Welcome back to the start of month #2 here at Camp Crappabuttawipe at B-Movie Enema!
Alright, as we get into July, the months are getting hotter and, naturally, it’s time to really heat things up here at camp, Enemaniacs. Aside from another stop off in the Sleepaway Camp franchise, we’re really ratcheting up the comedy, sexual shenanigans, and horror this month. But we kick things off this July 4th weekend here in the States with… a Canadian comedy. My ability to read a calendar and select the most appropriate movie for that date/weekend knows no bounds.
Especially with what’s coming up in a couple of weeks…
Anyway, 1979’s Meatballs is a significant movie for multiple reasons. First, this is the movie that propelled Bill Murray from Saturday Night Live stardom to movie stardom. This was his first top-billing in a movie. Within a year from this release, he would leave SNL (though part of that is due to changes behind the scenes with Lorne Michaels and NBC), and begin to rattle off hit after hit with Caddyshack, Stripes, a role in Tootsie, and eventually leading to the big blockbuster Ghostbusters. This would also be the first collaboration that Murray would have with Harold Ramis. Ramis was largely known for being a comedy writer, and a very good one. Like Murray, he spent the late 70s on TV on SCTV with the likes of Eugene Levy, John Candy, and Rick Moranis. In 1978, Ramis co-wrote National Lampoon’s Animal House, which, itself, would go on to become a massive influence on comedies through the 80s. If you can think of a comedy from the 70s and 80s that remains funny decades later, it’s very likely it was written in some part by Ramis.
Continue reading “Meatballs (1979)”
