This is why Spielberg now only makes dramas...

Rating: 3/10 (7 May 2020)

December 1941. The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbour, bring the US into WW2. California may be the next target so US defence forces are mobilised to defend it. This creates a wave of paranoia and an army with weapons that far exceed their operators' skillsets. Turns out, however, that a Japanese submarine is planning to attack the US. Its target: Hollywood.
After making Jaws and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Steven Spielberg was the darling of Hollywood. The world was his oyster so he thought he expand his horizons and try comedy. Kudos to him for trying, but really he shouldn't have.
1941 looks good on paper: co-written by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future 1, 2 and 3, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump), starring Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Ned Beatty, Warren Oates, Christopher Lee, John Candy, Slim Pickens, Treat Williams, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Stack and Nancy Allen. What could possibly go wrong?
Well everything. The plot is all over the place. More alarmingly for a comedy, it's not funny. There's a handful of good comedic moments, but for the most part it's quite flat. The attempts at humour are largely juvenile. The presence of Tim Matheson (notice that he wasn't in the list above...) is a giveaway that this is going to be pretty low-brow, and low-brow it is.
Upside is that Spielberg learned his lesson and concentrated on drama after this. Turns out he's pretty good at that...