EJ Moreno on the best of bro camp…
We all know the infamous campy films: think of movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Mommie Dearest, or Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. These are movies known for their bright and wacky aesthetic, filled with queer appeal, and targeting a particular type of demographic. While camp often falls into films like this, there are certainly more varieties of camp out there.
We get campy sci-fi movies and plenty of campy horror films, but there’s something a hidden gem when it comes to camp cinema that often goes overlooked. That would be what has been coined as bro camp.
Bro camp, often rubbing elbows with campy action, was popularized by the YouTube channel MovieBitches. Known as the prevailers of all things campy and WTF cinema, the famous movie review duo pointed out a subset of films within the camp umbrella often marketed to the polar opposite of the usual demographic.
Fuelled by hypermasculinity and ridiculous action set-pieces, the films soon to be discussed aren’t what you think of when you hear camp. But if you soul-search a bit, even the ones most opposed to campy entertainment could admit these are exactly that. These ridiculous, over-the-top romps will delight you with their insanity, but intent is the key to a perfect camp movie. Most of these movies intended to be serious action or more straight-laced films that somehow got steered into the campy world.
Take one of our earliest examples, 1958’s Hercules, starring the excellent Steve Reeves. This was a serious attempt at an action epic for the time, but we ended up with a more melodramatic affair than an action film. At this time, we were still neck-deep in Westerns as the macho form of entertainment, so these sword-and-sandal films always had a certain flair. From the shirtless hunky men fighting to theatrical outfits, you can see where this appealed to a specific demo. You would unironically inspire the homoerotic nature of Zack Snyder’s 300 decades later.
Now, homoerotic isn’t necessarily a touchstone to bro camp, as we’ll jump to the 80s and look at the manliest movies that somehow appealed to a camp audience. Predator, which mixes action and horror, comes to mind but is one of the most over-the-top displays of masculine energy. Take the iconic handshake moment between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers as an example; it’s tinged with the most dude vibes, but you can’t help but laugh at how far it goes. It’s one of the most famous memes for a reason. You also have scenes where they fire an insane amount of guns into the jungle with nothing but rage and cigars hanging from their mouths. It’s a total display of what makes men go “hell yeah,” but it also touches a purely outlandish level.
Schwarzenegger often fits into this bro camp world, but as many things from the 80s that overstayed their welcomes, you’d soon see the charm leave from their work, and they’d try to manufacture that kickass vibe you got from the early favorites.
Speaking of outlandish movies that make you want to pump your fist with manly energy, you can’t forget the 1989 gem Road House. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better example of what it takes to be a bro camp. From start to finish and all the way to the ripped throat, it’s a fist-pumping, feel-good romp. To be included on this list, a movie needs action, but it needs to hit a certain ridiculous level. You need masculinity, but it should almost feel like a mockery of all things manly. There’s no other to sum up Road House than all that.
We’ve focused a lot on action, but that’s not all that falls under the bro camp umbrella. One of the best examples is a film that pokes fun at the nature of bros, particularly the Gen X men of the 1990s. That would be 1999’s David Fincher masterclass, Fight Club.
Sure, you’ll get some action in Fight Club, hence the name, but the film focuses so much on the power of men and the toxic uprising that can easily consume them. It’s a film often taken at face value, which gives it an even more ironic edge when the people who usually love it the most are the ones Fincher and novel writer Chuck Palahniuk mock. That’s another key for a film to have a place here: it goes over the heads of so many. Take The Matrix, for example, a film steeped in social and political commentary but often cited as a favorite by the anti-woke. Fight Club and The Matrix work not only because they’re incredible pieces of cinema but because they often fall into the laps of someone who doesn’t “get it.”
While staying in the 90s and speaking of genre-bending films, the work of Quentin Tarantino could fall into a slight bro camp, mainly because the filmmaker is often aware of what he’s doing and who he is marketing a movie to. Throughout his career, Tarantino has used the guise of “guy movies” to tell complex stories of women and the horrible men around them. Movies like Jackie Brown and Kill Bill would see massive pushback for their female leads and how badass they work within their worlds, something that allows those seeking something different in drama/action movies to see other stories.
