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Pretty Good

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

OK, Steve Martin is not Phil Silvers. Martin is from a middle-class background in Waco, Texas; Silvers was a New York street kid who probably had to hustle just to survive. It stands to reason, then, that Martin will--and should--play Bilko differently, which he does, even though he still has the money-making schemes going and, central to the plot, convincing his superiors that the hovertank works, which it does not, to keep himself from being shipped to Greenland and to keep Fort Baxter open.Dan Aykroyd as Col. Hall is just as much a patsy for Bilko as Paul Ford was on the television series, and I don't think Phil Hartman was so bad as the officer whom Bilko set up some time back by making it look like he's paid off a fighter to take a dive, got sent to Greenland, and now intends for Bilko to suffer the same fate. What's missing is that Bilko's platoon is largely faceless (they don't make enough use of Doberman, who was the real star of the television series), but in keeping with the updated setting from the 1950s to the 1990s, Bilko's immediate underlings are a woman and an African American.Also, the setting of Fort Baxter has changed from Kansas to California, although I think in the last year of the TV series the setting was moved to one Camp Freemont, California. Here, too, Bilko's girlfriend is a civilian schoolteacher; on the series, as I recall, it was a WAC.But nitpicking aside, Martin's Bilko, like Silvers', in effect runs the base, gets up when he wants, toadies up to the brass, and generally comes off as a sergeant I'll bet everybody who ever wore an Army uniform would have liked to have. No one ever really gets hurt by his scams (except maybe Thorn, who ends up back in Greenland at the end). And somehow he seems more harmless than Silvers although both are, as someone else once put it, "Bugs Bunny in a uniform." Catherine Silvers, Phil Silvers' daughter, who plays one of the auditors brought in by Thorn to try to get something on Bilko, even praised Martin for not trying to imitate her dad.There's also a connection to "My Cousin Vinny" here; Jonathan Lynn used Mitchell Whitfield and Austin Pendleton in that film as well.I do agree with the contributor who said that the funniest line comes at the end, when the producers acknowledge the "total lack of cooperation from the United States Army."

Seems to me like most of the negative votes come from fans of the original show.I am glad I never saw it, because I think this is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. I love Bilko's character. Martin plays a charismatic, scheming yet kind hearted con artist.I love his comic timing in this movie. It's definitely my favorite Steve Martin role.I think part of the reason I like Martin, is for the same reason I like characters like Bugs Bunny. He always comes out on top, and is usually in complete control of a situation. I love that type of role - who does not want to be more like a Sgt Bilko?I thought almost every scene was funny. I liked pretty much every actor in it. It's not for serious people. I sometimes wonder why serious people bother to rate comedies at all - some people were born with no sense of humor, from what I can tell.For those people who dislike (or are bored of) put down humor, sex humor, or gross out humor, this is none of those (Not that I don't mind some of that, but a change of pace is always welcome.)It's a politer, lighter, silly humor almost cartoonish, in a good way.I have seen this movie at least three times, and still laugh at it.So if you are not a fan of the TV show, I think you will like this in spite of the shockingly low review of this movie.

OK I'm not an American, but in my humble Scottish opinion Steve Martin is not, never has been, and never will be a funny man as long as our posteriors point in a southerly direction. Phil Silvers as Sergeant Bilko was a funny man, no doubt due to the skilled writers and directors and all the other talented team working characters in the series who contributed perfectly to one of the funniest and dateless situation comedies America has ever produced. How anyone could have the audacity to even attempt to replicate the Phil Silvers character is beyond me. To compound things the exercise was repeated in Martin's unfunny attempt to be Peter Seller's Inspector Clouseau, another abortive attempt, in my opinion, to rekindle a demonstrably unfunny career. Some of your contributers say 'Steve Martin puts his own stamp on the character', to that I would say 'balderdash' , his portrayals will be long forgotten when those of Silvers and Sellars will be treasured for generations to come

This may or may not be the worst movie that Steve Martin has ever made, but it certainly was far from his best. Obviously, he did this crap for the pay check. Dreck like this certainly does nothing to enhance his reputation as a funny man. What he doesn't seem to grasp is that when people go to see a Steve Martin movie, they expect to be entertained, not bored to tears. It's sad that he dragged Dan Aykroyd and Phil Hartman down with him. I don't understand why talented people can't get a grip on the fact that people don't want to see them in lousy movies. If you're going to call a movie a comedy, then it should be funny. This wasn't. Shame on the US military for allowing itself to be associated with this pabulum, too. Full Metal Jacket had more laughs than this miserable excuse for a "service comedy." Surely, Phil Silvers is rolling over in his grave.