Camp Crasher 2024 Movie Review
The only merit of Camp with Mom is that it lasts 95 minutes and has the chance to be part of those abominable notes titled “Five movies that last less than 100 minutes and that you can watch on Netflix.” I would include it in a note whose title could be “Five movies that make you want to unsubscribe from Netflix.” This feature film belongs to the family film genre, a term that precedes children’s films that used to encompass all those titles suitable for all audiences that combined fun and humor that could be enjoyed by children and adults alike. Disney studios knew how to exploit this genre to the maximum during the middle of the 20th century, using actors and great stories, before the total dominance of animated film.
It follows the story of Patricia and her pre-teen son Ramiro, with whom she has a complicated coexistence. One day, Patricia discovers that Ramiro wants to move to his father’s house after attending the end-of-year camp, which makes her enter a state of despair for not being the great mother that her daughter expects. On the day of the trip, the bus drivers do not pass the breathalyzer test, risking that the boys lose the possibility of having their camp, however, Patricia offers to drive the bus to save the situation in order to show her son that she is a fun mother and not to go live with the father.
Patricia (Natalia Oreiro) is the head of a trucking company inherited from her father. She knows her trade, drives the trucks well and runs it together with her not-so-efficient sister Carla (Sofia Morandi). Patricia’s pre-teen son Ramiro (Milo Zeus) is tired of his domineering mother and plans to go live with his father and his pregnant second wife. When the trip for the elementary school students is threatened by the lack of two drivers, Patricia volunteers to drive the bus. No one knows why two drivers are changed to one, but it is not important. Ramiro, of course, lives this as a nightmare, while Patricia wants to show her son that she can be a great mother. In addition to the children, a mother in charge of taking care of the group (Dalia Gutmann) and the teacher (Pablo Rago) travel. It is a comedy with an emotional side and a learning path. It is not necessary for films to be surprising to be good, here we are faced with a script that is predictable at astonishing levels, even more so if you take into account that it has four screenwriters. Perhaps each one made a list of common places and the work of the four ended up forming this film of only 95 minutes that you can watch on Netflix.
Films with child casts are a difficult sport to play and not all of them manage to be School of Rock , to put it nicely. A blanket of mercy for the children who cannot be so young and deal with this story. Natalia Oreiro is something else. When the actress loses interest in a job, she resorts to the poorest of her tools, becoming a Tita Merello with human rights, typical of the 21st century. Her talent and charisma do not work when there is no desire or film. The same goes for the rest, even if her presence is the main hook. The exploration of the mother-son bond crosses impossible lines of dialogue and plays unsuccessfully at comedy and turns to embarrassment when it seeks emotion and drama. The soundtrack hits us in the head like a woodpecker to warn us where to laugh and where to cry. I would say that it makes you want to cry, but not from emotion, but from sadness when witnessing such a spectacle. The ending, so that not a single cliché is left unexpressed, is with the cast dancing and Natalia Oreiro singing. That joy of the casts that we like when the film is good and makes us furious when it is bad. It seems like a remake of a hundred films and at the same time speculating about becoming the starting point of many others. Take note and avoid them all.
