One of the most ticklish military films

Rating: Null/10 (31 August 2012)

Ivan Reitman's 'Stripes' is among the funniest military comedies to come from Hollywood. This is also the movie that established Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, John Laroquette and John Candy as comedy actors (and introduced many like Judge Reinhold and John Diehl). Since then, Reitman has reunite with Ramis and Murray to create films like 'Ghostbusters' (which was a smash hit).
The key ingredient that makes 'Stripes' work so hilariously is Ramis and Goldberg's script. Reitman, his producers and writers originally wanted to make another Cheech and Chong film but things didn't turn out as expected and they left it to Ramis and Goldberg to readjust the script for actors Bill Murray and Harold Ramis. Now the writers just knew the actors very well so it was easy to rewrite for them and there was plenty of space for improvisation which added to the spontaneity of the humour.
The entire cast shared great chemistry and work excellently off each other. Murray and Ramis give some memorable scenes and who could forget their conflicts with Warren Oates's 'Hulka'? And John Candy's unforgettable mud-wrestling scene? One can easily tell that they had a great time filming (which the cast and crew admit to in later interviews). It's been a while since I last saw a film that had me laughing constantly.
The first half of the film focuses on the training scenes and the second half on their 'mission' to protect a military R.V. which leads to a little 'battle' in what was then known as Czechoslovakia. Throughout the characters remain consistent, never out of place and I liked that there wasn't too much focus on the final battle scene, leaving the humour balanced.
To conclude, this is one of the most ticklish films I've seen. Even memories of it have me laughing. An awesome film to enjoy with friends.