Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Gorp Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf January 31, 2016

When “National Lampoon’s Animal House” destroyed the box office competition in 1978, a string of knockoffs were all but guaranteed. One of the strangest to emerge from the mist remains 1980’s “Gorp,” a summer camp festival of sophomoric behavior that strains to ape “Animal House” tomfoolery in every way. Director Joseph Ruben (“Sleeping with the Enemy,” “The Stepfather”) and screenwriter Jeffrey Konvitz largely invest in chaos to bring the strangely titled “Gorp” to life, believing that noise and aggressively odious behavior is the key to acquiring audience approval. Unable to land a single joke, the feature quickly transforms into an endurance test with painfully exaggerated characters and dispiritingly desperate attempts at juvenile humor. There’s not even a plot to help tie it all together, rendering the effort a highlight reel of unimaginative monkey business that often feels like it’s never going to end.

It’s another summer at Camp Oskemo, a seasonal haven for the study of Judaism and social immersion. As the kids arrive to experience fun, games, and religious education, the staff gears up for a new year of pranks and lustful attention toward female counselors. Under the guidance of owner Walrus (David Huddleston), the kitchen wait staff takes their positions, with Kavell (Michael Lembeck) and Bergman (Philip Casnoff) setting the puckish tone of the vocation, working alongside Mad Grossman (Dennis Quaid) and a host of misfits. Making a plan to bed virginal target Vicki (Lisa Shure), Kavell and Bergman are distracted by a series of games against the gruesome cooking crew, caught up in plans to disrupt Walrus’s way of business, and are tested by a physical education teacher (Lou Wagner) who has a secret vision for the property.

“Gorp” isn’t inventive nonsense. It’s pushover entertainment that barely makes an effort to find its own identity as it burns through an episodic screenplay that leaps from prank to prank. Konvitz doesn’t even bother with a story, spending more time with his characters as they embody stereotypical behavior, including a gay man dressed head-to-toe in pink known as Sweet Moe and an overweight, always-eating goon named Fat Solowitz. That’s the level of humor presented here. As for the main players, only Mad Grossman is a complete cartoon, presented as a military-obsessed wacko who lives to rile up the campers with inspirational speeches while secretly working on the construction of an atomic bomb. Kavell and Bergman are the normies -- just a pair of young men trying to use their summer to sleep with as many women as they possibly can, only really finding one taker in Evie (Fran Drescher), an empowered counselor who’s just as eager to sample the opposite sex.

Most of “Gorp” is concentrated on tensions between the cooks and servers, who clash during a summer-long, Olympic-style series of games. We’re talking broom hockey with an overcooked piece of meat as the puck, a wine-drinking competition, and late nights around a smoky poker table, riling up the boys as they strive for victory. In their downtime, shenanigans rule, embarking on mischief that includes one servers dressing up as a werewolf after a horror movie screening, terrorizing campers. And there are attempts to mess with Walrus, with one prank showcasing the boys filling his bedroom with farm animals, resulting in a tremendous fecal mess the next morning. There’s nonsense saved for parents’ day as well, with the gang switching an innocent camp introduction film with a hardcore porno loop, and the wacky dudes manage to create a giant papier-mache middle finger to tow throughout the property. Couple all this deviltry with kitchen mishaps involving food accidents and dropped trays, and that’s pretty much the “Gorp” viewing experience. Ruben just doesn’t have the vision to reach higher with the production’s sense of humor.

Also not helping “Gorp” are unlikable characters, with the screenplay unable to cough up one decent personality. Everyone is a monster here, only separated by degrees of stupidity and personal hygiene. Even Kavell and Bergman are creeps, and they are supposed to be the fun-loving heroes of the picture, hosting a carnival of misbehavior. Unfortunately, Konvitz doesn’t have much of an imagination for mischief, going as far as to include a scene where the leading men make a bet with Evie, urging her to seduce the camp rabbi (Robert Trebor) while they take on an overweight nurse known as Big Bertha (Judith Drake). The resulting mess can only be described as a “comical rape,” completely torpedoing whatever morsel of easygoing attitude has managed to survive up to this point. Just when it feels like “Gorp” couldn’t get any worse, it actually does.

Gorp Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation only modestly captures the low-budget achievements of "Gorp," missing a needed refreshing, with a degree of baked-in filtering present. Colors are generally satisfactory, capturing the greenery of the camp and more vivid hues emerging from costuming and prank extremes. Skintones are on the bloodless side. Detail isn't compelling for this type of entertainment, with period cinematography battling softness and focus issues, and textures aren't rich, never acquiring deep facial particulars and set decoration achievements. Delineation is only passable, handling evening events with some solidification. Source is in fine shape, with only some minor speckling and scratching encountered.

Gorp Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Inherent production issues tend to hamper the 2.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix, which doesn't provide a consistent listening experience. The Blu-ray does what it can, but levels fluctuate and reach points of muddiness. The problems aren't drastic, but they are heard. Dialogue exchanges lose some potency along the way, with the group dynamic melting into a cluster of voices. Soundtrack cuts fare better, with decent instrumentation to enjoy, boosting the feature's cinematic presence. Atmospherics are sharp and crudely defined. Again, this isn't a top-shelf production to begin with, leaving the BD at a disadvantage, but it manages what's here adequately.

Gorp Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary features writer/producer Jeffrey Konvitz.

• A Theatrical Trailer has not been included.

Gorp Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If one can survive group masturbation sessions, visits to a caricature of a gay bar, and non-sequiturs that include one kitchen worker dressed as Dracula (and for reasons unknown, the production proudly bills the introduction of Rosanna Arquette, making her film debut), there's mayhem waiting at the end of "Gorp," which becomes a camp-wide war, battling for…well, the right to be awful human beings. There's nothing wrong with lowball humor, but for juvenile antics to succeed, they need leadership willing to challenge bad ideas, inspiring the professionals to dream up tomfoolery that surprises, even when dealing with pure ugliness. "Gorp" doesn't have the energy to snowball into something delightfully ludicrous. Instead, it's a lazy, unfunny entry in the summer camp high jinks subgenre. While it aims to be another "Animal House," it's more of a dreary, directionless rip-off in dire need of a rewrite and a funny bone transplant.