I picked up this movie solely because Dominique Swain is in it. But the movie was a major disappointment on many accounts. Especially on the comedy side. I didn't laugh a single time throughout the entire movie.And you would think that with Dominique Swain, Justin Long and Peter Stomare that you would be in for at least a somewhat enjoyable movie. But alas, no, "Happy Campers" didn't deliver where it counted.The story is about a summer camp where the camp director is injured in a lightning accident, and it is up to the college student camp counselors to step up and run the camp in the directors absence.For a comedy "Happy Campers" was disturbingly devoid of laughs and funny situations. And it was as if director Daniel Waters just wanted to focus on the sexual situations that he may or may not have experienced in camp himself. As such, the movie sank from mediocrity right into downright ludicrous stupidity.This movie isn't worth the time or effort, and there are far better movies available in this late teen/early adult comedy genre.

"Welcome to 'Camp Bleeding Dove', where seven hot-blooded college freshmen are left in charge of dozens of high-maintenance campers. When 'Chief Oberon' (Peter Stormare), the camp's only responsible adult, is hit by lightning, it's a hormonal free-for-all as the counselors 'Wichita' (Brad Renfro) and 'Wendy' (Dominique Swain) score with each other while trying to control the underage masses. At the end of 40 days, everyone is guaranteed memories that will last a lifetime!" promises the DVD sleeve description. Debuting director Daniel Waters' teen sex comedy is alternately appealing, embarrassing, teasing, and stupid. Unfortunately, emphasis is firmly on the latter.** Happy Campers (1/21/01) Daniel Waters ~ Brad Renfro, Dominique Swain, Jaime King, Justin Long

When the strict camp director of Camp Bleeding Dove (Peter Stormare of "Fargo" and "the Big Lebowski") gets electrocuted, the group of freshman camp counselors (including Jamie King of "Sin City", in her first role, and yes she gets topless) have to run the summer camp by themselves. Because of their personalities, they start to clash with each other. The Movie was funny in parts, but I think I was expecting more from Daniel Waters, I mean the cat gave us Heathers, Ford Fairlane, and Demolition Man. Not to say this is a bad movie in the least, just that it's sadly mediocre in every way.My Grade: C+ Eye Candy: Jamie King goes topless

Given the long and storied history of camp movies, who would have thought that this one would be anything more than a teen sex-comedy romp? Yet Daniel Waters lives up to the more accomplished entries on his resume (Heathers, Batman Returns) and delivers something else. What else? Happy Campers uses the camp setting and its inevitable sex as the staging ground for its characters to regress into a primal state of sexual savagery. Waters uses the sex to make an existential statement about humanity. In this way, the movie resembles Kubrick's Fear and Desire, right down to the fact that the characters are not actually characters but empty psychological archetypes.