way too much...

Rating: 2/10 (25 February 2006)

Inexplicably, Steven Spielberg chose the unlikely topic of America's paranoia around a possible Japanese invasion in 1941 for his first comedy and it's woefully unfunny. Presumably going for a IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD feel, Spielberg fails miserably. While that film had Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters and Dick Shawn, 1941 has Treat Williams, Robert Stack and Ned Beatty. Fine actors all, but hardly at home with broad comedy. Even clowns like Eddie Deezen, Dan Aykroyd and Slim Pickens barely register among the humongous cast...this is a very overpopulated movie! John Belushi, essentially reprising his Bluto role from ANIMAL HOUSE, gets a few points as a literally out-of-control fighter pilot and the opening scene, a goof on Spielberg's own JAWS, is pretty clever. Unfortunately for the remainder of the movie, Spielberg and the writers, Bob Zemeckis and Bob Gale, mistake chaos and clutter for slapstick farce. Clearly a lot of money was spent on destroying things like a ferris wheel, various houses, and so on. And WHAT are Christopher Lee and Toshiro Mifune doing in this??