Operation Dumbo Drop

If you're in the market for the most upbeat Vietnam War movie ever made, rent Operation Dumbo Drop, a silly but true story of an unusual mission to make a small village happy. As you might be able to guess from the title, this is a Disney movie.

Because of Disney Studio's unlimited budget, you'll also hear tons of 1970s songs to keep you in the mood. And the mood is comedy. There are no battle scenes, no "buy the farm" speeches from soldiers you've grown to love, and no real suspenseful plot points besides whether or not they'll get an elephant transported to the village. Ray Liotta plays the new captain who's by-the-book approach clashes with the already established captain, Danny Glover. When Ray first arrives, he finds Danny wearing a Vietnamese robe and meditating with the locals!

This is one of those movies that is truly "family friendly". The kids in the audience will love any scene with the elephant in it, and the adults will like the cast. Men will appreciate the wartime setting and macho soldiers as the only characters. Women will appreciate how nice Danny Glover and Ray Liotta look in their uniforms. Does Danny's shirt have to be unbuttoned? Does Ray's hair have to be quaffed in every scene? Yes.

Not to be knit-picky, but, Denis Leary's character was not a lieutenant. He was a "Chief Warrant Officer Grade 3", or "CWO-3" for short. If there is any question of this, one should check out the close-up of Leary to note the bar on his collar with 3 black squares on it.

Should also be noted, wearing of the Beret with colored insignia and flash (patch), was not done during combat operations. The last thing anyone wanted was to be seen because there was something shiny or colorful which could give away one's position to the enemy.

Aside from those inconsistencies, Disney did a great job of putting this motion picture together.

The people chosen, did a fantastic job of being as authentic as possible. Of course, much about the real story had to be quieted down for the sake of the audiences viewing pleasure. Since the real truth of the war was the horror of confrontation.

This was an awesome film, which helped to show an aspect of people in the military, as people. And not the mindless drone killers, some in the population would have the world believe. There was much humanity by the armed forces, but, those are the news stories which the networks DIDN'T show, because it didn't have the flair and sensationalism that was desired by the various network news casts.

Yah, hey I made a name just to argue with the idiot that made the last review for this movie. Laws of physics actually state that objects fall at the same speed no matter how heavy they are. Try it with a penny and a book at the top of your house. So don't talk about laws of physics if you are uninformed about something that is taught pretty much on Day One of Physics 101. So you may argue that it's still impossible to catch up with the elephant. Yah, it probably is, but if he went into a dive motion (a la James Bond in the beginning of Goldeneye) it's possible to decrease air resistance and increase aerodynamics in such a way to fall faster. Stunt sky-divers do it all the time. So that's the second reason why you're wrong. Talk to you later and hope you have fun posting opinionated comments about something when you have no basis or knowledge for opinion.

This movie had some typically-good Disney aspects to it but also some typically- bad Disney agendas in here that just about made me puke.

With modern-day Disney films - or at least the ones in the 1980s and 1990s - you can expect the following "good" and "bad:" This movie proves to be no exception.

GOOD - Slick-looking photography with beautiful Vitenamese scenery; low profanity; an interesting story that moves well.

BAD - Political-correctness run amok......an annoying kid who knows more than the adults; an ending that's always drawn out too long; a reverence for Eastern religions or anything that is not Christianity; a black and a white lead character in which the black is always the better of the two, etc. etc.

A SURPRISE - Danny Glover and Ray Liotta losing their tempers but not swearing a blue streak. Wow, now that's different!

I do not understand the criticism that some professional reviewers give of this film about its unrealistic treatment of the Vietnam War. I was opposed to that war from about the time that it started but I never doubted the good intentions of those young men who risked their lives fighting it. What is so wrong in playing up that aspect of it? The film is, after all, based on a true story. The film seemed to me to be like a movie version of the television show MASH done for children. Everybody has good words for MASH. Nobody ever complained about doing a comedy about the Korean War. This is a good kid's film with some really fine acting by Liotta, Glover and Leary.