Stripes (1981)

Best movie of this year hands down!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The first act is great, Bill Murray's character is witty but kind of a jerk. The setup for an 80s comedy classic is done well.During the second act I was excited: usually the authority figure in these movies is the bad guy and you're just hoping they get taken down a peg. In this movie the authority figure (the drill sergeant) is 100% in the right and Bill Murray's character is insubordinate, lazy, and irritating. I loved the twist on the formula and I was looking forward to him going through his arc and to learn what it meant to be a good soldier.It never happens.Murray's character becomes more of a jerk, commits multiple crimes, drags the love interest (a career soldier/MP) and his best friend down with him, endangers dozens of people, and is rewarded for helping clean up the mess he made. The end.Maybe time has ruined this movie. Maybe the line between lovable scamp and actual garbage person has moved in the last 37 years. Bill Murray is perfect for these types of characters, but I actively disliked his character by the end of the film.I enjoyed the first 2 acts, so I'm giving it 3 stars instead of 1.

It's nice to see some of the casts of Saturday Night Live and SCTV come together on film. Here, Bill Murray meets John Candy, and it's absolute hilarity at the expense of the army, obviously made on the basis of the success of "Private Benjamin", but changing genders as it heads back into comic territory that has tickled audiences going back way before Abbott and Costello turned the military upside down in "Buck Privates". Here, Murray and old pal Harold Ramos enter the military and fond themselves getting away with all sorts of pranks, with Candy and Judge Reinhold among the others they encounter in an attempt at becoming soldiers that seems to be a major implausibility. This farce isn't reflective of army life in any way, shape or form, just a scathing commentary on the silliness of the seriousness of it all. Arrogant non-commissioned officers, serious privates and imperious officers are given scathing portrayals, showing the real life NCO's, privates and commissioned officers how ridiculous they look with that scowling look and stuck up attitude that under some circumstances leads to rebellion. A young John Laroquette spoofs that image as the new captain on the training base who has secrets that isn't becoming of an officer.Emulating Sergeant Carter from "Gomer Pyle U.S.M.D.", Warren Oates plays the typical screaming and sneering drill sergeant who meets his match in the sassy Murray. P.J. Soles and Sean Young play two female m.p.'s who are lacking in discipline every time they encounter Murray and Ramis, especially when Murray gets frisky with an ice cream scoop. Forget about any sense of reality with their characters, thrown in along with some innocent T&A for sexy thrills. Having already explored slobs vs. the preppy's and slobs vs. the snobs, this is the slobs vs. humorless authority, making along with "Animal House" and "Caddyshack" a trio of slob comedies that started a new genre of comedy and one that is still ripped off today.

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.