Wet Hot American Summer

I decided to rent Wet Hot American Summer after reading this short diatribe on Collider:
"If you’ve been wondering just what David Wain’s been doing since he wrote and directed the funniest movie of 2001, Wet Hot American Summer, then you’re a real asshole."
'Damn, I better rent me this movie' I thought.

I mean, look at the poster. It screams National Lampoon yet it stars David Hyde Pierce. I thought it seemed out of place yet he did play Emperor Zombie in the funniest cartoon I've seen in a long time, The Amazing Screw-On Head.

So what's it all about? Well, as you can tell from the poster, it's a comedy set in a summer camp. Actors too old to play late teens compete with each other to get laid, barely look after the kids they're responsible for and the camp director tries to hold everything together whilst romantically involving herself with a local astro-physics professor.

Thus the stage is set for for an oddball parody comedy that is half styled towards obvious gross-out and half subtlely placed laughs. Janeane Garafalo's comic timing is cause for convulsive laughter and there is a hilarious continuous scene in an arts and crafts hall where the children console and build up the charcter of a crushed divorcée. Everywhere else is chaos with camp leaders having their own dilemma with each other and getting into and out of trouble as the last day of camp forces them into action.

I can see why some people wouldn't get this kind of humour which is a shame and while some of the humour is hit-and-miss the laughs have a great batting average and when something is funny it's always gut-busting laughter that is forced out of your lungs.
I would certainly recommend this for a group watch with some friends to perk up the evening.

This film get 4 long summers out of 5.