Stripes

Plot synopsis:
John Winger is a cab driver who, in the span of a few hours, loses his job, his apartment, his car, and his girlfriend. Realizing that he is a loser with no prospects, he decides to join the Army. Talking his best friend Russell Ziskey, a teacher of English as a second language, into joining with him, they go to a recruiting office and are soon sent off to basic training.
Upon arriving at Fort Arnold, they meet their fellow recruits, and their drill sergeant, Sergeant Hulka. Moments after arriving, John angers Sgt. Hulka and is ordered out to do push-ups. He stands out as a slacker throughout basic training. Their commanding officer is the arrogant and incompetent Captain Stillman. As basic training progresses, Russell and John become romantically linked to female MPs Louise Cooper and Stella Hansen. Not long before graduation, Sgt. Hulka is injured when Stillman, trying to impress a visiting colonel, orders a mortar crew to fire without setting target coordinates.
The men go to a mud wrestling bar, where John convinces Dewey "Ox" Oxberger to wrestle a group of women. When the club is raided by MPs and police, Stella and Louise cover for John and Russell. The rest of the platoon are returned to base, where a furious Stillman threatens to make them all repeat basic training.
After partying with Stella and Louise, the buddies return to the barracks, and John motivates the platoon with a passionate speech and begins to get them in shape for graduation. After a long night of practice, they oversleep and almost miss the ceremony. They rush to the parade grounds in their fatigues; there they give an eccentric, yet highly coordinated, drill display led by John. General Barnicke is impressed when he finds out that they had to complete training without a drill sergeant, and decides they are just the kind of "go-getters" he wants working on his EM-50 project in Italy.
Once in Italy, the platoon is reunited with a recovered Sgt. Hulka and assigned to guard the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle. Fed up with their boring assignment, John and Russell steal the EM-50 to visit their girlfriends, stationed in West Germany. When Stillman finds the EM-50 missing, he launches an unauthorized mission to get the vehicle back before his superiors find out it is gone. Hulka urges Stillman not to go, but is overruled.
Stillman inadvertently leads the platoon across the border into Czechoslovakia. Hulka, recognising where they are, jumps out of the truck just before it is captured. He makes a mayday radio call that is heard by John and Russell, who realize that the platoon came looking for them and are now in danger. John, Russell, Stella, and Louise take the EM-50 and infiltrate a Russian base where the platoon is being held. With some assistance from Hulka, they save the entire platoon.
Upon returning to the US, John, Russell, Louise, Stella, and Hulka are treated as heroes, each being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Hulka retires and opens the HulkaBurger franchise. Stella appears on the cover of Penthouse, Ox makes the cover of Tiger Beat, Russell recreates his firefight with the Russians for Guts magazine, and John is featured on the cover of Newsworld. Captain Stillman is reassigned to a weather station near Nome, Alaska.

Tags: comedy, satire

Review:
I know films like Star Wars and it's two sequels, First Blood and Rambo, Jaws and it's sequel, Halloween, Back To The Future, Ghostbusters, Raiders and it's sequels and Stripes ( there are many others but this review has to be under 1000 words )taught me the beauty of how a movie can make you feel.
And I think that it is this movie that established Murray, Ramis and even guys like Candy and John Laroquette as comedians.
Simply put this film is a classic in every sense of the word.Stripes tells the story of how John Winger and Russell Ziskey ( Murray and Ramis respectively ) are two losers in life.
Stillman; Judge Reinhold; Harold Ramis; the quick peep at Roberta Leighton; and the hot Lois Hamilton and you have a military comedy of errors that will keep you in stitches.Of course there is a lot of beautiful scenery in this film in the showers and in the mud pit..
Even Shakespeare found some humor in army life, just read how Falstaff made do in the service of his king.Of course Falstaff wasn't a drill sergeant like Warren Oates who had a platoon of underachievers with the likes of Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and John Candy as recruits.
Good thing they didn't have their A team playing either.Stripes is your typical armed service comedy with a nice Eighties twist from Bill Murray and a crew from Saturday Night Live just coming into their prime as players.
