Unfunny, boring and sexist

Rating: 1/10 (9 January 2011)

Inexplicably popular "comedy". John (Bill Murray) and Russell (Harold Ramis) are two idiots who have no direction or reason in life. They decide to join the Army thinking it's a way to make easy money. They get stuck with a group of utterly annoying and unfunny guys (who the audience is supposed to find hysterical) and a tough as nails drill Sgt (Warren Oates). Naturally John is constantly cracking "funny" one liners and screwing up deliberately left and right. None of it is funny at all. Then, at the end, it inexplicably turns into an army drama!
This was a huge hut in 1981 and its popularity totally escapes me. I didn't like it back then and I still don't like it now. I should point that, personally, I never found Murray that funny. His blank face and obnoxious manner made me annoyed with him more than anything else. This movie does nothing to change my view. Basically the movie just isn't funny! I didn't smile (let alone laugh) once! Each joke fizzled out completely or they give us these somewhat interesting characters and NEVER build on them! When you get John Candy and Daniel Stern in a movie and even THEY'RE not funny something is seriously wrong. Worst of all is John Larroquette as Capt. Stillman. EVERY scene with his is terribly unfunny. And WHAT was the thinking of turning it into a generic action film at the end??
It's also incredibly sexist. You have the incredibly beautiful women P.J. Soles and Sean Young as MPs. Naturally they meet Murray and Ramis and let them get away with murder and almost immediately have sex with them. That's just pushing credibility WAY too far. The absolute low point is a pointless and downright revolting mud wrestling match when Candy is wrestling with five bikini clad beautiful women. Naturally he (inexplicably) gets ALL their tops off and waves them around! The two good points are Oates (giving a GREAT performance) and a bombastic score. Why this movie was such a big hit is beyond me. A 1 all the way.