Darkly comic satire with amazing cast never gets out of the gate...

Rating: 2/10 (28 January 2007)

Tackling Joseph Heller's celebrated bestseller about WWII insanity must have seemed a monumental task, and director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Buck Henry (reunited from 1967's "The Graduate") should be commended for trying at all, yet the results of this adaptation are bungled, especially when you consider another satire of war, Robert Altman's "MASH", was released the very same year (and probably stole much of this movie's thunder). There are some isolated moments of irony and insight, but Nichols' penchant for capturing the beauty of lunacy collides here with clunky vaudeville skits, surreal bits and incredibly noisy action. The cast includes Alan Arkin, Richard Benjamin, Paula Prentiss, Orson Welles, Anthony Perkins and Jon Voight, but none are shown to any bright advantage. *1/2 from ****