A hoot

Rating: 8/10 (25 September 2008)

I went to see this with some trepidation - I had enjoyed the trailer, but the critics had not been kind.
Well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. During the first week of its UK run, the cinema was well populated with young people - couples and groups, both male and female - and there was laughter all the way through.
The jokes in this comedy are applied with a scattergun approach - they range from fart gags to gross-out gags, from lampooning figures to Hollywood in-jokes, from character-based humour to sight gags. They aren't all funny, but enough of them are to make the movie constantly entertaining.
I got a silly amount of pleasure from seeing Universal, New Line and Fox Searchlight all cheerfully lending their logos to decorate the "trailers" which precede the movie proper.
The three principals - and the other members of the platoon - are all excellent. Even Jack Black, who I normally cordially dislike, delivers a credible and sympathetic portrayal of an essentially unpleasant character. Nick Nolte is - shock, horror - funny, and Cruise is simply magnificent (although I think he should have varied his voice - hearing the normal Cruise tones emerge from the Weinstein clone does spoil the illusion somewhat).
As usual there is a fair amount of bad language, but as it is mostly in service of the plot, it didn't spoil things excessively.
Steve Coogan is wasted.
Well worth catching.