Wet Hot American Summer

An oddball, mostly ineffective comedy, Wet Hot American Summer charts the exploits of several characters over the course of one especially eventful day at Camp Firewood. Filmmaker David Wain, working from a script written with Michael Showalter, delivers an often egregiously episodic narrative that contains little in the way of forward momentum, with the erratic atmosphere compounded by an ongoing reliance on jokes and gags that don’t, for the most part, pack the hilarious punch Wain has obviously intended (ie very little of this stuff is actually funny). The impressively stacked roster of performers is consequently left floundering with material that is, to put it mildly, hit and miss, as folks such as Janeane Garofalo, Elizabeth Banks, and Bradley Cooper are generally unable to inject any life or relevance into an almost uniformly ineffective selection of comedic bits. (There are certain exceptions to this, of course, with Christopher Meloni’s often hilarious turn as a war-veteran-turned-camp-chef an obvious and ongoing highlight.) It’s ultimately the palpable energy with which Wain has infused the proceedings that prevents it from becoming an all-out disaster, as Wet Hot American Summer boasts an affable feel that sporadically compensates for its surfeit of misguided elements (ie everyone sure seems to be having a good time here). The final result is a hopelessly underwhelming endeavor that can’t, given the talent in front of and behind the camera, help but disappoint, which is a shame, certainly, given that the movie almost stands as a who’s who of the early 2000’s comedy scene.

** out of ****