84 From ’84: Meatballs Part II

Meatballs Part II

Camp Sasquatch will be bought out and closed unless owner Coach Giddy wins the boxing competition scheduled for the end of the summer. Tough city punk Flash, who’s performing his community service time at the camp, is the coach’s best hope. Flash reluctantly offers to help and so must use his raw sparring talents to get a motley group of adolescent misfits into fighting shape, while also trying to win the heart of pretty Cheryl.

Cast:

• Richard Mulligan as Coach Giddy
• Hamilton Camp as Colonel Jack ‘Batjack’ Hershy
• John Mengatti as Armand ‘Flash’ Carducci
• Kim Richards as Cheryl
• Archie Hahn as Jamie / Voice of Meathead
• Misty Rowe as Fanny
• John Larroquette as Lieutenant Felix Foxglove
• Paul Reubens as Albert

1984 viewing

Meatballs (1979) starring Bill Murray was a a fantastic comedy and a box office success making over $70 million on a $1.2 million budget. With those kind of numbers a sequel was a sure thing.

The problem came when Bill Murray was involved in the sequel or Ivan Reitman or Harold Ramis or anyone who contributed to the success of the first movie.

I didn’t see this in the theater. It was another late night viewing at my friends house. Was it a worthy successor to the original? I thought it was OK back in 1984 but nothing I needed to watch more than once.

Let’s see what it looks like forty years on…

40th Anniversary Re-watch

What the heck did I just watch? This is not Meatballs be any stretch. Sure they are at Summer Camp (it’s not even Camp North Star) and that’s where any similarity ends.

Camp Sasquatch is on the brink of foreclosure and the owner of Camp Patton, across the lake wants to buy it. Richard Mulligan of Soap and Empty Nest fame, must come up with a plan to save the camp. His great idea, a boxing match.

Paul “Pee-Wee Herman” Reubens is in the movie which helps it out. He’s always strange and funny in his roles. Donald Gibb makes an appearance too as Mad Dog. We’ll see Gibb again this year as Ogre in Revenge of the Nerds.

There’s a great gag about Cheryl never seeing a ‘pinky’ and the other campers try to arrange it.

Then there’s the alien. I’m not real sure what the heck it’s doing in the movie. E.T. was a big hit so why not put an E.T. looking alien in Meatballs Part II, yeah, sounds like a great idea. Why does the alien look like he’s made out of play-doh?

It’s mildly funny when one of the camp counselors gets the alien stoned. I’m pretty sure the writers were stoned when they wrote this movie.

Meatballs Part II is one of those campy 80s sex comedies. Only it’s not one of the better ones. The comedy isn’t great and there’s not much (any) sex.

Favorite Line:

when you were born were your parents expecting children?

Prior to Meatballs Part II director Ken Wiederhorn made two horror movies. After Meatballs Part II, he made three more horror movies. I;m not sure who thought he’d be good for a comedy. Even his TV credits include shows like Freddy’s Nightmares. No comedies on his resume except Meatballs Part II.

This is a completely forgettable movie. You can watch it and kill 87 minutes but there’s probably better ways to use your time.

Meatballs Part II was released on 27 July 1984. It made around $5.4 million.

Did you watch Meatballs Part II? If so let me know your thoughts in the comments below or on X(Twitter). The main Geekster channel is @TRNSocial and I’m @MileHighSamurai You can also find me on Bluesky @MileHighSamurai

3/10 stars

Check out the entire 84 From ’84 movie series