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I'll tell you why so serious

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Having recently watched two immaculately directed movies from each end of the 70s, the wild gore fest that is Fulci's, Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) and the wondrous Tristana (1970) from Bunuel, I am thrust into the laid back, let it all hang out world of Hal Ashby. Both the other films it is clear that the director has a clear visual and complete control, even if they are starkly different films. Here Ashby delights it letting, things happen. Nicholson was clearly given his head and allowed to let things run, not only away from his director, but himself. Nevertheless there is something endearing about Last Detail and I'm sure its director would agree that a fixed notion of what was going to happen all the time would have ben too stifling for him. For me one result of this casual approach is that not everything works and the actors seem to be having more fun than me but maybe that's too harsh. Certainly worth seeing and influential in its own way. For good or bad.

It was cold.Snow fluttered from grey skies as their breath whipped away with the wind. The answer was already written down.Two men teach a boy about being men while they turn in to boys again.Friendship only lasts until the door closes in front of you. And you can't see because he's looking forward.

Billy Buddusky and Richard Mulhall would not normally be friends. In another line of work they would scarcely converse apart from perhaps the odd small talk and polite nod. But circumstances and life choice have pushed them together to transport a prisoner to Portsmouth Naval Prison, so they begrudgingly strike up a partnership of sorts, if only so that the five days are not too unbearable. Then you throw in the gangly, awkward Larry Meadows, a young sailor being imprisoned for a small crime, and suddenly they look like a makeshift family. Over the course of the journey, two soldiers transporting a criminal slowly becomes a family road-trip. Like any odd couple the pair have their differences on how to treat and raise their son. In the middle of the film, Mule momentarily has a change of heart, chastising his partner on his whole coddling act. It won't do him any good for the harsh punishment he is about to endure, he reason. Billy indeed acts as a helicopter parent, albeit a hostile one. He demonstrates his learned masculinity in acts of lavish drinking and violence as if Larry was a toddler who mimics all he sees. When Larry refuses to stand up for himself, Billy utters the words for him, sending back a sandwich. "You're gonna have a f*cking beer," he snarls later. Because drinking is basically a masculine rite of passage in certain social circles, this is not just a pleasant invitation, but a demand. He will not take failure for an answer. Nicholson is loud and brash, as this is the only way his character knows how. Young acts as the more moderate counterpoint, hellbent on completing the mission at hand as we witness momentarily, but he too learns to fit in and accept the camaraderie, and his role in the unit. When Larry finally has the courage to send back his eggs, the two chuckle and pat him on the back as though he was a boy learning to ride the bicycle. What a memorable moment. Quaid is the one who pulls it all together. Perhaps he does not defy his gigantic frame so much as he grows into it; his height only serves to accentuate his nervous, timid manner, the way he always seems to have his hands in his pockets and his head bowed, having to be goaded and pushed into action. The first time I watched this I had the feeling that the ending was rather incomplete. It ends on an abrupt note; there is no extra story to be told after their assignment is finished, no sign of any closure for the trio's journeys. But seeing it now it all makes much more sense. The pair don't have the courage or guts to actually do something about the injustice of an eight year imprisonment for stealing forty dollars - the best they can do is a small white lie. So instead they try to distance themselves from the act and pretend after all the fun and bonding over beating up marines and snowy bbqs they aren't actually invested in the life of their prisoner. Not a moment after they are back to bitching about the little insignificant things. And they don't even want to stick around, but rather make their own separate way back. There's something very sad about the fact.

In one word: this is MASCULINE. Manly, virile. This is a man's film, in everything that's wrong with that, and everything that's fine with that. A couple of more seasoned marines have to escort this young delinquent, who's really a nice young 'fellar' but with issues, to some prison. Along the way, they develop a liking for each other and form a group of pals. Jack Nicholson is a slightly unbalanced person himself as depicted multiple times, and the adventures pile up with these three tearing it up in the open spaces, from fun with alcohol and other pleasures of life, to fights or coming across some of the more particular places in town. It's a fun ride, the acting is very good and captivating, the story lets itself be told and all in all this is quite entertaining. Although this is the sort of film that will never add a second layer to itself, and is really event-based and nothing beyond that, it's exactly what it wants to be and does it well. All the way up til the end does this film stay true to itself.