When I first heard about MVD Rewind Collection sending me
the disc for Meatballs 4 to review, my heart sank. Not really being on board completely with the
boutique label push for the Corey Feldman renaissance and not being schooled on
the Meatballs series, it seemed like an arduous chore. And so began an unexpected deep dive through
not just the first 1979 Meatballs film, a fairly enjoyable Bill Murray
vehicle from Caddyshack writer Harold Ramis and Ghostbusters director
Ivan Reitman, but through the second and third installments sans Murray and the
original crew also.
Then came Meatballs
Part II in 1984 via The Return of the Living Dead II director Ken
Wiederhorn which included Paul Reubens as a bus driver and a full blown E.T.
parody with an alien summer camper who helps with his superpowers in a boxing
match to fend off a rival camp faction.
The third Meatballs III: Summer Job, far and away the worst one,
from Stone Cold Dead director George Mendeluk is a rotten-to-the-core
misogynistic sexist pro-rapey affront involving the ghost of a dead porn star
trying to help a teenage nerd score chicks with the reiterated slogan “No means
yes!” further marinating in the filthiness of the thing.
Having done the first three iterations and seeing just how
low the series could go, particularly with the third film, how bad could Meatballs
4 be? Made in 1992, from Repossessed
writer-director Bob Logan and featuring David Lynch regular Jack Nance in a
very overtly Twin Peaks leaning role in probably the most genuine and
sweet natured Meatballs film since the first one, the answer is
surprisingly not bad at all.
Though
cheap and leaning on the personality of Corey Feldman who can’t help but go
into Michael Jackson dance numbers or name drop him and is largely doing Rodney
Dangerfield from Caddyshack it somehow or another manages to inject some
human warmth and even some tenderness into an arena otherwise populated by bare
breasts and butts. While the poster art
will make some detractors think of Corey Feldman surrounding himself with his
angels, the actual movie about a summer camp being pushed out by a sleazy rival
Twin Oaks company replete with a Benjamin Horne type and his woodsy
mansion surprisingly has a good heart.
The score from Shakes the Clown composer is
serviceable though a moment where Corey Feldman dances to an instrumental of
Michael Jackson’s Black or White is indeed cringey. Visually speaking, lensed by Vance Burberry
of The Butterfly Effect, Meatballs 4 looks nice with frequent
close ups of Jack Nance’s face or Corey Feldman’s and recurring scenic regard
for the camp-grounds and lakeside fronts.
The ensemble cast is pretty good with particular attention going to Brad
Grunberg as an awkward but well meaning fat guy named Victor who is the brunt
of many bullying jokes but garners the friendship of Ricky Wade (Corey Feldman)
and Playboy Playmate Cristy Thom who initially is turned off by his oafishness
but eventually comes to care for the guy.
Sarah Douglas aka Ursa from the Superman films as Monica Shavetts
more or less channels Piper Laurie’s femme fatale from Twin Peaks while
Jack Nance, my favorite actor and character in the whole thing, is an awkward
but lovable grandfather figure who looks like he wandered off the set of David
Lynch’s hit TV show.
While I didn’t set out to go on an entire Meatballs odyssey,
having seen the others kind of helped pave the way for this fourth one which is
probably the best since the original with Bill Murray. Part 2 was goofy and silly with all the alien
stuff but Part 3 should be burned at the stake, its so vile. Admittedly yeah I’m kinda getting tired of
the Feldog lately, particularly following his less-than-appealing appearance in
Corey Feldman vs. The World.
But
films like Arrow Video’s home video debut of The Birthday and MVD
Rewind’s release of Meatballs 4 are welcome additions to the Feldman
canon. The first Meatballs wasn’t
exactly groundbreaking but it did launch the film career of Bill Murray and the
good humble camp counselor befriending and building the confidence of a bullied
picked on kid kind of comes back in the fourth movie. MVD Rewind’s disc is nice and having just
watched Lost Highway in the theater again with a frail and elderly Jack
Nance in it, seeing him here as the granddad running the camp more than made
the film for me personally.
--Andrew Kotwicki