Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
If you were a tween in the mid 90’s, you probably made frequent stops at Blockbuster to rent Camp Nowhere. Released in 1994, the film chronicles a group of kids that team up to create their own fun summer camp with limited to no adult supervision. What a dream! At least, it sounds great for that age group, both those involved and viewing. But does it hold up over two decades later?
Yes! It really does. Sure, there’s a drop of nostalgia in there, and I’m guilty of remembering more lines of dialogue than I should freely admit. But there’s something so wholesome and entertaining about this film in 2017. Maybe it’s the lack of cell phones and Snapchat, or maybe it’s the fact that this is simply a quality family comedy. There’s a genuine innocence to watching middle schoolers just want to play with water guns and learn to relate to each other no matter their social clique in the lunchroom at school, without the pressure of pleasing their parents.
Christopher Lloyd stars as Dennis, a grown man who, with the bribe of cash, assists these teens with their mission. As an adult, sure, it’s a bit harder to believe and accept. Especially when he uses one of them as an accomplice to picking up a pretty doctor…Yikes.
But let’s remember, Camp Nowhere is all about the kids. Jonathan Jackson is really great as the lead, Mud, with Andrew Keegan filling in the role of bully Zack, Marnette Patterson as Trish the popular girl, and Melody Kay as Gaby, a young woman who shouldn’t have to endure the scrutiny her mother puts on the size and shape her developing body. It’s a quality group of child actors, some of whom have continued in the profession, and others a little bit less so. Plus, it’s fun seeing some of today’s streaming favorites pop up as the parents to these pranksters, including Peter Scolari and Kate Mulgrew. And don’t you forget: blink and you’ll miss Jessica Alba as Gail in her first on-screen credit!
The film, available now on HBO Go and HBO Now, serves as a reminder that 90’s teens had their problems, too. A rainy day immediately makes them long for their cable boxes back home, until the festivities are taken outside and turned into mud Olympics. Oh, and don’t you dare think that’s the only resourcefulness we see from these kids: they’re learning to manage money and cook omelettes and fix cars and even cheer each other up when stricken by insecurities and homesickness. How crazy: in their attempt to just be kids, they’ve turned into adults!
Which is precisely what makes this film so heartfelt and fun. They’re doing their best to run a secret summer camp, and figuring out how to trick their parents into believing they’ve been studying acting and computers. In today’s TV shows, teens are solving suicides! Camp Nowhere is a lighthearted reminder of the days where family films didn’t have to be overly serious or stupidly cheesy, and this one is as fun as spending and unruly summer with your pals. Revisiting it feels just like catching up with your camp friends, but you know, from your couch.
