We'll Give You One Hell Of A Holiday

When this lot go back to nature, nature runs for it's life.

Are You Ready For The Summer?

Every summer the cream of America's youth goes to summer camp - and the rest go to Camp Northstar.

Are you ready for a good time?

The Summer Camp That Makes You Untrustworthy, Disloyal, Unhelpful, Unfriendly, Discourteous, Unkind, Disobedient, and Very Hilarious.


Set at a low-end summer camp and aimed squarely at a teen audience, Meatballs is a light screwball comedy that turned its low-budget Canadian roots into a very profitable box-office run. The biggest reason for the film's success is Bill Murray who stars as Tripper, the head counselor who runs things at Camp Northstar with the help of his love interest Roxanne (Kate Lynch) and the camp's director Morty (Harvey Atkins), who is affectionately known as Mickey. Camp opens with Tripper and Morty preparing the misfit counselors-in-training -- Spaz, Fink, Crockett, A.L., Candace, Wendy, and Wheels among them -- for the arrival of their hyperactive little charges. After settling in, kids and counselors begin their activities with a soccer game in which depressed 11-year-old Rudy (Chris Makepeace) accidentally loses the game. Cast out by the other children, Rudy runs away only to come across Tripper, who befriends the boy and makes him his running partner. Romance, sexy fun, and comic hijinx -- usually with the heavy-sleeping Morty as their target -- lead up to an annual Olympiad in which Camp Northstar battles the wealthier and athletically superior residents of Camp Mohawk. The challenging events include cup stacking, potato-sack racing, and a nauseating hot dog-eating contest in which the portly Fink devours his way to victory. With the two-day event tied up, it comes down to the cross-country run, in which Tripper enters Rudy. Meatballs was the first major directorial effort by multi-talented filmmaker Ivan Reitman, whose name has since become synonymous with the comedy genre.

Meatballs is a 1979 Canadian comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman. It is noted for the first film appearance of Bill Murray in a starring role and for launching Reitman into a distinguished career of financially successful comedies including Stripes (1981) and Ghostbusters (1984), both starring Murray. The film also introduced child actor Chris Makepeace in the role of Rudy Gerner. It was followed by several sequels, of which only Meatballs III: Summer Job (1986) had any connection to the original.


Release Date: June 29, 1979

Distrib: Paramount


Boxoffice: $43,046,003 2014: $134,454,400