And it stars Bill Murray (The Royal Tenenbaums), Harold Ramis (As Good as it Gets), John Candy (Uncle Buck), Warren Oates (True Grit).Low life cab driver John Winger (Bill Murray) loses a lot in 2 hours.
He also talks his friend Russel Ziskey (Harold Ramis) into joining with him.When they finally do join, they are both put into a platoon drilled by Sgt. Hulka (Warren Oates) who has his eye on John.
But, they full fill their goal by meeting Stella (P.J. Soles) and Louise (Sean Young), two beautiful MP's who have their eys on Russel and John.As the story moves on, they go to battle in Germany and end up in more hilarious confilcts.I must say, I think that Warren Oates was a perfect choice for Sgt. Hulka, and that he was so brilliant and funny with the character.
The script does have weaknesses feeling rather sporadic and ramshackle in the laughs, complete with jokes that feel forced and flat, and while the story starts off well the second half has a change of tone into a kind of a very generic action film that jarred with the rest of the movie and some scenes especially the mud-wrestling match and any scene involving PJ Soles and Sean Young that fell short on credibility.
Oates is great, the other acting isn't that good in my opinion, Bill Murray plays a very obnoxious and unlikeable character and unfortunately he isn't very funny which is sad, Harold Ramis' character is interesting but is rarely built upon, both John Candy and Judge Reinhold with some weak scenes and dialogue are dull sadly and the best said about John Laroquette the better.
After a terrible day when the taxi driver John Winger (Bill Murray) loses his job, his car and finally is dumped by his girlfriend Anita (Roberta Leighton), he convinces his best friend Russell (Harold Ramis) to join the army to travel and have fun.
Sergeant Hulka escapes and releases a distress signal and John, Russell, Stella and Louise decide to help to rescue their friends from Czechoslovakia."Stripes" is a silly and funny comedy, but what else could I expect from a cast with the names of Bill Murray, John Candy, John Larroquette and the other comedians.
Disillusioned, slobbish New York cabby Bill Murray decides to join the army to get in shape, and persuades teacher buddy Harold Ramis to do the same for no good reason.
Most of the rest of the film concerns their platoon of misfits (including John Candy), sadistic drill sergeant, mad egotistical captain (John Larroquette) and a couple of improbably attractive MPs. There is a rather silly plot tagged on the end involving a top secret armoured car disguised as a camper van, presumably to give the whole exercise some point, without conspicuous success.
Every performance is first-rate and each character adds something to the humor of this movie.Stripes begins with Bill Murray losing his job, his car and his girlfriend all in the same day.
These depressing circumstances set the stage for Murray to convince Ramis to come with him and join the Army.Basic training, a hard-ass drill sergeant, female military police and naked mud wrestling consume the rest of this hilarious film.
Murray is terrific as Winger, with a performance that puts a generous helping of `dry' in the expression `dry humor.'  He plays it all so straight, so serious, from his quips and one liners (watching a TV promo for the Army, `This looks pretty good--'), to his full blown inspirational speech to the troops on the night before their final test at basic training (`We're all very different people.
But Stripes is a classic comedy that paved the way for such modern films, and fans of Bill Murray should check it out.As a kid, I used to watch this movie over and over.
This scene is one of my all-time favorites in any comedy I've ever seen.Murray's performance is vintage in this film.
Ramis is also very good as Murray's best friend; the two have great chemistry together.Anyone who has ever been in the military will find this movie hilarious.
The film does a great job with all the secondary characters such as Ox (John Candy), Elmo (Judge Reinhold), Sergeant Hulka (Warren Oates, and Psycho (Conrad Dunn).
The fact that one tatty haired, fat lipped bum (Winger) and his hapless sidekick Ramis can simply sweet talk themselves into into the MP's underwear, to which they fall madly in love with the two of them is nothing short of ludicrous.Then there is the training scenes, where you get to meet the Squad "Phycho" who unconvincingly threatens to kill anyone who touches him or his stuff, followed by the overweight bloke (played by the late and great John Candy) who claims he joined the army to "avoid paying $400 for anger management classes".
