Spielberg at his most juvenile

Rating: 2/10 (17 September 2014)

(15%) What happens when you combine the writing talents of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale (they both later penned the fantastic Back to the future movies), all-time great funny guys Dan Aykroyd, John Candy and John Belushi, and then you make out a big cheque to Steven Spielberg so he can blow the lot on the next big blockbuster? Well you get 1941, a truly awful movie. Everything is cranked up to 11 so much that it makes for a painful ordeal to watch at times, and with no main character to focus the story on (there is one in there somewhere I think) things just happen at what feels like pure random. The script is aimless, pointless, childish, crude and underdeveloped and the big set pieces just feel like a big waste of money. Belushi is hardly in the movie and was either drunk or stoned whenever he was, his part is pointless anyway, John Candy looks genuinely bored at times and he's hardly in it either. Dan Aykroyd is the only one with more than five lines, but his talent is hardly pushed to the limit, and most of the other cast members just goof around, shout, fight, dance and argue with each other, its really tiring to watch. And poor Christopher Lee probably wished he'd stuck to playing mute vampires rather than a pointless nazi part with only a few lame lines. A massive headache of a movie. Avoid at all costs.