Scattershot comedy with a great cast

Rating: 5/10 (29 November 2014)

STRIPES is a film that I wanted to like a great deal, given that it's an 1980s comedy (one of my favourite eras) with a fantastic cast who among them have appeared in some of the funniest films made in Hollywood. And yet it left me disappointed; it's not poor, exactly, just lacklustre in comparison to other '80s comedy hits like CADDYSHACK, GHOSTBUSTERS or the later PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES.
The problem with the film is twofold; there's a scattershot approach to the narrative which means that it drags in various places (particularly in the last third, which descends into meaningless action out of place with the earlier comedy), and in addition the script just isn't that funny. It's just going through the same kind of jokes as in CARRY ON SERGEANT, made some 34 years previously, with some added T&A to spice things up.
The best thing about the production is unsurprisingly the cast, headed by an on-form Bill Murray. Harold Ramis is predictably decent, and there's a nice role for John Candy before he adopted the lovable goof character of later years. PJ Soles and Sean Young are here too, but I found their characters annoying, getting in the way of the army situation. Warren Oates looks a bit battered but it's still good to see him in one of his final roles.