We also have 90s films like Mortal Kombat and The Fifth Element that reek of the bro camp aesthetics. These are fan-favorite movies with sick action, overwrought scripts, and some of the most memorable art directions ever. Seriously, the costumes for The Fifth Element were Jean-Paul Gautier; that’s more camp than anything imaginable.
Comedy seems to be the hardest thing to place into the world of bro camp. Besides the early work of Adam Sandler or the underrated 21 Jump Street films, the most accessible place to find camp that works for men and all is the work of Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Parker & Stone are the minds behind cultural hits like South Park, Basketball, and their 00s opus, Team America World Police. Often cited by those whom they’re in turn mocking, you can’t help but laugh at what comes out of these wild minds. It’s politically incorrect, which doesn’t cancel it out of the world of camp (ask John Waters), and often too crude for its own good. Still, the laughs usually come a mile a minute, especially in the semi-forgotten Team America World Police.
The choice to use puppets for the 2004 film instantly elevates it to a level of camp not seen too often. It’s action-filled and offensive but outright hilarious in its true campy essence. Earnestness makes camp work so as not to fall into the “so bad, it’s good” realm. You must want to make something ridiculous or unintentionally come up with the most camp movie.
Now, let’s focus on the latter of that last statement and look at the Kings of Unintentional Bro Camp.
We’ll wrap this up by focusing on two of my favorites in the film industry—the ones you can turn to for a textbook campy bro movie. With actor/producer Vin Diesel and director Zack Snyder, we have two filmmakers delivering “guy movies,” but each puts their spin on it and thrusts it firmly into camp.
Vin Diesel could be known as the patron saint of bro camp, with the Fast and the Furious franchise being the bible. If you need to know how to make an outlandish film work, look at any Fast movies after the seventh installment. Each entry, especially Fast X, has hit a certain level of insanity that forces you to suspend disbelief but does so with the earnestness we mentioned earlier. Another element that is often mocked within these films but firmly thrown into the camp realm is the family meme. As ridiculous as it is to have these action movies have a plot so rooted in keeping a family together, it truly works and gives these insane movies more soul than most of their peers.
Diesel dives into camp far more than he does in the Fast movies. His commitment to making ridiculously action films with thin plots and muscle shirts is admirable, especially when he combines his passion for nerdy things like comic books or Dungeons & Dragons. Diesel is as committed to his bit as John Waters or Todd Haynes.
Speaking of directors who know their place in the camp world, Zack Snyder enters the conversation and makes you question everything. Does Snyder realize he’s a bit camp? Do audiences know he’s aware of how ridiculous he can be? Has someone ever asked why he loves having the hottest shirtless men in all his movies? These remain unanswered, but they also help back why Zack Snyder is a modern master of bro camp.
It’s still up in the air if Snyder 100% gets his place as a camp figure, but once mainstream audiences rejected his work, he doubled down on what he likes and got even more outlandish. 300 was already a bit gay, but with recent comments of the director wanting to take it even gayer, you see what I mean about doubling down.
Every movie becomes more robust, with beefier hunks or stronger women at the lead and a perfectly camp look, which translates to “style over substance.” But for me, there is a lot more brewing under the work. We touched on that earnestness, which comes off as him being pretentious to some, but I find it as a filmmaker intent on putting out what he enjoys. Plenty of intriguing stories are also happening in his work, and no one brings up the brutally dark comedy he can pull off. The folks who look at Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice as a dry, humorless film don’t get it.
Guys like Snyder, Vin Diesel, and even Tarantino aren’t credited enough for having their own senses of humor, which often go overlooked for how subversive or camp-coded they can be.
With a sub-genre loosely defined, there are possibly far more bro camp movies and filmmakers that we’re missing out on. Action stars like Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, and Jean-Claude Van Damme understand key things that help them fall into bro camp, especially with the latter two using their sex appeal in some of the most macho guy movies.
A campy dude movie is insanely underrated, and this is the connective tissue between two movie-watching worlds. While some guys may never understand why Madame Web has a cult following, we can all agree that films like Road House, Fast and the Furious, and The Fifth Element are perfectly campy, watchable experiences.
EJ Moreno
