wildman head counselor tripper harrison ( bill murray in peak nutty form in his first lead role ) preside over the various wacky hi jinks at north star summercamp . tripper befriend sad and lonely misfit kid rudy ( a nice and affect performance by chris makepeace ) . director ivan reitman relate the amusingly off the wall comic vignette at a ceaseless snappy pace and maintain an engagingly good natured tone throughout . this film astutely nail the breezynbreezy essence of summer represent making friend and first love and pull prank and compete in sport with a rival camp and campfire singalong and and and of course and the inevitable scary urban legend about the escaped psycho killer with the hook hand . the sense of gleefully raucous fun this picture generate be positively infectious . moreover and the humor be always goofy and occasionally gross and but never too nasty or mean spirit . best of all and there a winning surplus of pure heart to go along with say humor ( the warm relationship between tripper and rudy in particular be genuinely touch ) . the cast have an obvious ball play their likable character represent murray gloriously gonzo and galvanize presence keep thing constantly hum ( his crazy pa announcement be absolutely sidesplitting ) and plus there be sound contribution from harvey atkin a hapless camp owner morty and kate lynch a tripper sassy old flame roxanne and russ banham a the amiable crockett and kristine debell a the sweet and foxy a. l. and sarah torgov a the feisty candace and jack blum a klutzy bespectacled nerd spaz and keith knight a tubby slob larry finkelstein and cindy girling a the fetching wendy and and matt craven a the hip hardware . donald wilder cinematography give the movie an attractive sunny look and make nifty use of wipe . elmer bernstein lively and melodic score likewise do the trick . a real riot .