What would happen if National Lampoon's Animal House and Meatballs had sloppy, drunken sex and they popped out a kid nine months later? Gorp, that's what. Having never seen release on DVD, and generally quite obscure, this is notable for a few things. It marked the last release from the B-movie specialists at American-International Pictures as well as containing early performances from Dennis Quaid and Fran Drescher. It also is an early directorial effort from Joseph Ruben who would go on to helm such cool stuff as 1987's The Stepfather and Dreamscape. Despite all this, it's still terrible.

Released in the wake of Meatballs' surprise success the previous year, this R-rated attempt to ride on that flick's coattails takes place at the Jewish-themed Camp Oskemo and our focus is on the rag-tag group of twenty-something's who have taken the jobs of being kitchen helpers. Yes, instead of it being counselors like most of its ilk, this instead focuses on waiters (wait, what? Camp waiters?). And bad ones at that.

As written by Jeffrey Konvitz (The Sentinel), I honestly couldn't tell you who the main characters are. There's no real effort to give anyone a personality aside from the typical clichés of the nerdy masturbator, the Italian stud, the fat guy, and the military nut. Most of them spend the flick lusting after the various females on hand (Drescher and Rosanna Arquette to name a few) while getting into trouble at the behest of various, awful, set pieces like when they dare a fellow worker to down four bottles of wine in quick succession (shown in sped-up slapstick fashion), a fully clothed make-out scene where they aggressively slap at bugs, an out-of-hand poker game, a scene where they all accidentally eat speed and cause a massive food fight in the dining hall, and when two of them sneak into an overweight girl's bedroom and proceed to make out with her while she headlocks them. Amongst all this juvenile inanity there is the typical "Slobs vs. Snobs" plotline that most of this sub-genre adheres to as we head towards a "kitchen sink" finale that includes multiple explosions and the nutty Grossman (Quaid) driving around in a tank.

With his first appearance in the movie consisting of him mooning the rest of the cast, Quaid certainly looks young here and, I'm willing to bet, is more likely to list his turn in 1978's The Seniors on his resume than this. He'd certainly go on to the most consistent career of everyone here. Drescher, before her annoying turn on sitcom "The Nanny" and Bobbi Flekman role in This is Spinal Tap, gets to play the camp slut without ever being dressed in less than a t-shirt and shorts. She was better in The Hollywood Knights from the same year. Arquette is briefly here and makes no impression. Michael Lembeck (son of Harvey from the Beach Party series) stands around looking smug but would go on to a busy career helming tons of sitcom episodes as well as harmless Disney fare like the Santa Clause sequels and the Rock starring Tooth Fairy.

Throughout Gorp I was amazed at how bored I was. I was also trying to figure out what (apart from being an obvious cash-grab) the entire point of its existence is. Every character here is completely interchangeable, the jokes are obvious and bottom-of-the-barrel, and there's not even enough nudity to keep you awake. It's embarrassing to watch and all the jokes just feel too brief to work - like they were cut off early so they could move on to the next, awful, set piece. I wouldn't be surprised if this was partly responsible for the demise of A.I.P. but at least they managed to make me happy by using footage from I Was a Teenage Werewolf during the movie night moment. (Chris Hartley, 4/23/13)

Directed By: Joseph Ruben.
Written By: Jeffrey Konvitz.

Starring: Michael Lembeck, Dennis Quaid, Phillip Casnoff, Fran Drescher.