"Maybe Somebody's Got A Use For It ..."

Rating: Null/10 (25 December 1999)

Ned Beatty, Lionel Stander, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Stack, Slim Pickens, Elisha Cook ... the movie veterans line up and sleepwalk through this alleged comedy. The "Saturday Night Live" ratpack are here, too. Belushi does his nutty slob and Akroyd does his voluble mock-hero, all to little effect. It is as if Spielberg was out to prove a point, the point being that he could make an out-and-out comedy with directorial lightness of touch. If knocking people down, spilling things and blowing things up is funny, then some people might think he succeeded. I don't happen to be one of them.
The setting is the USA's West Coast at the outbreak of World War Two, and febrile American preparations for an anticipated Japanese attack. It all begins with a "Jaws" joke, Spielberg's attempt at self-referential satire. There are nods in the direction of "The Battle Of Midway" and "Tora! Tora! Tora!", and Robert Stack's General Stilwell even calls to mind his garrulous pilot in "Airplane!", but in truth the film is weak on witty quotation and strong on punching people and destroying property.
In fairness, some of the visuals are impressive. Planes flying low over night-time Los Angeles are a joy to watch, and the mayhem in the paint factory is a riot of colour. The jitterbug scene in the dance hall is well done, as is the collapse of the house.
For all the visual pyrotechnics, though, the whole project remains grounded in weak, mindless jokes which even an audience of teenagers (at whom this was clearly aimed) would consider to be beneath it.
Verdict - Maybe somebody's got a use for it... I certainly haven't.