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Sadly Over-hyped

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Three years before they threw on their proton packs and kept the New York streets safe from paranormal in Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, Bill Murray and co-writer, co-star, Harold Ramis teamed together for this spoof of life in the Army that gave Murray and Ramis one of their first starring film roles, in a film originally intended by Reitman for Cheech and Chong. The plot like many comedies of it's era and since, is very simple. Murray plays a New York cabbie down on his luck, who has had enough of dealing with annoying customers like a lady he is driving to the airport one morning, and he decides to quit his job. Afterwards his car is repossessed, and his girlfriend realizes he is headed nowhere in life and he loses her and his apartment in the process. Ramis is his best friend an unsuccessful teacher teaching English as a second language. Needing direction in life, they see an advertisement for the U.S. Army on television, Murray wants to go all in for it and enlist in order to get into shape and have some stability while Ramis is more hesitant. Eventually Murray talks him into enlisting, and after a visit with a recruiter they are sent off to basic training. Fellow recruits consist of slobs, like John Candy who has joined the Army to lose weight and get into shape, a stoner played by Judge Reinhold, a dim-witted idiot played by John Diehl, and a crazed recruit played by Conrad Dunn who is obsessed with killing people. In charge of all of them is the tough as nails Sgt. Hulka (legendary character actor Warren Oates, in one of his last film roles, he died the year after this film was released), and their commanding officer is the incompetent Captain Stillman played by John Laroquette. The first half of the film mostly deals with Murray's rebellious behavior and attitude conflicting with Oates' no-nonsense by the book way of doing things, and there are a lot of laughs between those two, as well as with Ramis and the other recruits. There are some laugh out loud moments and quotable lines in the first hour alone. The second half consists of Oates' getting injured in an explosion, leaving the platoon to train themselves, Murray and Ramis falling in love with two single, attractive MP Officers played by PJ Soles and Sean Young, and consists of the platoon going to Italy to be in charge of an urban assault vehicle and getting captured by Russians in the process. The second half has it's moments and the scene at the graduation parade is classic, but after that Stripes starts to fizzle and goes downhill. It seems that Reitman just somehow forgot after the parade sequence that he was making an irreverent comedy and then turns the movie into a routine military, action picture. Some movies can balance those elements together nicely, but Stripes fails to balance both elements together at the same time during those last 30 minutes leaving it rather boring up until the finale which is redeemed by a few big laughs. If Reitman had been able to focus on the film being a comedy the whole time, and didn't focus any attention on the last half being an action picture, the film would easily be a flawless, comedy masterpiece. As a result the movie is worth seeing for at least the first hour alone. That hour has some truly classic comedy moments that still entertain all these years later. It's just a shame the last act couldn't have been as strong. Still Stripes still holds up better in my personal opinion than Caddyshack does, and because of the strength of the first hour, and fine comedic performances by everyone in the cast, this is definitely one 80's comedy classic no to be missed. Rest assured you will laugh and get a kick out of it, maybe more in certain parts than others, but there are definitely laughs and enjoyment to be found here. Parents be advised: There is lots of nudity, swearing, drugs and irreverent humor in this film the whole way through. This is not one for the kids, even though teenagers will probably love it for the edgy, goofy humor. If you want to show this to your teen, the movie has played on television a lot over the years so find a TV edited version, or watch this with a Clearplay machine.

For me, "Stripes" is one of the great '80s comedies; mostly because it's been funny over the years, and still holds up today. It's over-stuffed with a terrific cast, beautiful women and the comedic stylings of Harold Ramis (man, that guy could write 'em). There are some John Candy lines I still quote every now and then, and I get a kick out of watching Ramis try to keep it together in his scenes with Bill Murray. And speaking of Murray, he is plying his smartass likability to the nth degree here. The whole movie brims with it.And even though the movie completely switches gears into wacky misadventure during the second half, that first half is comedy gold. Also, Sean Young keeps getting more and more gorgeous as the movie progresses, so it all evens out.8/10

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.

I'm guessing this movie worked better in 1981, for this is my first time seeing it and I fell asleep twice since yesterday trying to get through it. Not that it was terrible, though it was terribly long. It had its funny moments, but not the laugh-out-loud funny Bill Murray I was hoping for. And I can see which audience this was perfect for and in the early 1980s, it was probably perfect for them…just not in 2015.(I really didn't have much more to say, but I guess I have to pad this review for this site.)