Movie Saturday: Camp Takota (2014)

by deliagoode

 

Camp Takota? More like Camp ThanksButNoThanks-ota!

Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best haze ever, but you get the point.

Let me just start off by saying how much I love and appreciate everything Grace Helbig does. I do! I’ve been a fan of her since the early Daily Grace days, and one can only try (and fail) to dispute how cleverly hilarious (and insanely hot) she is. I may even have a teeny-tiny crush on her, but we’ll get to that later. Or not.

You’re familiar with Grace too, right? If the answer to that question is ‘no’, then what the heck are you still doing reading this? Go to YouTube right now and subscribe to ItsGrace.

Seriously, do it.

Did you do it?

Okay, good.

Now you know what an incredibly awkward, amazingly spontaneous and verbally rich (but at times hard to understand BECAUSE SHE’S AWKWARD) person she is. You love her. It’s okay, we all do. Welcome to the ItsGrace family! I’ll leave the hazing/prazing part to the pros this time.

Let’s get to the factual part of this review. The movie was directed by Chris and Nick Riedell, and was written by Lydia Genner (screenplay), Michael Goldfine (story) and Mamrie Hart (screenplay and story). The very main characters are portrayed by The Holly Trinity of YouTube: Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart and Mamrie Hart. The movie also features Chester See, Chris Riedell, Ellen Karsten and Rachel Quaintance.

The story revolves around Elise (Grace Helbig), an aspiring writer who gets sacked and catches her fiancé Jeff (Chester See) in adultery all in one day. She then decides to take a job as a counselor at her old summer camp, where she reunites with her childhood friends Maxine (Mamrie Hart) and Allison (Hannah Hart), former Takota campers who now work there.

Needless to say that these three have an amazing chemistry (not that we didn’t already know that) and it was very fun watching them interact (and get wasted) on-screen. It was silly. It was cute. It was real. And that’s exactly the problem.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE seeing Grace have trouble speaking, or seeing Mamrie make weird faces, or seeing Hannah be… Hannah. I love that.

ON YOUTUBE. WHEN THEY’RE NOT ACTING.

That was the thing that bothered me the most and that I (kind of) saw coming – it wasn’t acting. It was them being their usual selves, every second of the movie. And I hate saying this, but it was a bit annoying. And predictable. Actually, if I could describe the whole movie in one word, it would probably be just that – predictable. Was it funny? At times, yes. Was it original? Not really. It kinda felt like watching Camp Rock 3:  Ten Years Later. And boy, did Demi change!

The whole time it seemed as if they were in a rush to tell the story, without paying attention to the details that would make this movie MUCH better. The dialogues sounded a bit lazy, the story was inconsistent at times and the “twist” wasn’t intriguing at all. But at least we got to Chester SEE him shirtless. Ha, ha. Get it? His last name is See! This is comedy gold right here.

On a serious note, I didn’t hate the movie. I’ll admit there were some pretty hilarious moments, and although Grace played the lead, Mamrie totally stole the spotlight. She was the true star of the movie. Four for you, Mamrie Hart!

Overall, if you aren’t familiar with these popular YouTubers and the way they are in general, you might even like the movie a bit. Or not. Either way, you should subscribe to all of them.

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Should you… Give money to see this movie? Nah.
Would you… Be entertained for 95 minutes? Kind of.
Could you… Watch this movie over and over again? Not really.

All in all, I give Camp Takota two out of five twerking pandas.  If your friend has already bought the movie and asked you to watch it together, give it a go. You might love Grace’s faces. Or Chester’s chest. There might be a little bit for everyone.