Checked out the new HBO (or possibly HBO Max) documentary Class Action Park. This film is about the notorious New Jersey park that had a very distant concept of safety and responsibility. It was more-or-less turned into a fiction comedy starring Johnny Knoxville if that gives you an idea of what kind of mad disregard for safety was going on at the park (that film was called Action Point and was ok).
Action Park was mainly a water park (with some go-karts and other attractions) built by a man who didn’t believe in safety or responsibility. He believed in letting people run wild and staffed the park with unqualified teenagers. He built rides that would ensure some level of bodily risk (but not without safety testing, to be fair). It opened in the 80s and ultimately closed in the more litigious 90s.
This documentary is a combination of archival footage, interviews with the guests and staff (now adults) who experienced the park in the 80s, and fairly simplistic animation for events and attractions that were either never built or were never caught on film. This combination gives a good enough understanding of this insane park and there’s enough hyperbole and discussion to give you an idea of the wanton Lord of the Flies teen takeover that apparently was the park.
75% of the film has the tone of “look at what we got away with as teenagers in the 80s” and it’s fun. You shake your head with disbelief or possibly your own memories of being a stupid teen without parents as you enacted death-defying stupid things with bikes or wagons and jumps or trees. But the movie does tone it down and remind you that Action Park had a body count… at least five or six people died falling off unsafe alpine rides or drowning in the wave pool. I’m not sure this brief trip to reality-ville is enough of a downer to wash away the shaking-my-head fun parts of the doc… and not sure if that’s ultimately any more responsible than the park was.
It’s a pretty good documentary overall. If you have access to it on HBO (or Max), it’s worth a look. Slightly uneven but always pretty interesting. Check it out.
Score: 82