Biloxi Blues

In one of the many looks at days gone by, Neil Simon's alter ego Eugene Morris Jerome (Matthew Broderick) and friends go down to Biloxi, Mississippi, in early 1945 for basic training. Once there, they have to cope with one bad-ass sergeant (Christopher Walken) and a status quo totally unlike the one in New York. But we also see how the experience turns Eugene into a very different person, partially due to his relationship with local babe Daisy (Penelope Ann Miller).

"Biloxi Blues", in my opinion, is far from Mike Nichols's best movie. I find it having strength in showing these young men's coming of age and wondering what to do with their future. But still, it's fun to see the environs of the WWII-era South. And I really liked Eugene's fake name when he met that one woman; I couldn't have come up with anything like that! Worth seeing, along with "Brighton Beach Memoirs".

When Matthew Broderick played Ferris Bueller, who ever would have guessed that he would later play the guy - or the alter ego thereof - who wrote "The Odd Couple"?