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Wet Hot American Summer (2001)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 4.3/10
Reviews Counted: 64
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 44

As comedy, Wet Hot American Summer is a slapdash, fragmented affair that misses more often than hits. As parody, it fails because it attempts to satirize something ridiculous and self-parodying in itself.

Average Rating: 3.7/10
Critic Reviews: 21
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 17

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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 35,346

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Movie Info

1980s teen comedies finally get the parody they so richly deserve with Wet Hot American Summer, the first feature film from writer/director David Wain and co-screenwriter Michael Showalter, formerly of the sketch comedy troupe the State. It's the last day of the summer season at Camp Firewood, and as camp director Beth (Janeane Garofalo) prepares to wrap things up, the staff of teenage counselors realize this is their last chance to do something about the summer romances that have been brewing

R, 1 hr. 37 min.

Comedy

Directed By: David Wain

Written By: David Wain, Michael Showalter

In Theaters: Jul 27, 2001 Limited

On DVD: Jan 8, 2002

USA Films

Wet Hot American Summer Trailer & Photos

Cast

Janeane Garofalo
Beth
David Hyde Pierce
Professor Henry Neuman
Marguerite Moreau
Katie
Paul Rudd
Andy
Zak Orth
J.J.
Christopher Meloni
Gene
A.D. Miles
Gary
Molly Shannon
Gail
Gideon Jacobs
Aaron
Ken Marino
Victor
Joe Lo Truglio
Neil
Michael Ian Black
McKinley
Liam Norton
Arty
Amy Poehler
Susie
Bradley Cooper
Ben
Marisa Ryan
Abby
Elizabeth Banks
Lindsay
Gabriel Millman
Caped Boy
Kevin Sussman
Steve
Kevin Thomas Conroy
Mork Guy
Christopher Cuzumano
Medieval Kid
Madeline Blue
Cure Girl
Cassidy Ladden
Mallrat Girl
Nina Hellman
Nancy
Peter Salett
Guitar Dude
Judah Friedlander
Ron
Jordan Maclean
Alexa
Michael Showalter
Alan Shemper, Coop
Jake Fogelnest
Silas

Critic Reviews for Wet Hot American Summer

All Critics (69) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (20) | Rotten (44) | DVD (7)

The skewering of underdog sports clich�s, horny teen staples and Vietnam-trauma melodrama is long overdue and perfectly irreverent in execution.

July 28, 2011 Full Review Source: Film.com

| Comment

William Goss

Film.com

Top Critic

Have a good summer.

June 22, 2007 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press

| Comment

Terry Lawson

Detroit Free Press

Top Critic

For all its failings, Wet Hot maintains energy and high spirits over most of its length. The trouble is, such energy and spirits are not infectious, and the movies it mocks were better.

February 8, 2002 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle

| Comment

Bruce Westbrook

Houston Chronicle

Top Critic

This is supposed to be funny? It was so depressing I almost started to cry.

January 6, 2002 Comment (1)

Stephen Hunter

Washington Post

Top Critic

This is an almost laughless bomb.

September 20, 2001 Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News

| Comment

Tom Maurstad

Dallas Morning News

Top Critic

A sloppy, unhinged hellzapoppin that occasionally hits its targets but more often seems out of control and desperate to please.

August 31, 2001 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle

| Comment

Edward Guthmann

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

This was always more or less destined to be a cult comedy, passed along enthusiastically on video/DVD.

July 23, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com

| Comment

Rob Gonsalves

eFilmCritic.com

A dumb - and fitfully funny - send-up of an already dumb genre.

June 20, 2005 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness

| Comment

Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

A whole bunch of funny folks doing all they can to not make us laugh.

April 3, 2005 Comment

Scott Weinberg

eFilmCritic.com

Destined to become a clut classic.

December 30, 2003 Full Review Source: Three Movie Buffs

| Comment

Scott Nash

Three Movie Buffs

When the jokes work, they really work.

October 24, 2003 Full Review Source: About.com

| Comment

Marcy Dermansky

About.com

That whooshing sound you hear is the majority of the jokes in Wet Hot American Summer sailing right over my head.

July 26, 2003 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews

| Comment (1)

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

Once you get into the flow with Wain and Showalter and understand what they're trying to do, the movie is pretty damn funny.

December 8, 2002 Full Review Source: Film Threat

| Comment

Ron Wells

Film Threat

Ensemble spoof of '80s flicks such as Meatballs and Little Darlings is a camp comedy -- in more ways than one.

November 7, 2002 Full Review Source: Netflix

| Comment

James Rocchi

Netflix

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Wet Hot American Summer

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It was the last day of summer camp.Fun movie and entertaining. It's fill with alot of comedians and B actors which made one decent movie all-around. Summer camps were fun when you were a kid and this movie kinda reminded me that time in my life. Marguerite Moreau wow what a cutie, probably my perfect kinda girl

February 22, 2011

Manu Gino

Super Reviewer

From the wicked minds behind Stella and The State comes a cliched movie about camp life, that is in itself a rude satire and spoof ridden commentary on youth. Starting off with a milieu of the greatest charatcer comedy actors of the decade (Marino, Showalter, Rudd, Garofalo, Banks, Poehler, etc.) the story revolves

October 14, 2010