In the Army Now

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.

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.

I know most people find Pauly Shore (Bio-Dome, Encino Man) to be really annoying. He can be extremely annoying, but he can also be truly funny. In the movie In the Army Now, Shore plays another one of his likable loser characters. He and his best friend, played by Andy Dick (TV's News Radio) just got fired from their jobs and need money. So they both enlist in the Army Reserves assuming they will never have to do anything. During the movie they meet some new friends, Lori Petty (Tank Girl, The Glass Shield) and David Alan Grier (McHale's Navy). Pauly Shore and Andy Dick decide to join the water purification unit and Shore displays a real talent for that. Of course, a war starts and they get sent into Libya to help out the troops by purifying water if needed. The film is actually very funny and had me laughing consistently, Shore stays away from being too annoying. Andy Dick is just as funny as he is on NewsRadio. Petty and Grier are also funny. I recommend this for Shore fans and those who want a good impression of him.

This whole movie was trying to look like the 90s version of the 1981 comedy classic "Stripes" starring Bill Murray and Harold Ramis. the story is so silly and stupid, the character are unpredictable and even the jokes are so lame despite being Pauly's Shore last film as a surfer until Bio-dome 2 years later since he had to get his head shave for the scene of the head shaving in this movie and even the budget went; there's even a few cameos in this film including Brendan Fraser as Link who also appeared with Pauly Shore in "Encino Mean" and "Son in Law" and yet the last film that Pauly Shore did as part of a three-film contract with Hollywood Pictures, so instead check out "Stripes" which is even better in my book.

Whatever happened to Pauley Shore? I guess he's still around but you didn't hear much from him after this movie, which was a decent success. It was a surprisingly-good lightweight comedy with a bunch of likable goofs and weirdos from Glendale, California, and their adventures after they join the Army Reserves.

The language was pretty tame in here but there were a lot of sexual innuendos, too many for a PG rating but not surprising in a modern-day comedy. That comedy overall is good with some laugh-out-loud scenes.

Also, as with many films, the ending gets carried away. It was really dumb, but for most of this movie it was entertaining enough to certainly recommend if you need a laugh.