A new feature to help our faithful readers! CCJ picks its video choice of the week for you to rent or buy.
Critically reviled and avoided like the plague in theaters, Camped Out will surely find a spot fallen (or thrown) behind your VCR. Too mature for children, too juvenile for adults, this film came in a spate of mid-1980s comedies that were inappropriate for all audiences. Starring Darby Fleer, an unknown SNL alumnus, who has been called "like John Candy or Chris Farley...only not remotely funny. I guess he was just fat". Fleer died tragically the following year after a suicidal attempt to eat a meatball sub in one bite.
The film also features Bobby Schnipp, from the flop '80s sitcom Me and Grandpa, where he played a despondent Latvian custodian. Jean Ramplick, fresh from her role as the wise matron in a series of forgotten margarine commercials, also joins the cast.
Sam Naxley (Fleer) has planned a camping trip with high-school chums Pete (a young Larry Wingo [!] ) and Big Pete (Schnipp). However, he is shocked when he remembers he has to babysit his his sister (Jean Ramplick)'s children! He finds the tow-headed brats (George Whomplin, Gina Teevis, and Skip McFleaver) still locked inside his Oldsmobile in the garage.
Sam, his friends, and the children still go on the camping trip in the remote wilds of Pennsylvania. The trip is filled with mishaps (watch for the classic boat-anchor scene!) guaranteed to traumatize children and make adults cross their legs uncomfortably.
The film has a PG-13 rating, due to pointless swearing and an ill-advised beer-gargling scene that the director refused to remove. You may want to have small children cover their eyes during the bear attack, especially the portion where the slavering bear devours Pete's arm and he screams in abject terror. In fact, that may be a good place to hit the fast-forward button and drop another glob of margarine on the popcorn. One and one-half stars.
