Just in time for Fathers Day–and summer camp–Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releases Ivan Reitmans comedy classic “Meatballs” on Special Edition DVD June 5, 2007.
Reitman’s comedy “Meatballs,” which opens with the famous line, Is everyone ready for summer features fellow Canadian actor Bill Murray in his first starring role. The movie was a blockbuster hit back in the summer of 1979.
The wackiest head counselor in North Star, Tripper Harrison (Murray) devotes his summer activities to cracking jokes, chasing female staffers, and plotting the demise of their evil rich rivals, the snotty young brats at nearby Camp Mohawk. Containing hi-jinks, gorgeous babes in the woods, and riotous one-liners of Bill Murray, “Meatballs” could be described as an “Animal House goes to summer camp.”
Filmed on location at an actual summer camp, Camp White Pine, just north of Toronto, and using many of the camps actual enrollees and counselors as extras, “Meatballs” spotlights the quirky yet endearing comedy genius of Bill Murray.
As with Reitmans other comedies, “Meatballs” captures a succession of capers at a typical summer camp, cheerfully championed by the chief counselor, Bill Murray, whose character is a prankster who loves the ladies and takes us back to a time when going to camp was a much-awaited summer ritual loaded with laughs, goofy campfire charades, zany camp games and first time adventures.
“Meatballs” catapulted Murray, who later starred in Ghostbusters, the biggest grossing comedy of all time, to movie stardom. Murray went on to headline several hits, including Stripes, Caddyshack, and most recently, Lost in Translation, for which he received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination.
DVD Features
“Meatballs” has been digitally re-mastered under Reitman’s supervision for the optimum picture and sound. This special edition DVD contains some first-time extras, including a bonus making of documentary, titled Summer Camp: The Making of Meatballs, and a directors commentary.
