Stripes (1981)

Rating: 6/10 (26 August 2019)

Directed by Ivan Reitman. Starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Warren Oates, John Candy, P.J. Soles, Sean Young, John Larroquette, John Diehl, Conrad Dunn, Judge Reinhold, Roberta Leighton, Robert J. Wilke, Antone Pagán, Glenn-Michael Jones. (R)
After losing his job, car, and girlfriend on the same day, Murray convinces pal Ramis that they should join the army to be all they can be...or whatever. Like the boot camp comedy from the previous year ("Private Benjamin"), this fitfully funny film works best when dealing with the rigors and characteristics of basic training, and gets a bit tiresome away from it (at least the rescue mission in Czechoslovakia that caps this movie is far briefer than the post-graduation affair drama in the second half of "Benjamin"). Murray is in fine form here, though not quite as inspired as his slob from "Caddyshack" or his deadpan wiseacre from "Ghost Busters"--consider his character here to be a cross-section of those two types--and Ramis achieves a laidback poignancy when reacting to his friend's quips and shenanigans, while the rest of the cast get their moments here and there; Oates and Dunn stand out as the hard-bitten drill sergeant and an unhinged recruit named Francis respectively. Oates is so good, in fact, that the film suffers when he disappears for a long chunk of the movie and the screenplay is at its sloppiest (and sleaziest, as the mud wrestling bar scene will attest). Diverting enough to be enjoyable despite its weak patches, it's probably fitting that a movie about disorderly cadets needed a little more discipline to really work. Features numerous soon-to-be-popular-actors in early roles, including Reinhold, Larroquette, and Bill Paxton (blink and you'll miss him next to Candy in the bar).
62/100