<http://schema.org/reviewBody>
"Ivan Reitman directs his first of four movies with Bill Murray, and he instantly understands how to give the great comic actor room to mess around. It's Murray's spontaneity that gives the movie its lifeblood. But Murray also shows an early, rare example of onscreen tenderness, in his scenes with the shy boy Rudy (Chris Makepeace, who went on to play a similar role in My Bodyguard). Murray clowns with the boy, but it comes from a place of genuine caring.\nHowever, Murray's star power outshines most of the rest of the cast, and Reitman can't seem to find a balance for the rest of the movie. Its sweet, serious scenes come at awkward moments, and take up a bit too much of the final stretch. And its supposedly raucous, irreverent humor feels deliberately held back at times. This is odd, since National Lampoon's Animal House raised the bar for movie comedy just a year earlier. But on the other hand, &amp;quot;Meatballs&amp;quot; has a low-key tone that feels just right for summertime viewing."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/meatballs>