Thanks to owning a Kindle, I occasionally have a few books on the go. I never used to be that way, always wanting to physically hold a book while reading, but honestly, the convenience and selection make owning a Kindle worthwhile. About a week or so ago, I was reading 101 Places Not to See before you die by Catherine Price, specifically an essay on Action Park, an amusement park in New Jersey during the 80s and 90s.
The descriptions Price went into about this insane, lawless amusement park made me wish it existed in modern technology times so that there would be presumably horrifying footage available. A couple days later, I went into my friend’s Prime account (they spring for extras, thanks Stacey and Dan), and at the top of the Recommended Movies listing was this documentary, Class Action Park.
I have mentioned numerous times that we live in a simulation, and this was one of the biggest examples for me. There’s no reason at all that an account unconnected to my phone would pop out such a specific recommendation to something I had just read but didn’t communicate to anyone else. I felt like I had manifested this doc, even though it said it was four years old.
It’s a fairly straightforward documentary, telling the origins of the park and owner, and featuring some video footage from the park itself. If only Action Park existed nowadays, there would be thousands of TikToks about the horrors contained within. But it couldn’t exist nowadays, not with having actual safety standards and regard for the lives of the youth. Unless they’re schoolkids.
Pretty funny doc, with some great comedic guests, including Chris Gethard and Alison Becker (Shauna Malwae-Tweep on Parks and Recreation) who actually attended the park as youths. Well, actually, two-thirds of it is funny, the last third being devoted to people that DIED at the park. Spoiler alert, it literally is all fun and games until someone loses an eye or a life.
4 / 5
Mars Island 
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