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Critics Consensus: 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.
Critic Consensus: 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.
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All Critics (67) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (22) | Rotten (45) | DVD (4)
This shamefully underpromoted, gloriously silly romp made me laugh harder than any other movie this summer...this blissfully unimportant movie starts in a deceptively low key, gradually unveiling its total lunacy.
The skewering of underdog sports clichés, horny teen staples and Vietnam-trauma melodrama is long overdue and perfectly irreverent in execution.
Have a good summer.
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.
This is supposed to be funny? It was so depressing I almost started to cry.
This is an almost laughless bomb.
Where is Jason Voorhess, the hockey-masked killer of Camp Crystal Lake, when you really need him?
Hilarious but raunchy parody is filled with sex, profanity.
...has its moments, but considering the cast there should be far more of them.
This was always more or less destined to be a cult comedy, passed along enthusiastically on video/DVD.
A dumb - and fitfully funny - send-up of an already dumb genre.
Destined to become a clut classic.
incredible that this many talented people could be in something so moronic.
Super Reviewer
"Wet Hot American Summer" follows a group of camp friends as they live life to the fullest on their last day of camp. That is literally the only plot to this film, notwithstanding a few character arcs along the way. It really just boils down to the comedy and whether or not you buy into it. For as dumb as this film is, I had a blast watching it. Almost all of the jokes worked for me, even the ones that made no sense, because I felt like that was their plan all along. This cult classic has been really making the rounds ever since it's initial release, and I must say, I completely see why. This film is certainly not for everyone, especially those who watch comedies for something profoundly clever in the writing. This film is exactly what it is. The cast was hired all just before the peak of their career, so it's nice to see them interacting with each other before they became rich and famous. In the end, "Wet Hot American Summer" is the type of film to just sit back, relax and enjoy with friends. I had a blast, and even though the movie really isn't all that great overall, I have no regrets recommending it.
Justifiably a cult classic, a perfect balance between fondness for and mockery of summer camp culture: the activities, the personalities, the lifers... Over the top, caricatured, ridiculous... but sweet, too. Hilarious, under-appreciated, proto-Apatow comedy with good performances by comic actors we've come to know and love since.
Does antisocial meanness, shrill dramatics, petulant assholery, and non sequitur screaming pass for comedy? Never mind the baseless and cyclical love story between nebbish Coop and sweet but heartless Katie, the movie is a series of daffy improv skits, not a cohesive story. The few clever one-liners are delivered so emphatically that they lose timing and believability. This dreck is neither wet nor hot nor American nor summery.
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