Carry on Seargeant

Rating: 4/10 (1 February 2016)

Stripes is that naughty, irreverent slob comedy which laid down the template for movies like Police Academy.
Set in the early 1980s, John (Bill Murray) is a slobbish, slacker cab driver who gets fired for taking an old lady on a hair raising spin to the airport. He also gets dumped by his girlfriend. Russell (Harold Ramis) is unmotivated as an English teacher to new immigrants.
Somehow John persuades Russell that life would be better if they joined the army although Murray with his receding hairline looks too old to be a new recruit.
During basic training they meet the larger than life Ox (John Candy) dim Cruiser (John Diehl) and trying to get them into shape is stern Sgt Hulka (Warren Oates.)
The platoon leader is incompetent Capt Stillman (John Larroquette) who spends more time as a Peeping Tom.
John riles Sgt Hulka very early on and his recruits look very unlikely to pass basic training especially when Hulka is involved in an incident when Stillman ends up injuring him.
Despite their incompetence John and Russell manage to charge two female Military Police officers Stella (PJ Soles) and Louise (Sean Young).
Murray and Ramis underplay their characters and you see underneath the genesis of characters that they would go on to play in Ghostbusters.
The big problem with the film is the script is too scattered and despite the abundance of t & a it is not funny enough. Animal House had some amusing set pieces and an underlying satire about Frat Houses and its linked with social status.
Stripes see Murray making not very clever or funny quips which sets him at odds with Sgt Hulka and gets his squad into bother. If I had to do a 10 miles run instead of a 5 miles one on my first day in the army, I would had given Murray a good kicking and the rest of the troops will had joined me.
The third act where they squad goes to Europe to test a new vehicle which John and Russell borrow to go off with their girlfriends is even more silly but just tagged on so they can be accidental heroes and Stillman can get his comeuppance.
Of course looking back at it this was just an updated version of the first ever Carry On film made in Britain in the 1950s.