Classic Movie Review: 'Heavyweights' 30 Years Later

Heavyweights

Directed by Steven Brill

Written by Judd Apatow, Steven Brill

Starring Ben Stiller, Paul Feig, Tom McGowan

Release Date February 17th, 1995

Published February 17th, 2025

Heavyweights is an oft-forgotten entry in the canon of live action Disney features. The film was made possible by the surprise success of The Mighty Ducks and used members of the cast of that film, already under contract to Disney, as a way to further capitalize on that success. The film centers on a camp for overweight kids who will have to overcome a needless obstacle on the way to a simpleminded conclusion that involves learning to ‘be yourself’ or some other such nonsense platitude.

Despite seeing names like Ben Stiller, Judd Apatow, and Paul Feig involved in Heavyweights, I was skeptical of the film. The 90s weren’t exactly known for being sensitive and jokes about overweight children were not off limits by any stretch. Thus, I set the bar pretty low at just hoping the young actors in Heavyweights would not be repeatedly humiliated, shamed, or otherwise bullied for comic effect. What a surprise then to find a film that was genuinely sensitive, cared deeply for these young characters and their struggle, and was not simply a series of humiliations intended as comedy.

Though Ben Stiller is the best known member of the cast, Heavyweights actually centers on the story of Gerry Garner (Aaron Schwartz), a kid who is being sent to Camp Hope for the very first time. Camp Hope is intended to be a ‘fat camp,’ a place to encourage overweight kids to be active, get outside and hopefully learn healthy habits. Indeed, the camp we first attend is one where the kids are all friendly, empathetic and supportive campers who are cared for by a staff that views giving the children a good experience as the best way to help them with their issues.

Naturally, this is the status quo that will need to be upended in order for a story to emerge. Enter Tony Perkis Jr. (Ben Stiller), a weight loss guru and budding reality TV star. Tony has purchased the failing camp with the intention of using the kids on his TV show which is all about a weight loss system he invented. It’s a system that uses humiliation and deprivation as weight loss tactics. Perkis makes life for the campers incredibly hard, forcing the kids, including Gerry and his buddies Josh (Shaun Weiss) and Roy (Kenan Thompson) to fight back and take the camp back from Tony and his minions.

Director Steven Brill is not a very good director, as his resume of Adam Sandler movies makes clear, but, at the very least, he can point the camera straight. Brill also seems to like his young protagonists and never falls back on hurting or humiliating them in the pursuit of laughs. It’s a low bar but if you’ve seen any movie aimed at kids in history, you can probably recall how many of them make use of mean spirited jokes at the expense of overweight characters. Heavyweights, despite being about overweight kids, is remarkably kind to its characters and has the humor of the movie arise fully from their friendships and in the ways they bond while taking down Tony and never at their expense.

Ben Stiller, auditioning elements that he would later utilize in his blockbuster hit, Dodgeball, is a terrific villain. With him being a very over the top and obvious villain, when Stiller tries to humiliate the kids or make them suffer to lose weight, he typically fails and our young heroes repeatedly get one over on him. Stiller understands the assignment and throws himself into being humiliated and one upped by his child co-stars. Stiller’s eager willingness to be the butt of every joke takes a lot of the comic pressure off of his young co-stars.

Heavyweights is not a great movie but it is a welcome one. It’s a rare kids movie that lets kids be kids and not the subject of repeated humiliating fat jokes. Nor does the film contain any real bullying. I was certain that there would be bully characters in Heavyweights who constantly made fat jokes, even if we’re not meant to laugh at them. Instead, Heavyweights avoids that trope almost entirely and centers on these goodhearted kids, the good counselors who care about them, and a cartoon villain who deserves the comeuppance he is undoubtedly going to get in the end.

Heavyweights is the subject of the newest episode of the I Hate Critics 1995 podcast. Each week, myself and my co-hosts M.J and Amy, watch a movie that was released 30 years ago that week and use the film to examine how movies and popular culture have changed in just three decades. We’re now in our third year and it has been fascinating to see so clearly how movies and culture have shifted dramatically in such a short period of time. You can find the I Hate Critics 1995 Podcast on the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast feed, where you listen to podcasts.