MEATBALLS:
Rules are made to be broken, which is exactly why Camp North Star has no rules for when the kids go there for the Summer. To make sure the kids have the best time while at the camp, head counselor Tripper (played by Bill Murray) gives the kids and other counselors an experience that is wildly fun and unexpected. With the attempts of impressing each other, playing pranks on the camps director Morty (played by Harvey Atkin), or just hanging out in a boat on the lake, the camp is a place that will be so much fun that even the nerd of the group has fun.

SUMMER CAMP IN 1979:
This movie came out in June of 1979 and boy does it just overflow with the 70’s. Then again I think this is one of it’s most appealing aspects, aside from having Bill Murray in it and being a fun and funny movie. I’ve seen Meatballs many, many times from the first time when I was a kid to now as an adult and I’ve never grown tired of this movie. Meatballs is one of those rare movies that has no point, there’s hardly not substance to the plot, most of the acting is B-level material, but it’s just a fun movie to watch. Though there might not be a real point to the movie where it seems like none of the characters have any sort of objective, Meatballs is good because it shows how much fun Summer is. That’s the point I’ve always taken from watching this movie, that Summer is meant to be this time in the year when you go out to just have fun, doing whatever you want, and to be carefree and this is what Meatballs is, a carefree movie.

I’m also a big Bill Murray fan and as much as I like him this is not one of his best comedies from the 70’s. His character Tripper is funny, he plays him really well, in fact if this was any other actor I would say that he did a great job and was really funny. However, this is Bill Murray when he was young, in the prime of his movie career, and doing some of his best comedy acting. Which is why it feels like he only gave half of his talent to this character of Tripper. Still, it’s Bill Murray and he’s pretty funny in this movie and does a great job in portraying a wild spirited camp counselor.

As for the rest of the cast and characters, this is where the no point comes into play the most. Rudy (played by Chris Makepeace) is the best example of this no point or objective because when he’s introduced you are thinking he’s going to be the lead character who goes from this shy kid that’s picked on into the hero of the camp. Ok, well he kind of does this but the few times he appears in a scene he’s just there doing nothing really. Not that it matters because this movie is a lot of fun to watch. It might not be the best of comedies but it’s one that I’ll always enjoy and always reminds me of how much fun Summer was when I was a kid.

MEATBALLS ON BLU RAY:
So here it is, 33 years after being brought out to theaters, Meatballs is now getting the Blu Ray treatment and I got to say I was pretty impressed with it. This movie was converted really well over to Blu Ray. So much so that if it wasn’t for the fact that I know how old Bill Murray is and the clothes that are worn in it, I would have said this movie was done in the late 90’s to maybe 2004. It’s not as good as movies that were shot using HD format but for a 33 year old movie Meatballs looks really sharp on Blu Ray. There’s very little grain and noise that’s seen in the picture, even more surprising is how little there is of it in the dark areas of the picture. Most of all though the audio levels are near perfect where I never had to touch the remote nor did I have to turn it up from the last Blu Ray movie that I had watched which came out only last year. Meatballs is fun to watch and now on Blu Ray it’s a nice movie to look at. My only grip was that I would have loved to had commentary done by Bill Murray along with the Director Ivan Reitman.