Eugene, an aspiring writer from Brooklyn, is drafted into the US Army during the final months of World War II. For his basic training, the Army sends him to Camp Shelby in Mississippi, where toil, bad food, and antisemitic jibes await. Eugene takes refuge in his sense of humor and in his diary, but they won't protect him in a battle of wills with an unstable drill sergeant.
Matthew Broderick Christopher Walken Matt Mulhern Corey Parker Markus Flanagan Casey Siemaszko Michael Dolan Penelope Ann Miller Park Overall Alan Pottinger Mark Jacobs David Kienzle Matthew Kimbrough Kirby Mitchell Allen Turner Tom Kagy Jeff Bailey Bill Russell Natalie Canerday A. Collin Roddey Christopher Ginnaven Morris Mead David Whitman Norman Rose Michael Haley Ben Hynum Andy Wigington Christopher Phelps Scott Sudbury Show All…
Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues, Desventuras de un recluta inocente, Biloxi Blues: Los apuros de un recluta, Elämäni kesä, טירונות, Frenesie... militari, ბილოქსი ბლუზი, 총각 쫄병, Biloksio bliuzas, Metido em Encrencas, Билокси блюз, Polarna på Camp Biloxi, Künyedeki Sevgili, 天才大兵
USAPG-13
AustraliaM
Germany16
Australia
Germany
USA
"Once you start compromising your thoughts, you're a candidate for mediocrity." Love that line, love this movie.
This subpar movie is totally a must see for one reason and one reason only: You need to watch Christopher Walken turn in a performance that can only be explained as him doing a poor impersonation of HIMSELF. It is amazingly funny. And what's more is he does it while playing an army drill sergeant.
Impeccable.
"Ferris Bueller Joins the Army"
I mean, it's 2 years later, this is a Neil Simon script, the movie's rather quippy, and Broderick's protagonist often narrates it, so the Ferris Bueller connection is actually sorta visible. He gets shipped off to boot camp in 1945, where he clangs against the other guys in his platoon, one of whom's a bully, one's an idiot, one's an intellectual, and the other is simply mediocre. Their drill sergeant is Christopher Walken, delightfully zagging away from a barking R. Lee Ermey approach to droll and sarcastic because, again, Neil Simon. Not exactly a realistic depiction of this sort of person, nonetheless he does put them through hell, but to be fair they're a bunch…
"The place where a U.S. soldier goes to defecate, relieve himself, open his bowel, shit, fart, dump, crap, and unload, is called the latrine. La-trine. From the French."
Another coming of age movie, only much less edgy than At Close Range. It lies somewhere between The Last Detail and the opening half of Hacksaw Ridge, aiming simultaneously for witty fun and wistful nostalgia, tempered occasionally by moderate cruelty. Matthew Broderick is a decent lead, the story holds your attention from start to finish, and parts of it are genuinely chucklesome. I just don't think those parts always add up to a satisfying whole.
Talkin' Walken: Chris Walken as a drill sergeant with a steel plate in his head? Hell yeah.…
I saw this film more than 30 years ago when I was still a kid, I wasn’t really sure what to make of it. As a Neil Simon play it is billed as comedy, but out of all of the film adaptations I have seen from his work, I don’t think this film is really all that funny. I think that may have been what turned me off. I am sure that the play might have been funnier on Broadway, and when looking at the cast, I think it would have been amazing to have seen it, especially as it would have put both Broderick and Ruck on stage together right before they went off to film Ferris Buellers Day…
Part of my 5 Directors x 5 Unseen Films (12) challenge.
Playwright Neil Simon adapted his own Tony Award-winning 1985 Broadway production for this screenplay, which is semi-autobiographical in nature. In the hands of director Mike Nichols, it's a tribute to the writer's craft, chock-full of witty jokes, snappy dialogue and New York-style humor. Matthew Broderick plays the lead as 19-year-old Private Eugene Morris Jerome, who in 1945 is sent to Keesler Field in Biloxi, Mississippi for ten weeks of army basic training.
Jerome is a cynical Brooklyn Jew, who wants to become a writer. His platoon includes one other Jewish recruit, bookish Arnold B. Epstein, who doesn't care about fitting in and keeps to himself as much as possible.…
“I just don’t think it’s necessary to dehumanize a man to get him to perform. You can get better results raising our spirits than lowering our dignity.”
I confess I have a soft spot for Neil Simon, but I think this one works pretty well as comedy, nostalgia, and drama. Oh, it’s not deep in any of those areas, but the time flew by while I was watching it. Christopher Walken is nicely understated as the sadistic sergeant and Matthew Broderick is earnest at channeling Simon himself, but it was the character of Epstein (Corey Parker) who won me over. Among other things, his artistic advice to his pal was memorable, perhaps because it comes out of the blue and speaks such truth (“Once you start compromising your thoughts, you're a candidate for mediocrity.”) Meanwhile, amidst the period details, the film scores points with commentary on anti-Semitism, homophobia, and toxic masculinity.
Mike Nichols makes a very good adaptation of the Neil Simon's play. All the guys are great. Matthew Broderick, Matt Mulhern, Siezmasko, Parker and Flanagan. Soldiers in training to fight in WW2. They talk about girls, making it back, falling in love, worried about death of course, they bicker, they fight and they come across a tough as hell drill sargeant. Sargeant Toomey played with perfection by Christopher Walken in one of his best performances. The final drunk confrontation is scary and so satisfying too. I can rewatch this one forever.
So the actual 30th Anniversary of this was actually yesterday, so we watched the first half last night and finished the rest today. Once again we have appearance by the late Nora Ephron (I’ll get to 2 other films from her later this year) and of course this was directed by the late Mike Nichols (when he died in November of 2014, we watched his 1986 film Heartburn but that was back when I was lame and didn’t do reviews). So anyway, I thought this was a super fun film that was bolstered by a pretty good cast at least! Matthew Broderick is so adorabley out of his element in this film, as he plays a soldier who is supposed…
