Poison Ivy (1985)

A reviewer here asks why Jason Bateman is credited, but cannot be found in this TV movie. Allow me to propose an hypothesis: someone made a crediting mistake early on, because the actor (Joe Wright) who plays the central character (Jerry Disbro) looks so much like Bateman at the time. (Bateman is almost exactly one year older than Wright, and to my eyes, they could almost be twins.) If I had to guess, I'd bet it was the bureaucrat who put Bateman's name on the 1987 VHS release box. The rest is (flawed) history, I suppose. With Bateman's earlier featured appearances on shows like Little House on the Prairie ("He Was Only Twelve", 1982), he likely wouldn't be playing a background camper in this film, hence would be noticeable in viewing it today.As for a review of Poison Ivy, the first half or more is pure Summer-Camp-film formula reflecting what the writers think the audience wants to believe summer camp was like, more than any reality, particularly with regard to the girl-crazy boys and the fashion-model-wannabe girls. The last half hour, on the other hand, is a rather well-done treatment of boy-overcoming-fears and stealing the spotlight from the pointless and counterproductive "Color War" competition. Even camp director "Big Irv" agrees in the end that Timmy's personal victory is a better example of "the Pinewood spirit" than the all-out-warfare of the camp's "Color War" tradition.Given the schlocky setup of the film's first hour, this pleasant little moral at the end almost comes as a surprise. Overall, the film is still a mundane audience-pleaser designed to get ratings for advertisers (it was a TV film, after all), albeit with decent performances in the main characters played by Michael J. Fox, Nancy McKeon and the great Robert Klein.

Poison Ivy is one of my favorites.I just realized that Jason Bateman is credited with being part of the movie.The fifth credit on the box of the VHS copy, released in 1987.I cannot find any info on why he is not in the movie.Why he is credited?Anyone know why?The funniest thing about this mistake is that everyone seems to be printing the same info over and over to fill space on the web pages.You might notice this quote is just about in everything you might find on Jason Bateman."During this period, Bateman also found time to star or co-star in a handful of feature films, such as the 1985 made-for-TV summer-camp comedy Poison Ivy, Teen Wolf, Too, and 1991's Necessary Roughness. However, none of the projects were successful enough to give Bateman a springboard to big screen stardom."

As a child of the 1980's I remember this movie vividly, although I haven't seen it in years. Michael J. Fox, (right before "Back to the Future") and Nancy McKeon, ("The Facts of Life" still had 'life') were romantically linked. Robert Klein has always been an underrated comedian, Adam Baldwin has gone on to many film roles since, ("Independence Day", "Predator 2") and young Carey Guffy was the little tyke in the Spielberg classic "Close Encounters". The rest of the cast is good and so's the whole pacing of the nominal story, ("This is color war! Your friend could be your enemy!"). It's a curious little movie, although I doubt Mr. Fox would like it if some talk show host dragged the footage out! Forget "Meatballs", if you can find this on video or TV, (Ted Turner used to run this a lot during the summer as I remember), it will be worth your time. If you like summer camp films, that is.Final rating: 6.75/10 "An above average film. Well made and enjoyable, but nothing to 'write home about' (get it?)."

Poison Ivy is a funny story revolving around a counselor (Michael J. Fox) and his five campers at a boys' camp called Camp Pinewood. Dennis Baxter (Fox) is looking for love in all the wrong places, until he meets the beautiful Rhonda (Nancy McKeon), the assistant camp nurse. The trouble is, she's already engaged to be married and isn't interested. Dennis's 11-year-old campers each have adventures of their own -- one wants to escape from camp, another tries to woo Rhonda (and takes a romp in poison ivy in order to spend more time in the infirmary with a certain someone), and another devises a scheme to get all the camp goodies into his bunk's possession. It's one adventure after another for these kids, as they learn about loyalty and standing up for what's right.