1981 war comedy
Rating: 13/20
Plot: A pair of buddies just drifting through life decide to join the military.
This is a movie of excursions with an ending that doesn't seem to remember how the story began or what happened in the middle. Most of what happens in this movie is extraneous. That's not really a problem with this kind of comedy (really a stoner comedy, ain't it?), but I don't think it's very funny and the pacing isn't very good. I mean, did we really need that lengthy mud-wrestling scene with a blubbery John Candy and Bill Murray screaming his head off? This movie really needed an editor, but there are moments. Murray gets another big pep talk moment, and he's at his most sarcastic in this movie. Sarcastic Bill Murray is about the best Bill Murray. Also, his rapport with his pal Ramis and Ramis's sharp-looking afro is evident. I also enjoyed a scene where he throws a basketball through a window and then asks for a "little help." John Candy's poker game is kind of fun, and the choreographed graduation scene is really good. I liked William Oates as Sergeant Hulka, and it's always nice to see John Larroquette reference loofahs. Larroquette claims he was inebriated during a lot of this, and it's actually hard to believe the majority of the cast wasn't imbibing. If they were, that could explain the loose feel of the production. The slapstick and irrelevancy really needed a better story or a little more structure to go along with it though. It's a dumb comedy that occasionally works, and although I doubt I wouldn't have expected anything else in a comedy in 1981, I do now.
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