This mess is drivel from start to finish. The movie makers couldn't seem to decide whether they wanted a drama, documentary, music video, comedy, travel adventure, nature hike or anything else. As a result they failed miserably on all counts.The cast of young actors did the best they could with what they had to work with, but unfortunately they didn't have much at all. And what's with the idiotic narration from one of them when he's obviously a year or two older than when the rest of the film was shot? Was that another attempt at being artistic?I'll agree the premise was decent; a nature buff takes a bunch of city kids on the vacation of a lifetime. But the result is nothing but a waste of time and nature. Thumbs way down.

When I was watching the credit at the end, I was surprised that this film was also partly filmed in New Zealand just like the movie "without the paddle". I didn't know that they started shooting at NZ so early.Overall, this is a nice movie to watch. The white water scenes were very good. You can hardly tell who is the real actor, and who is the stunt man. Of course, I watched it from a VHS tape, so the picture quality is not very good.I wish that I had a summer trip like this one, that would be so memorable. Fresh air, lots of fun, and personal growth. Movies about Summer camps and trips are always fun to watch.

"White Water Summer" is far from perfect. The kids are kind of bratty(they swear a lot), the last twenty or so minutes are a little weak, and there are a few things that I think they could have done better.One of them is the narration that is interspersed throughout the film c/o of its star, a young Sean Astin, who...does not look quite as young in the narration scenes as he does in the rest of the film. I did miss about the first seven minutes, which might have "explained" his aging, though I doubt it. What it suggests is that this film sat on the shelf for some time, and the narration was some bizarre editing condition that...helped it get released? I don't know. Whatever the case, that alone is a little distracting. The narration is also kind of silly and does not explain anything that the average viewer could have figured out.Another thing that might have really helped this film was to not have sold the character of Vic(Kevin Bacon) as such an obvious sadist. The film makers could have played Vic in a different way(without making that much of an effort) of "IS Vic a bad guy," because in a lot of his scenes, Vic's "meanness" is in the eyes of Astin's character(a spoiled city boy) and the beholder. Astin's character, Allen, thinks Vic is evil and mean because Vic "pushes" Allen to do weird things like climb a rickety suspension bridge, and swing on a rope from one side of a cliff to another. Allen whines and complains and acts like Vic's the devil for making him participate in such activities, but of course when he DOES, he gets all brave and bold and learns to enjoy himself. In that essence, Vic is actually GOOD for Allen, not bad. Instead Vic's making Allen do all of these tasks is portrayed as very, very bad. Vic is no angel(he leaves Allen ALONE to do these things, and does things like yell at the boys and...gasp...pushes one of them), and if he was real, he probably would have lost his job. Despite his weird, strange methods, though, Allen and the boys always come out stronger after his tasks, so if he's so much of some villain, why are they learning valuable lessons from him?I actually like that "White Water Summer" made me THINK about these things. I would have liked better if they were more clearly defined in the film, but I'll still give the thing credit for letting it "exercise my mind."

I like this movie for its soundtrack, I have been looking for this movies soundtrack forever it seems. sean astins role is a typical city boy with no real experience of the great outdoors, yes vic (bacon) does push him a little over the edge, but overall I'd give it a solid 7..