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Rating: 5/10 (2 March 2008)

Director Steven Spielberg's first theatrical misfire has bombastic humor and amped-up energy to spare--all it needs is a sharp, merciless editor to eliminate its excesses. Made up of equal parts "I Wanna Hold Your Hold" and "Animal House", the film opens with a spoof of "Jaws" that is funny and well done. The USO sequence is alive and crackling (any of the scenes with Bobby DiCicco and Dianne Kay are good), however John Belushi's Captain Wild Bill Kelso is a nuisance (perhaps recasting Belushi in Treat Williams' role of Corporal Sitarski might have saved some time). Buried under the morass is a fitfully funny spoof of wartime, although I tired easily of Ned Beatty running around with a shotgun. Robert Stack is wonderful, and the scenes between Tim Matheson and Nancy Allen in the airplane are fine if overextended, just like most of the bits and pieces in "1941". It has gloppy cinematography, messy comic staging and unconvincing sets. Spielberg's hopes for a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad War surely include isolated moments of inspiration--even brilliance--but those moments get trampled in the traffic. ** from ****