Quint, watch this movie again with a sombrero full of peanuts. Makes all the difference in the world.

They stink. Bad. Saying Meatballs "...is no Porkys" is barely a slight. Its not as if ANY of this batch of teensploit movies were really any good. They pushed the limits of what could pass for a PG movie at the time, and the plot was woven around how they could get teen girls naked on film. They dont age well, and neither did these movies.

Good God Almighty, that is one terrible movie. It has horrible dialogue. It has horrible acting (Mister Depp has never been worse), and they made some changes to the actual story that managed to remove some of the GREATEST moments in film. Spoilery example: There's a touching moment where Uncle Joe says to Charlie, "c'mon. If Slugworth wants his everlasting gobstopper, he'll get one." to which Charlie, accepting that he had broken the rules, knew that vengeance and bitterness were not right - not good. He quietly puts the candy on Wonka's desk. And in this absolutely beautiful little shot, Wilder lifts his fingers and gently covers the candy. Its one of those itty bitty little moments in film that just makes your heart leap inside your chest. In Burton's vision, Wonka forces Charlie to choose between owing the factory or keeping his family. Charlie says, "I'll keep my family" and Wonka says, "well okay" and whoooosh he's gone with his elevator.

That is completely inept writing, directing, and acting. Its flaccid, uninspired, and pointless idiocy and nothing more. Never have I been more underwhelmed by an overly hyped movie in my life, and I saw Highlander II on opening night.

Wilder's Wonka is this full-of-youthful-zeal eccentric man who just wants to make children's lives happy and frivolous and filled with candy. Depp's Wonka is a sociopathic man-child who ran away from home as a boy because his dentist father was a little zealous about dental hygiene.

As a movie, its an absolute disaster. It has some excellent cinematography, but the story is horrible. The music is horrible. The dialogue is horrible, and the acting itself is horrible. Seriously, did anyone like this movie? anyone at all?

Oh and Meatballs doesn't live up to Porky's? Are you kidding? Please...the only reason Poky's exists is nudity...in particular full frontal nudity (Catrall and the shower scene). The whole racial thing is ok but the movie is all one-liner jokes (some of them actually funny, most not) and then gratuitous nudity. This is not remotely a bad thing mind you...but the story is ass compared to the story in Meatballs. Sure the comedy might not hold up and if you're under 25, it probably won't be funny whatsoever...but Meatballs a MUCH better movie than Porky's.

Meatballs had heart...Porky's just had bush. You get better bush with real pron so where's the redeeming quality of Porky's today? Kim Catrall when she was younger and actually hot? Ok, agreed, but not enough to make it better than MB...anything else? No? (the 'Mike Hunt' gag doesn't count..it's practically a 'knock - knock' joke fer chrissakes!)

That's why Meatballs is better (opinions, obviously, not withstanding).

The book could be a snuff poem written in ancient cuneaform for all i care.

Chris Makepeace went on to star with Jayne from Firefly in the baddest motherfucking movie I've ever seen where a bald guy AND Matt Dillon get their fucking asses kicked by a pussy and a sociopath, 'My Bodyguard'. The broad from Harold and Maude plays Makepeace's gramma in it...and is awesome.

But I digress, the fact is that Bill Murray in this flick introduces his 'smart-ass with a heart' character that smart directors of the day like Reitman would take and run with, and put him out there as Bill Murray...fuck, this movie was the birth of a personality profile for just about every post-boomer, early Gen-Xer...we all became wannabe's at that point, and while I adore George Carlin, he was a brilliant genius, and Bill Murray's comic timing and attitude were an attainable goal.

That's my opinion anyways.