ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

spencer-w-hensley Pauly Shore was the wrath of different moviegoers and critics during the early 1990's because of his annoying "Valley Guy" roles, that in some early efforts like "Encino Man", and later ones like "Bio-Dome" and "Jury Duty", really did prove annoying and just painful. In between all of those was 1993's "Son In Law", where Shore did play that obnoxious character, but the movie had a lot of likability in it's fish-out-of-water premise,and the way Shore interacted with his supporting cast. Then there was this movie, which is a formula that continued after Goldie Hawn starred in "Private Benjamin" 14 years earlier. The formula: One of the most popular comic actors of their day would do a fish-out-of-water service comedy. Immediately following was Bill Murray in "Stripes" and then eventually Shore signed on for one as well. If you hate Pauly Shore the good news is, you will find him more tolerable and bearable here. While he has some aspects of his previous "Valley Guy" roles in this movie, he is much more restrained here playing more of a dumb straight man, than a dumb, goofy one. He plays an electronics store salesman who is fired when he and his friend Andy Dick mess around on the job. He is then informed about the Army reserves thinking his commitment will be minimal and ignoring the fact that he has to go through training. Thinking it will be the easiest area in the reserves he and Dick sign up for water purification due to his brother being a pool man, and after barely surviving basic training, little does he know he and his team are about to be the first called to a desert war in Chad, and off all of them go to defend the U.S. in Africa. The movie although far more appropriate than "Stripes" is nowhere near as funny, but Shore and his supporting cast do squeeze a little bit of humor into it. The best moments are of course in training, from the moment he gets the classic Army haircut and screams like a little girl at the horror of seeing it, to his female drill sergeant played by Lynn Whitfield, and then pretending that he and Dick are gay to get a discharge so they won't have to go to Chad. Also David Alan Grier gives a very funny supporting performance as the meek, wimpy dental student who becomes part of Shore's team. He is such an underrated comic actor, who brings this movie moments of high comic relief it needs. Lori Petty the only female water purifier of the group, has some nice chemistry with Shore, though she really doesn't quite seem to be his equally goofy match. I guess the idea of them being polar opposites makes it more funny or so the writers thought anyway. Dick is actually more annoying than Shore is here, and seems to be playing a more restrained version of his real life persona. I cannot stand Andy Dick but thankfully he is not the entire focus of the story here making his character merely tolerable, though its a shame they couldn't have found Shore a better sidekick like what Harold Ramis was to Bill Murray in "Stripes." Overall, though formulaic there are some very funny moments and good comedic performances that makes this Shore comedy arguably the comedic actor's finest hour, for what that is worth anyway.

SnoopyStyle Bones Conway (Pauly Shore) and Jack Kaufman (Andy Dick) get fired from the electronics store. Even Bone's girlfriend Gabriella (Fabiana Udenio) can't save him. They join the Army Reserves for water purification. Their drill Sergeant is Sgt. Ladd (Lynn Whitfield). They join an unit with fierce Christine Jones (Lori Petty) and nervous Fred Ostroff (David Alan Grier) who is afraid of everything. Then the group is sent off to Chad to fight Libya. The four get on the bad side of special forces Sgt. Stern (Esai Morales). Their truck breaks down, they come under attack and they are lost in the desert.This is actually a good Pauly Shore movie. What does that mean exactly? It's a passable comedy and he's not annoying. His antics are kind of endearing like his hair cut. It has a few good laughs and he has three good co-stars to back him up. It's not hilarious or anything. But it is barely good enough to recommend.

Emilie i have to be completely honest with whoever reads this, i only watched this because pauley shore was in it. i happen to be amused with his stupid humor, so i turned on the movie. he needs more stupid people to hang around them to make it worthwhile. the girl from a league of their own was in this one, and she tries to be funny. what a joke. she just wasnt funny, she was meant to be a dramatic actress. why did she team up with pauley? what was she thinking? but andy dick and pauley really make stupid funnies together, keeping me laughing. either they are all alone or together, that is the only source of comedy to be found. that is all i have to say about that! (D D-)

dtucker86 This is a film that is sort of a guilty pleasure for me, what I mean by that is that its a film that I am almost ashamed to admit that I like. Pauly Shore is a lot more talented then his critics would have you believe. I am a Sergeant in the Army and on October 20th I will have ten years on active duty. I also spent six years in the National Guard and served in Operation Desert Storm. Watching military movies is fun for me because I often laugh at them and say that it is not like that in real life. This film gave me a lot of laughs. I liked the scene where Pauly dropped that grenade in basic. I would have killed him if I had been his drill sergeant. I think Lori Petty played a good part in this film. She is an underated actress who can do comedy and drama very well. People have not given her enough credit. She sort of steals the show in this movie as Christine. I was sort of reminded of my Gulf war experiences when I was watching them in the desert. I remember when our plane landed I just looked around and there was nothing only sand and thats what they see. This film understandebly never won any Oscars and I doubt if the American Film Institute will ever fight to preserve it, but it is still a nice way to waste two hours.