A decent spoof

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2005)

Stripes is a good movie with a great cast. The Cold War nostalgia of it just makes it even better. The movie is basically trying to make the army the way Police Academy made the Police look. For the most part, the training camp scenes were well made and the Graduation scene was great. However, the story develops very slowly and the way that Winger loses his job, girlfriend, and apartment could have been improved upon. You wouldn't even know its a comedy until the march with the "there she was just a walking' down the street.." The ending was just pretty disappointing. It was OK and you knew what they were trying to do to make it funny but it just couldn't make you laugh as much as during the basic training scenes. The final scene with the Soviet newspaper propaganda and the American magazines was nice but couldn't make up for the stupid climax. I think it would have been better just to leave the movie to the Army camp and edit the little RV thing out. But, Stripes is a Man's film when it comes down and is just hilarious at times. Watch it for the training scenes.