MEATBALLS (1979) Three stars

MEATBALLS left me with a nice, warm feeling this last time I watched it and I must admit to feeling both delighted and surprised by it.

It’s certainly no comic masterpiece, to be sure, but it contains Bill Murray’s first starring role in a motion picture comedy. That alone makes it an important movie to watch … and that’s not to denigrate the contributions of the other cast members. In all honesty, though, we sit through MEATBALLS for Murray and everybody knows it.

In his first starring role, he establishes the basic Bill Murray comic persona that his fans have come to love. He’s a modern variation on Groucho Marx, playing the smartest character in the movie, always wisecracking, always finding some new angle or scheme, always putting on everything (including himself), always having fun with authority figures. Fun is the key word, because it seems like everybody had fun on MEATBALLS. We like his Tripper, who eases our way through this low-budget, ragged Canadian tax shelter comedy.

Murray also gives his first great ridiculous serious speech in MEATBALLS, something that he would return to during CADDYSHACK, STRIPES, and GHOSTBUSTERS. There’s even a boat scene in MEATBALLS that made me think fondly back on Groucho and Thelma Todd in HORSE FEATHERS.

Unlike Groucho, though, Murray showcases a kinder, gentler side through Tripper’s interactions with Chris Makepeace’s Rudy. Tripper takes a shine to the young camper and their scenes together contribute to the nice, warm feeling created by MEATBALLS. Murray does not drift far away from his comic persona, though, during his scenes with Makepeace.

Every review I have read of MEATBALLS compared it (unfavorably) with NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE, the huge comedy hit from 1978. The reviewers were disappointed by the sheer lack of raunchiness displayed in MEATBALLS.

Maybe it has something to do with MEATBALLS director Ivan Reitman being a producer on ANIMAL HOUSE.

Or maybe something to do with the presence of Kristine DeBell in the cast. After all, DeBell made her screen debut in 1976’s X-rated ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND.

Or maybe it was expected that Murray would follow more in the physical comedy direction of “Saturday Night Live” co-star John Belushi, whose star exploded into the stratosphere with ANIMAL HOUSE.

Of course, I far prefer ANIMAL HOUSE over MEATBALLS and wish the latter film aimed for being R-rated rather than ‘PG.’

In the end, though, I like MEATBALLS and I accept that it displays a lighter comic touch.

Murray has a lot to do with the success of MEATBALLS, but I also like the rest of the main cast just fine, Makepeace and DeBell as well as Harvey Atkin, Kate Lynch, Jack Blum, and Keith Knight.

MEATBALLS, the 14th highest grossing movie from 1979, spawned three sequels, none of which feature Murray or any of the other cast members of the first movie, for that matter. MEATBALLS earned six times what Parts Two and Three combined earned. That only seems fitting in that both of them are six times worse the film as the original and they’re more like hairballs than MEATBALLS, anyway.