Magic camp
2020
U
Director: Mark Waters
Starring: Adam Devine, Jeffrey Tambor, Gillian Jacobs, Nathaniel Logan Mcintyre, Cole Sand, Isabella Crovetti, Josie Totah, Isabella Alvarez, Hayden Crawford, Bianca Grava, Rochelle Aytes, etc
Overall rating 76/100
Magic Camp is about a character called Andy (Adam Devine) A former magician who was backstabbed by his former partner, who get's persuaded to become a tutor for a magic camp who trains young aspiring magicians to find there talent. Magic camp was largely something I have seen before, but it's heart was in the right place and I couldn't help but connect to a lot of the characters.
First of all, I loved the opening, the characters were likeable with different personalities and an equal amount of time was spent on all of them. I thought the beginning with all of the history of magicians and what they have accomplished within there careers was a really interesting way to start the film and created the perfect tone for the movie. I also liked that all the characters were likeable. With the amount of characters they actually had in the movie you would think they would focus on just a few, but no all of them had distinct likeable things about them with different personalities to connect with, the movie also gave a fairly equal amount of time on all of them to connect with them and to understand their backgrounds which I was honestly really surprised at.
My next few positives would be the comedic performance from Adam Devine, the humour and the connection between Adam's character and Theo (Nathaniel Logan McIntyre). Adam Devine was amazing in this film, his erratic energy and charm reminded me a lot of Jack Black which was great. But Adam just bought the star quality the film needed, and his type of comedy and performance was perfect for the film, the movie itself when it got it right was also fairly funny, were the jokes fairly recycled and done before, yes. But they still worked and gave me a few laughs, Adam Devine's brutal honesty also bought a lot of funny moments as well. One of my favourite parts of the movie was also the connection and chemistry between Adam and Nathaniel McIntyre. The little character arc between them both was great, Adam's character was like a needed father figure for Theo, motivating him to do his best and to get over his nerves, but also Theo was the motivation for Adam's character to find what he is truly passionate about so this was great.
However, my first few negatives would be how the movie was predictable, had generic antagonists and its humour was occasionally to generic and childish. You could tell what was going to happen in the movie with pretty much everything set up in the beginning. There was no surprises and sadly this lost impact for a lot of the scenes because the movie was trying to make it a big deal when I already knew it was coming, the antagonists in the film were about as generic and non-threatening as it gets. Yes, it's a movie aimed at families with younger kids, but the antagonists were throwing schoolground level insults and none of their actions worked in terms of causing a threat to the hearts group. And the humour occasionally fell into the generic toilet humour for kids, which was a shame because it worked for a lot of the movie, but they sometimes did the cringy eye rolling jokes that I didn't find funny at all.
My next few positives would be the character background, heart-warming tone and emotional weight. Despite It being predictable I did appreciate the amount of character background put into Adam Devine's character, learning of his passion and talent for magic with Darkwood (Gillian Jacobs) really made you connect with his character and him teaching the kids really made him come out of his shell, I also liked the added concept of an opportunity for redemption when Darkwood was good all along. The film had a surprising heartwarming tone and emotional weight to it as well. The character arc of Theo's character doing magic because of his sadly deceased father was very moving, and the use of flashbacks and how much he meant to Theo really added a surprising amount of charm and emotion to the movie as well as his relationship with his mum.
My final negatives would be how generic the film was, also with its recycled plot. The movie did follow a lot of generic stereotypes for this kind of movie, the characters, the situations and the kind of background for characters have all been done before and this movie lacked the creative thought to change that, the plot also felt very recycled from previous Disney movies similar to this, definitely camp rock, there was a lot of scenes that were just to similar not to notice, so this was a shame. My final few positives would be the magic side to the film and the heart-warming ending. The film lived up to it's title by exploring multiple different styles of magic which was all shown and was amazing to watch as some of it you don't even know how they do it. I also thought the ending was very heartwarming. All the performances for the competition were great, but the final performance from Theo was excellent and very heartwarming, the way he included his mum and brother with his performance to show how much he loves them was very emotional as he realised that his mum cares more about his magic then he thought so this was a lovely ending.
