Teenager Noah Rivers (Ethan Drew) lives at the New Day Boys’ home, where he’s constantly getting into trouble. After his latest arrest, the judge has given him one last chance, spending a week at the Deer Run camp, where his social worker, Selena (Amanda Leighton) is a counselor. The morning he’s supposed to leave for camp, Noah is up to his usual misdeeds, doing a job for two bumbling goons, Charlie (Josh Inocalla) & Willis (Joshua Childs), stealing a modified Nintendo Switch containing top secret data from the office of a rich real-estate developer. In his rush to get away from the cop that’s chasing him, Noah accidentally swaps his own console for the stolen one and hands this to the men, and then boards his bus.
Noah has no desire to attend the mandated camp, and finds the cheery, overly-friendly nature of everyone involved to be a bit annoying. On the bus ride, he’s seated next to the very talkative fifth-time camp-goer Oliver (Tyler Kowalski), who, it turns out, is going to be one of his cabin mates. His counselor Jake (Corbin Bleu, High School Musical franchise) and bunkmates Oliver and Chase (Zion Wyatt) try to become Noah’s friends, but he seems more determined to just sulk and be on his own, often taking this support and friendship for granted. The only one not so nice and friendly is the ornery camp manager, Mr. Falco Kovacs (Christopher Lloyd), who has a strict No Electronics policy. So Noah has to make sure he doesn’t find out that he smuggled in the gaming console.
Meanwhile, when the crooks discover that Noah had swapped the Switch on them, they set out to figure out where he is hiding, and track him down. But Noah’s going to have to learn to change his attitude and accept the help of some friends, and the resources of the camp, if he’s going to stop these bad guys.
Camp Hideout is a film that the whole family can enjoy together. At the core is this story of transformation. Noah starts as this troubled teen who is on his own—it’s not really clear what happened to his parents, or if his older brother/guardian was arrested or passed away, though at one point Noah snaps back at rich kid Trey (Luca Alexander) that he’s not an orphan. But either way, Noah doesn’t really trust other people, and just wants to be left alone. But the counselors and his bunkmates don’t give up on him, and are constantly trying to include him and befriend him. Counselors Jake and Selena have faith in him, even when Kovacs has his doubts, and it looks like Noah isn’t going to change.
But once Noah finds himself in trouble, with these two crooks coming after him, he enlists the help of his newfound friends to stage a Home Alone style plot to lure and get the bad guys. These two bumbling half-brothers bring a lot of humor to film. They aren’t really the brightest bulbs, so their conversations with one another bring some laughs—they have a definite Harry and Marv dynamic. And the physical humor is abundant as well, especially as the pair fall into the various booby traps the kids have set up around the camp. There’s also many other fun moments, such as a massive food fight, that will have younger viewers entertained.
Besides Christopher Lloyd, Corbin Bleu is probably the most recognizable cast member, and of course the film finds Jake singing a campfire song for the campers. The camp is also filled with lots of other quirky characters, such as the ever-chipper Becky with a “B” (Isabelle Almoyan), Noah’s hilariously annoying bunkmate Oliver, and a pair of young sisters who are a bit trigger happy and expert shots with a paintball gun.
While Camp Hideout comes from a faith-based film company, it does not really have a heavy faith focus, at least not until the closing moments. I probably wouldn’t have realized until then, but had an inkling when I saw Justin Sterner (Lifemark, Running the Bases) show up as one of the camp counselors, and the fact that several of the characters have biblical names—the main character is named Noah Rivers, and Kovaks’ dog is named Lazarus, among other characters.
Lionsgate has currently only released Camp Hideout on Digital. I was sent an HD Vudu Digital copy of the film for review, however, the film is also available digitally in 4K. The HD picture features a solid presentation, with a bright, clean and clear picture, and a solid level of detail throughout. The audio track is also quite good, providing clear dialogue, a nice sounding score/soundtrack, and a general outdoor ambiance.
There is no bonus material included with the digital release.
What’s Included:
We received the HD Vudu Digital release for review, which is what is reflected below.
Film: (1:39:49)
- 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
- Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus
- Subtitles: English
Extras:
Content may vary by retailer.
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No bonus material included.
Final Thoughts:
Camp Hideout is a fun film the whole family can enjoy together. It mixes a story about transformation and friendship, with the more wild Home Alone-like physical humor of bumbling crooks getting their due. Lionsgate’s digital release looks and sounds great, but unfortunately there is no bonus material included. I think younger viewers will have a lot of fun with this one, and will want to watch over and over again—especially the latter half of the movie.
Camp Hideout
$4.99 (as of May 3, 2024 10:02 GMT -04:00 – More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