He then chooses them to guard a new Multi-Million Dollar Prototype Armoured Vehicle in Italy (which turns out to be just a mobile home painted green with loads of gadgets on the inside), claiming "This is exactly what this Army needs!" righto...Then there is the dire finale, where Murray and Ramis decide to steal this top-secret prototype Military Vehicle to pick up their newly acquired and somewhat Hyperactive MP Girlfriends in Germany.
The peripheral people around the stars of the act were virtually prevented from having too much presence or distinction for fear of upstaging the deal-breaking stars, but in Stripes, others clowning in basic-training include Judge Reinhold's head-bobbing stoner, Conrad Dunn's broad-stroke acknowledgment to Travis Bickle (likely more of a Harold Ramis contribution), and John Candy's soft-hearted fatso, who finds the Laurel to his Hardy in southern boy John Diehl.
**** Stripes (6/26/81) Ivan Reitman ~ Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Warren Oates, John Candy.
The story of a man who wanted to keep the world safe for democracy...and meet girls Bill Murray and Harold Ramis star in `Stripes,' a military satire which went on to spawn many copies, including the horrible `Police Academy' series.
Three giants of American comedy Bill Murray, John Candy and Harrold Ramis star in this often funny, occasionally hilarious tale of misfits joining the army.
Murray is of course excellent as is most of the supporting cast, John Candy is maybe a little underused as Ox. Also the film is definitely of it's time (the cold war still in full swing, boo ruskies and reds etc) but that wont spoil your enjoyment.7/10 - Not up there with Murray and Ramis best (Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters) but worth a watch on cable or rental..
It is Bill Murray's movie from beginning to end, but seeing John Larroquette, John Candy, John Diehl and Judge Reinhold early in their careers provide good background characters is great.
They'll sell this as a comedy classic due to merely the release date, the names Bill Murray or John Candy, and the subconscious association with comedy quality this all coincides into.The truth is this is far too long although not particularly boring to watch, running over two hours; that nothing about it is specifically hilarious or in good taste, in fact some of it is pretty weird and forced, and overall it was quite an avoidable production, but it's fun, it's got lots of action and events taking place and it's in the sort of spirit that Americans love to love, what with a subtle dose of propaganda, an established perception that everything outside home is wilderness, and the way the main characters handle themselves as studs who always win..
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.
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.
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..
Murray is helped by mainly three other great comical actors; Harold Ramis, John Candy and Warren Oates.
He's proved time and time again what a funny man he can be,  even in average films like this  he still manages to raise a chuckle or two.With Ghostbusters stars Murray and Harold Ramis, and the director of Ghostbusters, Ivan Reitman, I must admit I expected a hell of a lot more though than just a couple of chuckles.It centres around Murray and Ramis as 2 losers who join the army after they find themselves totally disillusioned with their day to day lives.
Bill Murray and his merry gang definitely had a great time making the movie as they know how to be funny!
Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and company party all the time in this comedy classic and if you don't find this movie to be funny, you probably would'nt know a good time if it was sitting on your face..
Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, John Candy, and plenty of other well known actors started their cinema roots with this off kilter homage to a military that was still pristine in image and was known for making men out of even the most wimpy souls in America.If you had nowhere else to go, no ambition, or nothing better to do, the army would put you through basic and make a man out of you!
Bill Murray and Harold Ramis play two friends who find themselves jobless, broke, and out-of-shape, so impulsively join the army, only to find out that their lark has "serious" consequences for their lives.Marginal comedy is really bolstered by Warren Oates' turn as tough Drill instructor Sgt. Hulka, who isn't remotely going to put up with their immature buffoonery.
This is also the movie that established Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, John Laroquette and John Candy as comedy actors (and introduced many like Judge Reinhold and John Diehl).
Murray is really funny in this movie and this would be film that led him and Harold Ramis to be together in Ghostbusters.
In reality a minor cameo in Zombieland was the decade's best effort – I'm not a fan of either Tenenbaums or Steve Zissou.Over the last weekend one of the more retro channels had a mini marathon of classic 80s movies, so over the course of a weekend I sat down and watched Colors, Angel Heart, Enemy Mine and Stripes.Stripes follows the classic strategy of putting funny guys in unexpected situations and letting them act accordingly – Will Ferrell has made a career out of it (whether I think it a worthy career is another matter) – in this case John (Murray) and Russell (Harold Ramis) are down on their luck average joes who decide to enlist in the army to make a few bucks After all what could go wrong?
