Meatballs

"Are you ready for a good time?"

1979 1h 32m EN

😐

5.8

MID

🍅

71%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.2

IMDB

★5.8TMDB · 375🍅71%Rotten Tomatoes●60Metacritic★6.2IMDB · 25,675

Comedy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Tripper is the head counselor at a budget summer camp called Camp Northstar. In truth, he's young at heart and only marginally more mature than the campers themselves. Tripper befriends Rudy, a loner camper who has trouble fitting in. As Tripper inspires his young charges to defeat rival Camp Mohawk in the annual Olympiad competition, Rudy plays matchmaker between Tripper and Roxanne, a female counselor at Northstar.

“Are you ready for a good time?”

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Cast

Bill Murray
Tripper Harrison
Harvey Atkin
Morty
Russ Banham
Crockett
Kristine DeBell
A.L.
Matt Craven
Hardware
Kate Lynch
Roxanne
Sarah Torgov
Candace
Keith Knight
Fink

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ivan Reitman
Writers: Daniel Goldberg, Len Blum, Janis Allen
Languages: English
Countries: Canada

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

47 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Meatballs Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Ivan Reitman, shot by Donald Wilder. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Elmer Bernstein. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Debra Karen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Bill Murray and Harvey Atkin and Russ Banham carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Are you ready for a good time?".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ivan Reitman directs. Donald Wilder behind the camera. Elmer Bernstein scores. Debra Karen cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Canada. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
247 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Part of the "Meatballs Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Ivan Reitman, shot by Donald Wilder. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Elmer Bernstein. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Debra Karen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Bill Murray and Harvey Atkin and Russ Banham carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Are you ready for a good time?".
9IMDB entry: tt0079540 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 9 themes, including "summer camp", "underwear on flagpole", "famous speech", "burp".

The technical file

Cinematography: Donald Wilder
Original score: Elmer Bernstein
Editing: Debra Karen
Costume design: Judith R. Gellman
Makeup / hair: Carol Davidson
Runtime: 92 min · 1h 32m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $1,207,520
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Meatballs (1979)
Rotten Tomatoes: 71% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 60/100
IMDB rating: 6.2/10 · 25,675 votes
MPAA: PG
US box office: $43,046,003

Awards

3 wins & 6 nominations total

Part of

Meatballs Collection

Meatballs is a 1979 Canadian comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman. It is noted for Bill Murray's first film appearance in a starring role and for launching the directing career of Reitman. It was followed by several sequels, of which only Meatballs III: Summer Job (1986) had any connection to the original.

Also by

Ivan Reitman

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2018-10-07
★ 7/10
Amusing and harmless misadventures at summer camp with Bill Murray Bill Murray (who was 28 during shooting) stars as an eccentrically droll camp counselor at Camp North Star who “trains” CITs, counselors-in-training, as they oversee the hordes of kids and face challenges with teams from preppy Camp Mohawk. “Meatballs” (1979) is a fun and innocuous summer camp flick. It’s not great but it’s entertaining enough, although if I’m going to view a summer camp film I prefer the Friday the 13th movies (practically any of them), mainly because they feature superior women. Here, Cindy Girling as curvy blonde Wendy is by far the most alluring, although Sarah Torgov as Candace is decent. In light of the license plates, the camp is presumably located in upstate New York, but was shot in Camp White Pine, Haliburton, Ontario, which is only about 125 miles from the New York border. The movie runs 1 hour, 34 minutes. GRADE: B/B-

Production companies