Is it worth returning to the disco era and to the earliest of Bill Murray movies? I think so. I like most of the films in Bill Murray's catalogue, including this campy one. Pun intended. Maybe that's because I was a camp counselor for two summers myself, in the mid-1970s. I can assure you, however, that our Girl Scout campers and counselors didn't act quite this ridiculously.

The setting is Camp North Star, near the village of Two Pines, somewhere to our north. (The movie was filmed in rural Ontario.) It's a co-ed residential camp where children spend the whole summer away from their families. This one is filled with stereotypical characters: among the counselors, among the counselors-in-training (C-I-Ts) and even among the campers. The inept director, Morty Melnik (Harvey Atkin), is the constant butt of jokes and is evidently quite a sound sleeper to boot. Tripper (Murray) is the head of the male counselors and campers, and Roxanne (Kate Lynch) oversees the females. This year, a new camper arrives: Rudy Gurner (Chris Makepeace). He's never attended camp before, so the experience is unsettling for him at first. We can only hope that he will eventually fit in by the end of the season.

At least three themes are at work here. (Yes, we can actually analyze the structure of this comedy.) First of all, we have the underdog story. And this is the pervasive theme because EVERYONE is an underdog at Camp North Star. The nearby rival, Camp Mohawk, is where the rich kids go for summer break. They have more resources and advantages. And when the two camps meet up for their annual basketball game and their two-day Olympiad, well, as you might guess, the outcomes almost always favor the rich kids. Almost always.

Then we add Rudy's story, not only as an underdog, but also as a fish-out-of-water. How will the summer go for him?

Superimposed on it all, we have the overarching presence of Tripper. He is a natural, living and breathing example of The Rebel vs. The Rulebook. And in this case, the rebel wins. He even throws out the rulebook. Literally. Right into the trash can. This is Bill Murray from his wacky Saturday Night Live days, so we shouldn't be surprised at the kind of character he brings to the screen.

Of course, all of these storylines come together during the final event of the Olympiad. And even though you can anticipate what will happen, you may still get chills and a sense of complete satisfaction when it does. Feel free to cheer.

The Do Not Miss moment here is Tripper's "It just doesn't matter" motivational speech on the night before the finale. It is a winner. It almost foreshadows his "We are the wretched refuse" speech in Stripes.

Meatballs will give you an hour and a half of predictable silliness, supported by a late 1970s soundtrack. To those who say that watching this movie is a waste of 90 minutes, I reply: Let all underdogs have their day. It's certainly a grade up from Bill Murray's next film, Caddyshack. While I know that it too has its fans, I am not one of them.