Heavyweights (1995)

Plump kids are lured into joining a posh fat camp with the promise of quick weight loss and good times, only to find that the facility is a woodland hellhole run by a psycho ex-fitness instructor."Heavyweights" currently holds a 29% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on seven professional reviews, but is fresh within the community with 78%. According to Stephen Holden, "Heavyweights is really two movies in one, and they don't mesh. One movie is a no-holds-barred spoof of a Tony Little- or Susan Powter-style fitness merchant. The other movie is a conventional family comedy that pokes lighthearted fun at the chubby young campers" What makes this film stand out is that it is an early film from Ben Stiller and Judd Apatow, both of whom have become huge success stories. But there is still something odd about the film, because although the "fat kids" are the good guys, they are still presented as something to laugh at and a group of kids who can't stop hoarding junk food. This could be seen as offensive by some.

What's not to love about this movie. It's a classic 90's shenanigan comedy with the tubbies from The Mighty Ducks. They work so well together as a cast and their chemistry really shows. Although the movie's funny it doesn't start to get really good until about halfway through. It's rude, crude and childish with a carefree spirit...so moronic but you can't take it too seriously.I do agree that it's a poor example of glutinous behaviour but even a child can tell that this is a gross over exaggeration and nobody commends this sort of diet and laziness. In saying that it's funny and not necessary about food. It's about losers becoming winners and the clinically insane getting what they deserve. And who doesn't like to watch that.

Overweight high school student Aaron Schwartz (as Gerald "Gerry" Garner) thinks summer camp might be fun, but doesn't want to attend when he learns "Camp Hope" caters to portly adolescents. His parents make young Schwartz go anyway, hoping the experience will make him thinner. Initially, Schwartz finds it a fun place where fat kids smuggle in tons of candy. But quickly, the owners go bankrupt and oily fitness guru Ben Stiller (as Tony Perkis) takes over management. He immediately makes the boys camp a living hell...Flatulence, a four-letter-word, and Ben Stiller are used for laughs in this Disney production. There are ample overweight people in the cast, with whom weighty audience members can identity. The students are portrayed as fairly active, although it doesn't seem to benefit their health. Actual weight loss is not celebrated by these "Heavy Weights". The comedy team Stiller and Meara have a cameo as the camp's original owners; perhaps not coincidently, they are Ben Stiller's parents. Ben shows off nice hair and has a lot of exercise scenes.**** Heavy Weights (2/17/95) Steven Brill ~ Aaron Schwartz, Ben Stiller, Tom McGowan, Shaun Weiss

Well I've seen this movie a lot of times and I like it because it's an inspiring movie to a lot of people. It makes kids think that they can be overweight if they're comfortable with it. If kids are comfortable with being over weight it shouldn't matter to other people. I also like this movie because Tony Perkis (Ben Stiller) shakes things up with the fact that he has a problem with kids being overweight. He probably had a problem as a child being fat. He most likely thinks that because he was fat at one point in time that he can connect with these kids. But he is lowering their self-esteem with the things that he says. You don't see that from Ben Stiller in most movies that Ben Stiller stars in. He's more of the guy that gets beat and his self-esteem gets lowered. For example, in the movie, Dodgeball; An Underdog Story he thinks he's the best person in the beginning, but then he gets best and he starts gaining weight again. I couldn't help but notice the fact that Ben Stiller stars in a lot of movies about weight or stuff about health. I was wondering if he was overweight as a child.