Bill Murray's Stripes can still be pretty entertaining to me after all these years

Rating: 7/10 (30 June 2010)

Having just reviewed the first three movies that was co-written by Harold Ramis, not to mention the first three of his that also starred at least one SNL cast member-former or present at the time-we're now at his fourth of both categories and also his first in which he also appears. As with the previous two-Meatballs and Caddyshack-Stripes also stars Bill Murray. Also, as with Meatballs, Ramis' co-writers here are Len Blum and Dan Goldberg with Ivan Reitman once again directing. They make a good team here, Murray and Ramis, as they end up joining the Army mainly because of the former's bad luck in his last two hours as a civilian. Among the people they encounter in basic training: Judge Reinhold and John Candy who was familiar with both Bill and Harold since they all worked for Second City during the '70s while Candy and Ramis were on SCTV together as well. Anyway, they have a tough sergeant in Warren Oates who provides at least one serious scene with Murray when he tells him what he really thinks of him. But there's also John Larroquette as a bumbling captain who's threatened with Artic duty if he doesn't shape up. Oh, and besides Ramis and Candy, other Second City/SCTV members in this movie include Dave Thomas as a mud wrestling host and Joe Flaherty as a Russian guard. And finally, Ramis and Murray fall for a couple of female MP's played by Sean Young and P. J. Soles, respectively. Okay, with all that out of the way, I'll just say that I found Stripes hilarious up to the graduation and not as much after that but still pretty entertaining. Now, despite that earlier confrontation scene between Murray and Oates, one doesn't really expect too much learning about Army life on the former's part but part of me did feel he genuinely respected the sergeant and vice versa at the end. One more thing, while you can no longer be asked if you're a homosexual when applying for the military because of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", I still found it hilarious hearing Bill and Harold's replies. Okay, so on that note, I definitely recommend Stripes. And, remember, "There she was just a-walkin' down the street singing "Doo Wah Diddy Diddy Dumb Diddy Doo..." P.S. Larroquette is a native of New Orleans which is a two-hour drive from my current hometown of Baton Rouge, La. And his assistant is played by John Volstad who is best known as one of the Darryls on "Newhart" and unlike there, he has lines here which was interesting to hear. Update 7/2/10: I've just seen the extended version with 18 minutes of cut footage. There's a funny scene of Bill and Harold ending up in another country when they go AWOL. There's also a sexily funny one of them with P.J. and Sean in Germany. Those I wished had stayed. The others I'm glad they cut.