One of my favorite films growing up was Steven Brill’s 1995 fat camp comedy, Heavyweights. The film starred a bunch of kids from the Mighty Ducks films like Kenan Thompson, Shaun Weiss and Aaron Schwartz, along with a rather built and intense Ben Stiller in what I would call one of Disney’s darker children films of the mid-90s. When I heard this was coming to Blu-ray I got really excited so what you read below is going to be very biased but probably pretty accurate too.
Heavyweights follows the life of Gerry (Aaron Schwartz), an overweight child whose parents decide to send him to Camp Hope, a fat camp. After meeting a good group of guys and finding out the camp has a lot of fun things to do like go-karting and jumping off The Blob, the campers and long time counselors are told that the camp has been sold to Tony Perkis (Ben Stliler). Tony is an overzealous fitness freak who expects great things from the kids when they follow his Perkis-system, though in reality it makes their lives miserable. Determined to take down evil Tony, the kids devise all sorts of plans to put Tony in his place and take back their beloved camp.
It’s no surprise that people love fat comedians, they tend to be very funny and the same goes when you have a comedy about overweight pre-teens. You can imagine the crazy things that would go on at a camp like this and Heavyweights makes sure to include those hilarious aspects in the picture as well as the depressing, dramatic ones that help balance the film’s narrative out. There are scenes between the former head counselor Pat (Tom McGowan), whose been attending and working the camp for 18 years, and Gerry where they each address their confidence issues and the concept of being overweight helps put things into perspective for those who make fun of them. It can be very touching at times, especially a scene involving a motor-less go-kart which then turns comical when Pat gets tired of pushing. As for the hilarious aspects, all you need to do is see the kids’ secret stash of candy and the Apocalypse Now food orgy that takes place when they try and take the camp back.
The biggest surprises for me about getting this Blu-ray was finding out that it was co-written and produced by Judd Apatow, like Knocked Up Judd Apatow, and that it starred Bridesmaids director Paul Feig and even Battleship director Peter Berg. All of them are very young and it’s weird to think about these guys known for very adult comedies taking a crack at a children’s film, but I guess that explains the darer aspects.
This film was made right as Ben Stiller was getting ready to blow up and his performance in this movie is half the reason to watch it. It’s such an intense spectacle and you hate everything about him but his character is so stupid that it’s hard not to get caught up in how ridiculous his whole persona is.
While the pranks are great and Ben Stiller’s intense performance is entertaining, the real show stopper is Tom Hodges who plays Lars. No one is quite sure where Lars is from but he has a German-like accent and is Tony’s henchman. Lars is great because he is the counselor for our main group of kids and he teaches them the buddy system. What is that you ask? He yells, “BUDDY!” and the kids have to yell it back holding their partner’s hands. If y
ou ever want to know who’s seen this movie, all you need to do is go into a bar, yell BUDDY and I guarantee you’ll get a response back. Lars is also like a turtle, has a hard shell but is weak once that shell is gone and that’s where even more of Hodges’ comedic brilliance shines.
Besides the Buddy system, Heavyweights left a lasting impact on me particularly because of The Blob (see image to the right). One of my dreams to this day is to be catapulted 10-15 feet in the air by that water toy of joy and if that finally happens I’ll thank heavyweights on my way up for showing me its glorious ways.
Overall, Heavyweights is one of those 90s comedies that’ll never be forgotten by those who have seen it and, if you haven’t seen it yet, make sure you do so. Even though I’m much older now than I was the first time I saw it, the movie is still genuinely funny, still very relevant and a great little film to watch with both friends and family.
The disc:
Heavyweights on Blu-ray didn’t seem to look different from other standard Blu-ray discs but the film was chock full of bonus features, something I didn’t expect from a film like this.
The Making of Heavyweights – A 24 minute featurette taking us behind the scenes of the production which includes the filming of certain scenes, hilarious interactions between Ben Stiller, who was practicing method acting, his parents and the child stars. My favorite moments included anything with Ben Stiller, particularly when Judd Apatow was interviewing him, and the filming of the food orgy scene which was created in the same style as a scene from Apocalypse Now.
Audio Commentary with Judd Apatow, Steven Brill, Allen Covert, Aaron Schwartz, Shaun Weiss, Tom Hodges and Special Guest Paul Feig
32 Never-Before-Seen Deleted & Extended Scenes – There are a ton of scenes here, most of them are extended or alternate scenes but there are a few that didn’t make it into the final cut. One of my favorites is called the “Boner scene”, it involves the kids getting ready for a physical and they give Gerry a hard time only for them all to find out it’s an attractive nurse that’ll be tickling their balls. There’s also another scene in which the “sit up game” is played, aka The Impossible sit-up, but instead of it being Tony playing they get Lars to try it.
Video Chat with Judd Apatow and Kenan Thompson – Though Kenan didn’t look like we wanted to do this, these two guys were absent from the Where are they Now featurette so they decided to have this video chat to reminisce about the production. At the time of shooting Kenan was 16 and had just wrapped Mighty Ducks II with a f
ew of the guys, the two swap stories including one about a kid farting on set and crying immediately from embarrassment. It’s 8:21 min. of Judd asking Kenan questions and Kenan answering in a tired fashion; it may have been early in the morning to be fair.
Super 8 Footage of the Cast and Crew – Exactly what it says. This is candid behind the scenes footage shot by whoever had the camera. There is no sound, just the cast on video doing stupid and fun things.
Judd’s Art Project – His Bizarre Photos From the Set-Judd had an art project called The Angry Man and it’s basically a compilation of pictures that he is in with people in which he makes angry and intense faces while everyone else either smiles not knowing what he is doing or joins in on the fun with him.
Where Are They Now? – (14:40) Filmed with their own equipment, like a camera phone or a home camcorder, Cody (Cody Burger), Gerald (Aaron Schwartz), Josh (Shaun Weiss) and Nicholas (David Goldman) talk about their experience working on Heavyweights as child actors. They share some entertaining stories like the fact that an all you can eat rib restaurant cancelled their all-you-can-eat rib deal the summer they shot this movie because they would go every Wednesday and clear house. They also discussed what they are doing now and what it was like working with Ben Still on the set. Like in the film, Shaun Weiss had talked like he was the man and is still the man even though his career hasn’t gone anywhere since 2010. It was cool to see what they all looked like 18 years later; all of the guys except for Cody slimmed out and no longer look like the Heavyweights I remember them as.
Theatrical Trailer
Movie Rating: A timeless comedy that also happens to teach the viewers a valuable message about self confidence (7/10)
Disc Rating: For a movie that isn’t top of mind for most people it comes with a plenty of features (7/10)
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