Best movie of this year hands down!

One of my all time favorites.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This 1993 comedy-drama tells about a group of friends that return to a summer camp after 20 years for a reunion and learn that it's going to close down. In the process, they reminisce and learn new things about one another. Alan Arkin, Elizabeth Perkins, Kevin Pollak, Sam Raimi and the late, Bill Paxton are featured. This is a pretty good flick with wacky and dramatic moments featuring a decent cast and beautiful scenery. Give this a view, especially if you think about your childhood.

I attended Camp Chesapeake. It was located at the head of the Chesapeake bay on the North East River in MD. It was a similar type summer camp with cabins. It was established by the Coatesville, PA YMCA. I started out as a young camper and later became a Junior, Senior counselor and later, the Waterfront director. If the camp had continued, I would have done anything within my power to become the camp director. Alas the powers of the YMCA decided to close down the camp and sell it to the state of MD. I visited the former camp some years later by boat and was dismayed by the neglect of the state of MD and natural destruction by mother nature. The 350 acre site served so many with all the benefits of contact with natures offerings. A black man by the name of Curtis Ford, and his family were residents and caretakers of the property. Mr Curtis was my friend and mentor. I idolized his every being. Even as he could not swim he was a waterman. If I asked him where the fish were biting, he would designate the spot, and I would have a ball. Ther was also a Family camp at the end of the summer. These memories will be with me for eternity.

I have to say the worst part of the movie was the first half hour. I was really confused about who was who. For example, Bill Paxson's character had long hair and was wearing a jacket. Then, when all the males arrived at camp, it turned out there was a character who looked like Bill Paxson, but wasn't. I said where's Bill Paxson? Then, there was a guy with his girlfriend. He said she was 21. This was supposed to be a 20-year reunion of the camp director's (Alan Arkin) most memorable. Later on, this same girl was interacting and talking about her camp experiences. That made no sense. She would have been one years old. That said, the movie turned out to be pretty good. Kevin Pollak was the nice guy who was always being teased. One guy was a complete narcissist, and ended up losing his beautiful girlfriend. Alan Arkin was interesting as an old-style camp director, who admits that he has grown out of touch with modern youth. The best part was that none of the grown-up campers were successes in life. None of them had very great careers. This seemed very real life. The movie was compared to The Big Chill. In some ways it wasn't as exciting as the Big Chill, but it was a lot more realistic. So, even though the beginning is not promising, the movie ended up turning into a pretty good one.

This plot for this movie is very similar to "The Big Chill", but this film doesn't come close. The writing is very weak. The plot is very formulaic and thus the ending is very predictable. All of the characters are based on archetypes that aren't enhanced to being anything additional to their roles. These two elements, what I call "lazy writing", make for a very uninteresting movie.The acting is well done, but not outstanding. I am fond of Diane Lane and hers is probably the best acted. Her character has the most complex emotions to express and she does a good job.Direction is good, but nothing outstanding. The scenery is wonderful.Time is much better spent watching "The Big Chill" for the second, third or twentieth time rather than watching this one.