Wet Hot American Summer, 2001. Photo: Eureka Pictures If I’d listened to the guy at Blockbuster, I might never have seen Wet Hot American Summer at such a pivotal time. “Don’t get this,” the Blockbuster guy said when I brought the DVD to the register. “You’ll regret it . ” In all my years of Blockbuster-ing I had never been told that I’d “regret” a rental, not even Under Siege 2: Dark Territory or Rob Schneider’s The Animal. I asked him why he hated it so much. “Because it’s dumb as hell and it makes no sense,” he clarified. I rented it anyway. And then I took it to my friend’s house where we proceeded to laugh harder than we’d ever laughed before, all the while wondering: What were we seeing that this other guy didn’t? And: Why wasn’t this a thing that everyone was talking about? Looking back on the initial reviews of the film — and they are famously, almost unanimously vicious — critics clearly shared the Blockbuster guy’s opinion, focusing on Wet Hot as … [Read more...] about ’s Undefinable Brand of Smart Stupidity