Murray had a starring role.
How to Download Meatballs
Meatballs was released on June 29, 1979. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
Meatballs Movie Review: A Nostalgic Look Back
That is not the only bit of fun trivia about Meatballs. While it was not the first movie that Ivan Reitman directed, it was Meatballs that ultimately saw his career skyrocket into stuff like Ghostbusters in the coming years. Also, Harold Ramis had a hand in the story and the script, making this one of many movies that had both Bill Murray and Harold Ramis working on it.
Meatballs is a movie that I have a ton of nostalgia for. We had a laserdisc player when I was growing up and Meatballs was one of the movies that we had for it so I watched this a great deal. Laserdisc was the ultimate technology for me and I was the only kid that I knew who had a laserdisc player in the house.
Camp North Star and the Role of Tripper Harrison
The movie is set in Canada at a summer camp called Camp North Star. Bill Murray plays the role of the main camp counselor Tripper Harrison. Tripper is awesome and is pretty much exactly what you would expect Bill Murray as a camp counselor to be. His pulling pranks on the head of the camp is hilarious. Tripper is just such a likable character and a huge reason as to why this movie is so much fun and still holds up to this day.
While Tripper is most certainly the life of the party, Tripper is a good dude as well, there is a new kid at the camp called Rudy who is having a hard time in life and is really low, Tripper takes him under his wing. Tripper manages to bring Rudy out of his shell and find some confidence and some happiness.
The Rivalry with Camp Mohawk
The supporting cast of counselors is fun too and each one has their own “thing” that makes them special. However, the conflict in Meatballs comes from a rival camp called, Camp Mohawk and they have this long running Olympic type contest with them, which Camp Mohawk has won the last 12 summers!
We get to see the two camps compete in various events, mostly with Camp Mohawk trying to cheat to win. Thankfully Tripper is a great leader and he manages to get them all pumped up to compete in the final events and have Camp North Star really put up a fight against those jerks at Camp Mohawk.
Home Release and Missing Features
Before we get to my final thoughts, I do want to talk about the home release of Meatballs. This is a movie that had a DVD release many years ago, but that DVD release had an awesome documentary on it that is a ton of fun. However, the Blu-Ray release of the movie does not have that documentary on it! I hate how studios do stuff like this, never in a million years do I think that Meatballs will get a 4K release, but I hate when they re-release a movie, but leave off features the previous version had!
Final Thoughts: Why Meatballs Endures
Meatballs is a really fun summer camp movie and one of the best of this era. I will say that it is a rather predictable kind of movie and if I am being super honest, Bill Murray does carry this movie and makes what is a predictable kind of movie be so much better. This is a movie that is going to make you laugh, but I also think that the characters are a lot of fun and you do care about them. Hey, if you are in the mood for a classic comedy, you can do way, way, way worse than Meatballs that is for sure.
