I thank you Regal Unlimited for letting me see this movie with really no cost out of my pocket. I went in with a drink from home, paid 52 cents for the surcharge and that was it. I still feel like I slightly overpaid. This is a fun family flick for the first act and as it gets into the second act becomes a movie full of lessons and tries to become a tear jerking, feel good movie while still trying to maintain that goofy family fun. Unfortunately, none of this works in a any way. It was forced, poorly acted and the entire movie looks like it was shot in 2010 for a kids channel. Which makes me wonder... How this ended up in movie theaters. The director Brian Cates, as far as I can tell this is his debut film and has a history of Christian shorts. So I understood that after about an hour that this was a heavily Christian influenced film which isn't the problem. I have seen some really good Christian films before, but I think our director in question here doesn't quite understand how to write (he's also one of the writers) a full film. Which is probably why he got the the help of Rene Gutteridge who was a writer on one film before, a Christian film. However I think she suffers the same struggles since no where besides the first act seems to know how to hold a nearly 2 hour movie. Which brings me to my next realization, this is apparently a team of people named "The Skit Guys" a Christian skit channel. If you are unaware of this group like I was, and are wondering why there is a flood of 10's and 9's and 8's it's because it is their fans I have to presume. This film is not a hidden gem by any standards and is not something I would ever recommend you go out and pay over a hundred dollars in tickets and snacks at the theater for with your whole family. It is downright disrespectful for taking the screen space away from other films more deserving of it. The reason for a good opening act is because it is basically a rip off of Cheaper by the Dozen and when it does it's own spin going into the second act it becomes a dreadful nightmare. While there are some highlights in this movie and rare instances of decent acting.... practically just Leigh-Allyn Baker... this movie is very weighted towards the terrible scale. The message of the film is something you see coming the second they are lost in the woods and everything here is as predictable as you could imagine. I imagine the budget on this film wasn't much and they probably bought out theaters for their fans or families and will probably recoup the money that was put into this, but there is no way people are going to their local theaters and taking their whole family here unless it's a family who will only pay for these Christian based movies. In fact this movie made me so disinterested that I actually thought about buying a ticket for a new movie and switching theaters. What a horrible mess of a movie that completely misses the point of being a FUN family movie. I give this a 3 only for the Cheaper by the Dozen ripoff to start the first act and for Leigh-Allyn Baker making miserable scenes bearable. Not even worth waiting for streaming, wait for like a Youtube rip and get hammered and maybe there's some enjoyment.
Review of Family Camp