Overall despite lacking originality and a compelling enough story, it more then makes up for it with it's characters, with it's heart always being in the right place, for a charming, fun and heartwarming experience.
Overall rating 76/100
Magic Camp is about a character called Andy (Adam Devine) A former magician who was backstabbed by his former partner, who get's persuaded to become a tutor for a magic camp who trains young aspiring magicians to find there talent. Magic camp was largely something I have seen before, but it's heart was in the right place and I couldn't help but connect to a lot of the characters.
First of all, I loved the opening, the characters were likeable with different personalities and an equal amount of time was spent on all of them. I thought the beginning with all of the history of magicians and what they have accomplished within there careers was a really interesting way to start the film and created the perfect tone for the movie. I also liked that all the characters were likeable. With the amount of characters they actually had in the movie you would think they would focus on just a few, but no all of them had distinct likeable things about them with different personalities to connect with, the movie also gave a fairly equal amount of time on all of them to connect with them and to understand their backgrounds which I was honestly really surprised at.
My next few positives would be the comedic performance from Adam Devine, the humour and the connection between Adam's character and Theo (Nathaniel Logan McIntyre). Adam Devine was amazing in this film, his erratic energy and charm reminded me a lot of Jack Black which was great. But Adam just bought the star quality the film needed, and his type of comedy and performance was perfect for the film, the movie itself when it got it right was also fairly funny, were the jokes fairly recycled and done before, yes. But they still worked and gave me a few laughs, Adam Devine's brutal honesty also bought a lot of funny moments as well. One of my favourite parts of the movie was also the connection and chemistry between Adam and Nathaniel McIntyre. The little character arc between them both was great, Adam's character was like a needed father figure for Theo, motivating him to do his best and to get over his nerves, but also Theo was the motivation for Adam's character to find what he is truly passionate about so this was great.
However, my first few negatives would be how the movie was predictable, had generic antagonists and its humour was occasionally to generic and childish. You could tell what was going to happen in the movie with pretty much everything set up in the beginning. There was no surprises and sadly this lost impact for a lot of the scenes because the movie was trying to make it a big deal when I already knew it was coming, the antagonists in the film were about as generic and non-threatening as it gets. Yes, it's a movie aimed at families with younger kids, but the antagonists were throwing schoolground level insults and none of their actions worked in terms of causing a threat to the hearts group. And the humour occasionally fell into the generic toilet humour for kids, which was a shame because it worked for a lot of the movie, but they sometimes did the cringy eye rolling jokes that I didn't find funny at all.
My next few positives would be the character background, heart-warming tone and emotional weight. Despite It being predictable I did appreciate the amount of character background put into Adam Devine's character, learning of his passion and talent for magic with Darkwood (Gillian Jacobs) really made you connect with his character and him teaching the kids really made him come out of his shell, I also liked the added concept of an opportunity for redemption when Darkwood was good all along. The film had a surprising heartwarming tone and emotional weight to it as well. The character arc of Theo's character doing magic because of his sadly deceased father was very moving, and the use of flashbacks and how much he meant to Theo really added a surprising amount of charm and emotion to the movie as well as his relationship with his mum.
My final negatives would be how generic the film was, also with its recycled plot. The movie did follow a lot of generic stereotypes for this kind of movie, the characters, the situations and the kind of background for characters have all been done before and this movie lacked the creative thought to change that, the plot also felt very recycled from previous Disney movies similar to this, definitely camp rock, there was a lot of scenes that were just to similar not to notice, so this was a shame. My final few positives would be the magic side to the film and the heart-warming ending. The film lived up to it's title by exploring multiple different styles of magic which was all shown and was amazing to watch as some of it you don't even know how they do it. I also thought the ending was very heartwarming. All the performances for the competition were great, but the final performance from Theo was excellent and very heartwarming, the way he included his mum and brother with his performance to show how much he loves them was very emotional as he realised that his mum cares more about his magic then he thought so this was a lovely ending.
Overall despite lacking originality and a compelling enough story, it more then makes up for it with it's characters, with it's heart always being in the right place, for a charming, fun and heartwarming experience.