I work with troubled teenagers in my profession, and I am always on the lookout for movies to show them that they might relate to and learn something from. I always pre-screen the flicks before watching them with the youth, and Boot Camp is a good example of why I bother doing this. Although admittedly entertaining and mostly well acted, Boot Camp feels like a movie written by troubled teenagers who are unable to see beyond their angst and hopelessness. The result is a "misunderstood kids" versus "evil authority figures" storyline that was disappointing in its singular focus and lack of meaning.
The idea of the film is actually quite interesting, and it reminded me of another flick about a troubled teen made in 1989 called Lost Angels. The difference between the two movies, however, is that the angry young man in Lost Angels actually learns something about himself and comes to understand how his actions got him into trouble in the first place. In Boot Camp, Mila Kunis stars as a young woman who is actually not a very nice person and learns nothing about herself throughout the story. She starts off being annoying, and stays that way until the very end. The only thing she learns is that you can get raped and killed in youth counseling programs.
She decides to embarrass her father in front of his business associates, and then is seemingly surprised when he gets angry about it. The parents have had enough with her antics and send her to a boot camp overseas. Her boyfriend tries to rescue her by pretending to be a heroin addict, so that his parents will send him to the same boot camp. His plan works and the film slips into a fairly routine "prison escape" flick.
What's so disappointing in Boot Camp is the lost potential it had to show many different sides to the same story. All of the parents are portrayed as cruel cardboard cutouts lacking any ability to empathize with their kids whatsoever. They are shown to be ruthless disciplinarians who just don't understand their children and refuse to try, thus sending them away to boot camp to have them "fixed". The teens have this attitude that they just need to be left alone and that they can take care of themselves. It's all very black and white.
I was hoping for at least some kind of growth to occur with the main character; a moment of awakening or some event to take place that would suggest a level of maturity had been attained. But this was not to be. From the moment she arrives at the boot camp until the final escape when it gets burned to the ground, she's an icy bitch who frowns on another girl with weight issues and treats the staff like garbage. Admittedly it's not a very nice place to be, and in no way am I defending the horrendous abuse that does occur in the film towards some of the youth. Boot Camp just doesn't bother trying to convey any message other than, "Hey kids, it's not your fault that you are messed up. It's your parent's fault. And if they send you to a boot camp, you could get raped or killed."
The most interesting aspect of the story for me was the dynamics between the camp leader and his sister. It really did seem like he cared about the youth and had decent intentions. His plan of "saving" kids through these labor-intensive boot camps with extremely strict rules and consequences is not new and it has been proved to work in real life. He just became too obsessed with "making it work", and his vision flew off the rails after some very poor decisions, such as hiring that psycho ex-Marine to be head of security.
Most of the positive reviews for this flick talk about the evil camp leader and the equally evil parents. If you can watch Boot Camp with this one-sided view of "troubled" teens just being misunderstood and unfairly hassled by authority, than you will probably really enjoy it. You are also probably a teenager feeling the same way. Wait a few more years and watch it again. When you can no longer pump your fist at the end and say "hell yeah" when the camp burns to the ground, that is when you have finally grown up.
The idea of the film is actually quite interesting, and it reminded me of another flick about a troubled teen made in 1989 called Lost Angels. The difference between the two movies, however, is that the angry young man in Lost Angels actually learns something about himself and comes to understand how his actions got him into trouble in the first place. In Boot Camp, Mila Kunis stars as a young woman who is actually not a very nice person and learns nothing about herself throughout the story. She starts off being annoying, and stays that way until the very end. The only thing she learns is that you can get raped and killed in youth counseling programs.
She decides to embarrass her father in front of his business associates, and then is seemingly surprised when he gets angry about it. The parents have had enough with her antics and send her to a boot camp overseas. Her boyfriend tries to rescue her by pretending to be a heroin addict, so that his parents will send him to the same boot camp. His plan works and the film slips into a fairly routine "prison escape" flick.
What's so disappointing in Boot Camp is the lost potential it had to show many different sides to the same story. All of the parents are portrayed as cruel cardboard cutouts lacking any ability to empathize with their kids whatsoever. They are shown to be ruthless disciplinarians who just don't understand their children and refuse to try, thus sending them away to boot camp to have them "fixed". The teens have this attitude that they just need to be left alone and that they can take care of themselves. It's all very black and white.
I was hoping for at least some kind of growth to occur with the main character; a moment of awakening or some event to take place that would suggest a level of maturity had been attained. But this was not to be. From the moment she arrives at the boot camp until the final escape when it gets burned to the ground, she's an icy bitch who frowns on another girl with weight issues and treats the staff like garbage. Admittedly it's not a very nice place to be, and in no way am I defending the horrendous abuse that does occur in the film towards some of the youth. Boot Camp just doesn't bother trying to convey any message other than, "Hey kids, it's not your fault that you are messed up. It's your parent's fault. And if they send you to a boot camp, you could get raped or killed."
The most interesting aspect of the story for me was the dynamics between the camp leader and his sister. It really did seem like he cared about the youth and had decent intentions. His plan of "saving" kids through these labor-intensive boot camps with extremely strict rules and consequences is not new and it has been proved to work in real life. He just became too obsessed with "making it work", and his vision flew off the rails after some very poor decisions, such as hiring that psycho ex-Marine to be head of security.
Most of the positive reviews for this flick talk about the evil camp leader and the equally evil parents. If you can watch Boot Camp with this one-sided view of "troubled" teens just being misunderstood and unfairly hassled by authority, than you will probably really enjoy it. You are also probably a teenager feeling the same way. Wait a few more years and watch it again. When you can no longer pump your fist at the end and say "hell yeah" when the camp burns to the ground, that is when you have finally grown up.