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Released by: Kino Studio Classics
Released on: February 2nd, 2016.
Director: Joseph Ruben
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Fran Drescher, Rosanna Arquette, Michael Lembeck, Philip Casnoff
Year: 1980
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The Movie:
Directed by Joseph Ruben for American International Pictures (their last release) in 1980 in what was clearly an attempt to cash in on the success the Animal House knock-offs and summer camp comedies that were popular at the time, Gorp is ninety minutes of plotless nonsense populated by completely disposable characters and a lot of awful jokes.
The story is set at a Jewish summer camp called Camp Oskemo where two mess hall waiters, Kavell (Michael Lembeck) and Bergman (Philip Casnoff), lead the charge in a series of pranks against the camp's owner, Walrus (David Huddleston), that is when they're not trying to win the affections of some of the female counselors, Vicki (Lisa Shure) being the prime target. But Vicki makes it clear - she doesn't put out. Thankfully for our two camp studs, Evie Bennett (Fran Drescher) makes no bones about it: she'll fuck anyone she wants to fuck. After the each make it with her, she winds up in a bet with them. If she can get the camp rabbi into the sack before they can get it on with the portly camp nurse, Big Bertha (Judith Drake), there's a cool fifty bucks in it for her.
As the movie progresses, other characters drift in and out of the movie. Mad Grossman (Dennis Quaid) is literally arming himself to the teeth and trying to build an atomic bomb in the bunkhouse, while the kitchen staff - made up of Fred The Chef (Julius Harris), Indian Joe (Rudy Diaz), the effeminate Sweet Moe (Otis Day) and Wino Willie (Bill Kirchenbauer) - guzzle booze and play floor hockey with mops and overcooked food. Before it's all over, Walrus' cabin will be filled with animal turds, Grossman will commandeer a tank, a kid will get busted masturbating time and time again and, yeah, then it just sort of ends.
There isn't really a story here, more like a series of unrelated set pieces strung together over a finite period of time and based around the same location. As to an actual narrative or a character arc? No dice! The characters are, each and every one of them, stereotypes from similar films: the virgin, the slut, the military nutjob, the gay guy, the drunk guy, and of course, two supposed studs in the lead. There's nothing original here, nothing really all that good either. Yet the movie is watchable enough. It's reasonably well shot, the gags come fairly quickly even if they're not always successful, and there's enough rampant stupidity going on at any given time that, if you're not necessarily always going to be laughing, you'll at least be wondering just what the hell these guys were thinking.
As far as the cast goes, Lembeck and Casnoff are wooden and forgettable. The supporting players are more interesting, with Dennis Quaid stealing a few scenes and Fran Drescher, quite attractive here, playing the sexually liberated female part well enough. A young Rosanna Arquette pops up here in a small role as well. The actors who play the guys in the kitchen, well, they do what they can but they're all stereotypes too, but there are enough obvious yet effective yucks (so long as you don't mind some politically incorrect jabs) that you won't forget them. And that's just it. Gorp is awful. It really is. But once you watch it, you won't forget it.
Oddly enough director Joseph Ruben, who prior to this directed The Pom Pom Girls for Crown International, would go onto direct The Stepfather as well as some bigger Hollywood pictures like Sleeping With The Enemy and Money Train. Writer Jeffrey Konvitz previously scribed both The Sentinel and Silent Night, Bloody Night and then later produced Bloodsport 2 and Spy Hard!
Video/Audio/Extras:
Gorp arrives on Blu-ray from Kino's Studio Classics line framed at 1.85.1 widescreen in a perfectly nice looking high definition AVC encoded transfer. Detail is never reference quality but it's fine, definitely a few notches up from what DVD could provide, while colors come across quite nicely. There's a bit of minor print damage here and there and some of the darker interior shots look noisier than the rest of the movie but there's no evidence of noise reduction nor are there any compression artifact problems.
The only audio option for the feature is an English language DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track. Limited in range, the track is nevertheless of decent enough quality. The action scene towards the end isn't as bombastic as you might want it to be but clarity is fine, dialogue perfectly discernable and the track is free of any hiss or distortion. No alternate language options or subtitles have been provided.
The main extra on the disc is a feature length commentary from writer/producer Jeffrey Konvitz moderated by Bill Olsen. The track is hit or miss in that there are occasional stretches where Konvitz either doesn't remember anything about what Olsen's pings him on or just seems content to quietly watch the movie without commenting, but when it's on, it's on. Konvitz isn't afraid to dish out the dirt on Arkoff and AIP in regards to where that production house was at this point in history and he also has some fun stories about what it was like on set, working with director Ruben, the locations used in the movie and more.
There's no trailer for the feature here but there are trailers included for a few other Kino comedy releases (they being I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Delirious, The Couch Trip and Up The Creek) as well as some static menus and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
Let's be honest, Gorp is horribly made plotless nonsense, but there's something sort of charming about the film's unrepentant stupidity. The film never got a DVD release so this Blu-ray release from Kino marks the first time it's been available since the glory days of VHS. The audio and video presentation is decent if imperfect and while the commentary isn't a classic, when Konvitz is engaged it is quite interesting.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
