What is it good for? absolutely nothing!

Rating: 3/10 (26 August 2008)

Surrounded in controversy about whether it's racist, Downey Jnr Blacking up, or offensive to the disabled, the over use of the word retard and much more let me say that really none of that matters because this film just isn't funny. It tries so hard to pastiche the Hollywood of now and films like Platoon and Apocalypse Now but fails miserably. The trouble is that despite filling it with stars, Black, Coogan, Stiller, Cruise, Nolte et al they forgot to fill it with jokes and any they did put in are puerile and akin to the level of a Farley Brothers gross out, which meant that I only laughed once and that was more of a stifled guffaw than a laugh out loud. Tom Cruise only seems to be in the film to swear and do a silly dance which considering he does that now on every show he goes on to promote anything just seems stale. The story if you can call it that is so loose it almost falls off, the saving grace is the music which is what you'd expect from a Vietnam movie all Rolling Stones and Buffalo Springfield. Ultimately this has all been done before better and after a great opening few minutes it goes rapidly down hill and never recovers making this a sorry example of a comedy film and a waste of good actors. But it seems I am in the minority so really don't take my word for it suffer it for yourself.