This lends itself to various scenarios that show John, Russell and a cavalcade of disparate characters (including John Candy and Judge Reinhold) as they bumble and fluff their way through basic training under the watchful and vigilant eye of one Sergeant Hulka (Warren Oates).Now as much as I love Murray and this film wouldn't exist without him, Sgt Hulka is what sets Stripes apart.
Harold Ramis as Russell and John Candy as fellow platoon member Ox. Also appearing in small roles were Dave Thomas and Joe Flaherty.Warren Oates also adds a lot to the movie as the no-nonsense Sgt. Hulka.
Working class schleps John Winger(Bill Murray)and Russell Ziskey(Harold Ramis)decide,on a whim,to join the Army,much of the reasoning to escape the humdrum lives they lead in the big city.
And if you're guessing that there's more to the story than merely passing basic training and their deployment well,you'd be guessing correctly.A friend of mine who's been in the Army(around the time this movie was released,in fact)told me that the film isn't based in much reality--and I'm sure most people who been in the Army would probably agree--but I have the impression that this has JUST enough real element in it to make it roundly palpable AS WELL as a lot of fun.A fantastic ensemble cast features Warren Oates in one of his last roles(as their drill Sergeant),John Larroquette(as a preening,weaselly superior),John Candy(as the gregarious,heavy-set recruit with JUST the right amount of rage issues),John Dietz,P.J.Soles(a sympathetic MP who has a thing for Murray's character),Sean Young(same as SOles' character,only for Ramis),Conrad Dunn and John Volstead(pre-"Other brother Darryl" from Newhart,as Laroquette's oft-put-upon aide)among others to fill out as big,loud and enthusiastic ensemble.
Besides, I have never warmed to Bill Murray's arrogant, narcissistic and self-satisfied personality; the supporting cast includes other exponents of '80s comedies – namely Harold Ramis (serving also as co-writer and who would re-unite with Murray and director Reitman for the GHOSTBUSTERS movies), John Candy and Judge Reinhold (from the POLICE ACADEMY series).
Rated R for sexuality/nudity, language and some drug use Stripes is a 1980's comedy starring Bill Murray and Harold Ramis.John Candy also has a role in the film.The film is a lot like 1984's police academy.I think this is better though.Both films are very alike.I saw this film a while ago so I don't remember the plot very well.This film is about two misfits who dislike their jobs and join the army.
Anyone who has gone through Army Basic Training knows every character in this film is a very accurate parody of someone they have met in the army.Stripes is a springboard for many comic geniuses, even Bill Murray for that matter; it was his first major film since he 'graduated' from SNL and it marks the first appearance of John Candy and Sean Young.The second half of the movie is a bit long and pretentious, but by the time you get to it, you are ready for anything these clowns try to pull.
And of course, when John Winger (played by Bill Murray)says in reply to Sgt Hulka,"I'd like to take a big swing at you,sarge".So there you go,a movie for all time, and one I'll always be in the mood to watch!.
With great comedic acting from Harold Ramis, John Candy, John Larroquette, Warren Oates and others, you just have to laugh, no matter haow bizzare or Politically incorrect it is.John Winger (Murray) and Russell Ziskey (Ramis), two bummed friends, are bored and tired of their lives...so they join the US army.
Bill Murray joins his future "Ghostbusting" partner (Harold Ramis) and an astounding and hilarious cast including John Candy, John Larroquette, and Warren Oats.
STRIPES is a very funny movie that stars Bill Murray as a fired cab driver who decides to join the Army, taking along his best friend in the process.
This is seriously one of the funniest films I have seen in forever.The cast in all-star including Bill Murray (GROUNDHOG DAY), Harold Ramis (the not-so-famous-anymore co-star of AS GOOD AS IT GETS), P.J. Soles (HALLOWEEN), John Candy (THE GREAT OUTDOORS), Judge Reinhold (THE SANTA CLAUSE) and Warren Oates as a comically hilarious drill sergeant.