Summer Camp

It's like buying a cheap popsicle at the grocery store. On the right day, it's fine.

While there are pops of piquancy in Landon’s script, her direction and the performances (with the exception of Woodard) fail to inspire much more than a shrug. “Summer Camp” is only mildly interesting as another entry in the Keaton-verse.

Through good gags and misfires, the movie is mild entertainment with the advantage of bringing this big band of mature actors together for a serving of fun with a side of hard-won wisdom.

There's nothing remotely believable -- or funny -- about Summer Camp, a dull comedy about a trio of childhood friends who reunite for the 50th anniversary of their summer camp, and learn painfully obvious life lessons along the way.

There’s a rather heroic amount of heavy-lifting forced upon the three leads, faced with a script from writer-director Castille Landon that gives them the barest of minimums to work with and a plot so underbaked that it feels more like a pilot episode.

Landon’s film doesn’t stir the soul or tickle the funnybone, and yet it’s reassuring and friendly and that has some value too.

“Summer Camp” is a very flawed film and relentlessly predictable. Each woman has a lesson to learn or an epiphany to experience, and their awakening comes right on cue.

This, however, is merely designed to give the actors work without harming their images or taxing their abilities.

Somehow, you want to think those retirement years can bring much, much more.

Normally, the trio of Diane Keaton, Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard would be golden, but they are not, saddled with an awful script and playing awful characters...nothing to really hold on to and engage.

The hackneyed comedy, stereotypes and false nostalgia and the ineptitude of the direction proves to be a lethal combination.