neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Wet Hot American Summer
	David Wain Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Paul Rudd, Molly Shannon, Amy Poehler, Christopher Meloni 2001 Special edition — widescreen; closed caption; audio commentaries; deleted scenes; behind the scenes; songs with production stills; theatrical trailer.		A take-off on teensploitation comedies from the '80s that doesn't take off. It's the final day of summer camp in the Maine woods, and the counselors and campers are restless. Some want to get home; some want to get laid; some are just getting stoned. There's Janeane Garofalo as the camp's hippie-drip of a director; Paul Rudd as a womanizing counselor; "Saturday Night Live" alumna Molly Shannon as a neurotic crafts teacher whose marriage is on the rocks; Amy Poehler (of the sketch comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade) as one of the camp's theater-arts supervisors; Christopher Meloni as a disturbed Vietnam vet who runs the camp kitchen; and David Hyde Pierce (Niles from TV's "Frasier") as a college professor finishing his summer break at a rental next door to the camp. For all of the talent on screen, such a fitful comedy has to be labeled a disappointment. Corners were cut; continuity must not have been a priority. But low-budget shouldn't necessarily mean barren of laughs.