"Summer Camp" is a lame, slapped-together hangout with likable pros

Summer Camp (2024)

There is always more room for a slight, amiable comedy where acting pros just want to have a lark. Aimed at the same demographic as "Book Club," "Poms," "Book Club: The Next Chapter," and "80 for Brady," "Summer Camp" seems to exist only because Diane Keaton, Kathy Bates, and Alfre Woodard all wanted to hang out. Everyone seems to be having a good time, but the feeling isn’t that mutual. 

Nora (Keaton), Ginny (Bates), and Mary (Woodard) have all been friends since summer camp in North Carolina. 50 years later, they’ve kept in touch since but life always gets in the way. Nora is widowed and a workaholic CEO for her bioengineering company. Ginny is a no-nonsense self-help guru with as much of a license in therapy as Dr. Phil. Mary (Woodard) always wanted to be a doctor and have more in her life, but she’s a nurse who settled for a loveless marriage. On her book tour, Ginny decides to organize a reunion at the North Carolina summer camp where they first met. Not much has changed, like mean girl Jane (Beverly D’Angelo) and her posse still thinking they run the show, and then hunky crushes Stevie D (Eugene Levy) and Tommy (Dennis Haysbert) still look Nora and Mary’s way. There’s so much more to live for, none of us are perfect, and friendship always wins. And all you need to do to learn all of these life lessons is to get on a zip line and have a few white water rafting hijinks. 

As a hangout with a comforting soundtrack, "Summer Camp" goes down easy enough. But as an actual movie, it’s really not much. Writer-director Castille Landon ("Fear of Rain") knows who she has in front of the camera, hoping this cast can just carry the rest, but not even outtakes during the end credits can spark a laugh. While Landon’s screenplay is filled to the gills with clichés, the wiser material is definitely there but too often gets smothered under forced jokes and lame one-liners. This is the kind of movie where a scene just ends with a food fight between older folks, all cued to “Ballroom Blitz.” It’s the kind of movie where every character has to keep reiterating their feelings when it’s time to reconcile. It’s even the kind of movie where Nicole Richie shows up as a camp counselor for no reason. Then there’s the sloppy filmmaking, scenes being poorly framed and edited together with little shot continuity. Read the full review at GuyAtTheMovies.com

Grade: C - 

Roadside Attractions released "Summer Camp" (96 min.) in theaters on May 31, 2024.