‘Tiny Fugitives’ Review: Alternately Tiresome and Amusing, Johnny Knoxville’s Chaotic Jewish Camp Comedy Is Essentially What You’d Expect

In his latest movie, Johnny Knoxville nearly gets electrocuted on a fence and pees himself, clings to the hood of a speeding jeep, and suffers numerous other physical abuses. No, it’s not the latest Jackass flick, but rather Michael Lewen’s scatological new comedy about kids at summer camp.

The sort of determinedly outrageous R-rated comedy that thinks that 12-year kids cursing like drunken sailors is inherently uproarious, Tiny Fugitives would probably attract an enthusiastic audience of adolescents if only they were allowed to see it in theaters. As it is, they’ll have to wait for the R-rated film to show up on streaming, which should be very soon.

The camp at the center of the story is not just any camp but rather a Jewish summer camp, although the diverse ethnicities of its campers signifies that it’s hardly exclusive. Among the summer’s attendees are Jacob (a soulful Benjamin Pajak, The Life of Chuck), who finds out that his parents are getting divorced and that his father (Jay Baruchel, enjoyably leaning into his character’s obnoxiousness) is already engaged to another woman.

Understandably not wanting summer camp to end, Jacob hatches a plot to make a break for it and relocate to an old, similarly Jewish camp that was left abandoned decades ago. “It’s like the Jewish Museum but without all the sad parts,” one of the kids observes. Four other campers decide to go with him, and they manage to give themselves pink eye to get quarantined and put their plan into action.

Tasked with the assignment of retrieving the escapees is Bob (Knoxville, sporting a blonde dye job), a 50-year-old counselor whose job is on the line. And since Bob hasn’t managed to elevate his station in the last 26 years, suffering the indignity of dealing with a much younger boss (Blake Anderson), his desperation is understandable.

You can imagine the rest, with adolescent hijinks and slapstick mayhem ensuing for most of the film’s running time. The kids get drunk on Manischewitz wine, they have romantic entanglements (two of them get “married), and they engage in a high level of cutesiness that is alleviated by their constant use of F-bombs and sex jokes that would have made Redd Foxx blush. The humor, simultaneously sophomoric and profane, bears the stamp of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, two of the film’s producers, although they’ve now generally moved on from such juvenilia.

A good portion of the jokes don’t land, such as one kid’s constant impression of Star Wars’ Yoda and a visual gag referencing Martin Sheen rising out of the mist in Apocalypse Now.

But co-screenwriters Lewen and Jacob Kaplan have written some very funny lines and also inject a surprising level of sweetness into the proceedings, even making Knoxville’s character ultimately far more sympathetic and likable than he initially appears. And the principal child actors (refreshingly actually as young as their characters) — also including Aaron Harris (Matlock), Isa Bernal Steiner (making her screen debut), Jai Soundar (Superman), and Alyssa Gervasi (The Umbrella Academy) — are a truly engaging and appealing bunch.

As for Knoxville, he goes through his physical paces with the sort of discipline that having been gored by a bull and hanging onto to a launched rocket will instill in you. But after seeing him demonstrate genuine comedic and dramatic chops on several occasions (Grand Theft Parsons, We Summon the Darkness), it’s hard not to wish that he get his hands on better material in his post-Jackass career.