Delayed Reaction: A Week Away

Premise: A musical about campers at a Christian camp.

 

It’s nice to be reminded that the Netflix algorithm is fallible*. This is the definition of a Saturday morning movie for me. I’m never using that time for a movie I’m anticipating. It’s my “Fuck it. Let’s give it a try.” spot. I like to try out movies that don’t seem super appealing but could surprise me. A lot of the time, I look for the first halfway decent suggestion on the Netflix page. And, in the algorithm’s defense, I do think I added this to my watchlist at some point when it popped up. That’s not saying much. My watchlist and long and varied.

 

*OK, I never needed any reminding of that.

 

Anyway, this movie isn’t great. I appreciate the attempt at a musical but the songs were pretty bad. Really poor and/or lazy lyrics. Very few hooks. And it didn’t commit enough to the idea. There were few enough songs that the idea of not making it a musical must’ve still been on the table late. And the Christ camp angle isn’t appealing to me. I’m very atheist but I like to think I’m generous about programming with a religious bent. Writing an interesting religious character on a show is still one of the quickest ways to get acclaim from me. Where religious movies tend to lose me is the refusal to have any sharp edges. No one in this movie is nasty. The bad boy character is written like the writer has never even gotten a speeding ticket. He shows up at the camp ready made for reform. I never bought him as someone who would get in trouble.

 

I’m also not stupid. This is a TV-PG movie clearly aimed at kids, probably even younger than preteens. Plenty of movies over the years have proven though that being for kids doesn’t mean a movie has to be bad. Most of the issues with the movie really aren’t with content. Better songs. More real conflict. Shade characters better. The young cast isn’t even that bad. Kevin Quinn comes from the Disney Channel factory. Bailee Madison has a shockingly long filmography for her age. The token adults, Sherri Shepherd and David Koechner, certainly try to inject some life into this.

 

Verdict: Strongly Don’t Recommend