Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Class Action Park explores the legend, legacy, and truth behind the 1980s water park in Vernon, New Jersey that long ago entered the realm of myth. Known for its dangerous, unsupervised rides and lack of regulation, guests of Action Park expected to walk away with injuries and were lucky if they made it out alive. Shirking the trappings of nostalgia, the film uses investigative journalism, original animations, recordings, and interviews with the people who lived it to reveal the true story of Action Park.
Class Action Park benefits from an extraordinarily bizarre and darkly compelling subject — a real-life amusement park so dangerous it killed guests and spawned lawsuits, run with gleeful recklessness. The novelty is genuinely high: the combination of investigative journalism, animation, and oral history to document this chaotic American footnote gives it a distinctive voice that stands apart from standard talking-head docs. The storytelling is engaging and the archival material is rich, earning solid marks for plot structure. However, the ending loses momentum as it pivots toward more somber reflection without fully earning the emotional weight it reaches for, feeling somewhat abrupt and undercooked. Cinematography is competent but unremarkable for a documentary of this type. Acting is a non-category in the traditional sense, though interview subjects are candid and lively.