STRIPES (EXTENDED CUT) (DVD/WS 1.85 A/DD 5.1/ENG-FBill Murray was heading toward a career peak on the back of comedies such as this one from 1981, the second film in his ongoing collaboration with director Ivan Reitman (the two went on to make Ghostbusters). Murray plays a chronic loser who joins the army and fails to find a fan for his ironic sensibilities in his by-the-book sergeant (Warren Oates). When push comes to shove, however, the smirking hero takes charge of his ragtag unit and turns them into fighting machines, albeit to the rhythm of hit songs by Manfred Mann and Sly Stone. The film is occasionally funny, but it mostly plays like any one of a dozen underachieving comedies featuring players from Saturday Night Live and SCTV. –Tom Keogh
May 5, 2008
#1
This film gets the award of the worst film ever portraying Army Life it just does not happen like this. Bill Murray is basically playing his worst role ever. Harold Ramis is a good actor and director what is he having anything to do with this film? John Candy is at his worst he shined much better in any movie but this. The film is just stupit from the start guys like Bill Murray and Harold Ramis decide to join the Army because their lives are pathetic and they look about slightly over 30 in this film a little old for the army fellas and then when they decide to finally join up I love it how the female recruits are just waiting for them at the bus station to check there name off like there headed for summer camp or something going into the army just does not happen like this and look at the haircuts they are given Harold Ramis would be thrown in the stockade with a hairdo like that in the army. The only believable haircut is John Candy’s the rest of those guys don’t have the right cut. So many things are just wrong this picture scene after scene just portraying the Army as this false place it is not. I don’t like how every recruit joining the army in this film is such a goober that just isn’t the case in real life. What a sorry case of pure stupitity bad humor and a false accusation of the United States Army. I hate this film.
May 5, 2008
#2
I don’t know how this movie has so many 5-star ratings. I happened to watch this movie from the beginning on TV, and it was so bad that I had to put a review immediately. I am in the Marine Corps, and I feel even for the Army, that military training was portrayed very unrealistically. The Captain and the other “soldiers” show a sense of unprofessionalism and disrespect to superiors and the country. The graduation day scene is unbelievable. They all seemed to get it all together in one night and add their own twist to the drill. Bill Murray is horrible along with the rest. He clearly keeps his sarcasm even after basic training. How can he talk like that to a General? I don’t know, but there is no structure or discipline between the Army soldiers and officers. I know this movie is a comedy, but it makes me wonder if they were trying to make the military look like a joke.
May 5, 2008
#3
It’s about time someone says this movie is plain stupid. And not funny at all ! It begins like MASH: anti-militarist low-brow jokes, which aren’t funny anymore, as if they used to be at that time. We don’t understand why Murray who seems to be a loser, has a nice apartment and doesn’t look like he needs to enlist. Neither does his friend Ramis, who has a decent teaching job and is a pacifist. The whole plot is just way too improbable. The rest is just plain stupid, and the playing is bad, just a pretext. The commies in the end are as stupid as the movie itself. If you want a movie about army that’s really funny and at the same time respectful, check out Heartbreak Ridge. It has some weaknesses, but it’s powerful at the same time. This one sucks, I don’t get why it was such a success. Maybe it was the first since MASH to do those stupid jokes ??
May 5, 2008
#4
This movie has not stood the test of time. I had the misfortune of watching it recently and there’s not a single laugh to be had. Also, if you believe the two ugly douchebags (especially Ramis) get the hot MP girls to love them…yeah right. Its interesting to see the mentality of this time: “were gonna be so clever and outsmart the military, and hilarious antics are going to ensue.” Watching this movie is about as funny as a jimmy carter speech and is about as depressing when you deconstruct what its saying. There’s something slightly grotesque about movies that mock the military. I couldn’t help but imagine Bill Murray’s character being shipped off to a real war, freezing in a foxhole and having one of his limbs blown off by a landmine. Ive never been in the military, and Im not a hawk, but there is something ugly about the subtext here.
May 5, 2008
#5
Bill Murray just seems to float through movies and look like he’s not even trying to put forth any effort. Every droll line he performs is as dry and without emotion as the last. This movie is no different than 99% of his movies. The “Yeah, uh-huh, OK.” formula.
While his sidekick and Jon Candy save the film, it’s centered around Bill Murray who once again seems not to even care a movie is being made.