Better Late Than Never on "Class Action Park"
/I finally watched a documentary I’ve been putting off for a bit this weekend. The movie was “Class Action Park”. Let’s discuss.
This documentary tells the story of a water/speed park in New Jersey called Action Park. The whole deal with Action Park was that it was a thrill ride park where you made your own rules essentially. The water slides were dangerous, but to the kids it was fun. The speedway, with the go karts and such, were not very well regulated, but could not go fast. The workers were teenagers who kind of had free rein to do what they pleased and were never really told to enforce any park rules. And the owner of the park, well he was a real piece of work.
What I appreciated about the interviews for the movie is they focused mainly on the former workers. They had some notable people, Chris Gethard and Alison Becker, who had some great stories about their misadventures at the park. They were very insightful about the park and what it meant to them as teenagers getting to go to this wild theme park. But to hear the workers stories, that was the best way to do this movie. Hearing them talk about how dangerous everything was was insightful. Listening to them explain having to be “guina pigs” for some slides and rides was downright terrifying. To see them go back to that time in their lives and the look of horror they sometimes had in their eyes and faces, working there and doing that job really left a lasting impression in their lives.
The scariest part was the owner and “creator” of Action Park. He was a crook. He only cared about money. His workers may have liked him, but I cannot imagine they respected him at all. He also never paid out in a lawsuit. Kids were killed due to his negligence, and instead of showing remorse, he made excuses to their families and barely ever paid a dime. They did a very sad story about a 19 year old who died due to injuries from one of the rides and this owner came off as a real scum bag. I felt so very bad for the family and cheered with them when this awful man passed away.
I’m glad I finally watched this movie. I really enjoyed it. It was funny, a good flashback to the 80’s, reminded me of water parks I used to go to and it had some real journalism stuff bear the end. I definitely recommend watching “Class Action Park”. It’s solid.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.
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