Is it as good as the original series? No it isn't. Is it is the worst film ever? No, there are much worse- Disaster Movie, Home Alone 4, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Superbabies:Baby Geniuses 2 and Titanic:The Animated Movie are all much worse than this. Is it a bad film? I personally don't think so.
Yes the plot is predictable and falls into stupidity one too many times. Yes there are some hits and misses in the jokes and script, I actually found a lot of it funny but some of them(ie. Vladikov's 2nd best terrorist in the world boast) got old quite fast. And yes French Stewart is given very little to do.
Despite this, I found myself enjoying it. I don't know why, I just did. The film looks nice enough, some of the scenery is colourful and the photography is decent enough. I liked the soundtrack too, especially Working on My Tan which was a nice addition. While corny, the script did get some laughs from me, and Bruce Campbell while underused is fun to watch. The direction is okay, the film moves quickly and is fairly short while nicely rounded off. The cast are fine on the whole. Ernest Borgnine is a joy as always as is Dean Stockwell whose comic talent here almost equals his TV counterpart Joe Flynn, as is Tim Curry(anybody who knows me knows I am a fan of Tim's),and Tom Arnold and Debra Messing are appealing too.
Overall, hardly something to rave about but I personally don't think it deserves the panning it gets. 7/10 Bethany Cox
McHale's Navy
1997
Action / Comedy
McHale's Navy
1997
Action / Comedy
Keywords: terroristu.s. navyexotic islandbase
Plot summary
Retired Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale (Tom Arnold) spends his days puttering around the Caribbean in the old PT-73 selling homebrew, ice cream, and swimsuit calendars. He's brought out of retirement when his old nemesis turned the second best terrorist in the world, Major Vladakov (Tim Curry),takes over the island of San Moreno and starts building a nuclear launch silo on it. With help from his old crew and hindrances from Captain Wallace B. Binghampton (Dean Stockwell),who sank a cruise liner a while back, McHale tries to put Vladakov out of business.
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Silly and predictable, but I don't think it is as bad as it is made out to be
Ethel Merman's brief marriage to Ernest Borgnine was funnier than this film.
I've seen Tim Curry multiple times on stage, and I'm always saddened when he's cast in a film as a one dimensional baddie. Whether Rooster in "Annie", the Palace hotel clerk in "Home Alone 2" or the Russian villain in this (not to mention a dozen others),he could grin with evil delight (very funny in its Grinch comparison in "HA 2"),but that typecasting on film was an insult to his King Arthur like talent. The plotline utilized to drive this film is a retread of every sitcom to movie rip-off, and frankly, it's gotten tiresome. His supervillain is stolen from a Bond film and sets the movie up to be trashed from the start.
This hopefully sole adaption of the 60's sitcom stars Tom Arnold who has no business being a leading man in a comedy, basically the James Corden of his day as far as overexposed unfunny men are. He seems to be trying to emulate Ray Walston in "South Pacific" and fails miserably. Dean Stockwell didn't do anything well here, let alone stock.
David Allen Grier gets some laughs, but he's overshadowed by the material surrounding him. Debra Messing plays a character with absolutely no humor and has no sex appeal when that is required in that part. Borgnine only appears in the few scenes, but he's resting on his laurels with an Oscar to boot so he doesn't need to worry that this is almost as big a naval disaster as Pearl Harbor.
Cuba: The Land of Oppression. And Opportunity.
Quint McHale (Tom Arnold) has made a fine life of smuggling contraband through the United States Navy in San Moreno. But his old nemesis, Major Vladikov, has set up base on a nearby island and is looking to become the world's best terrorist.
While this movie is quite stupid, it's also really fun and I did find some parts amusing. It's a clean sort of fun, which you don't see much of any more, and I appreciated that. Strictly PG. And I enjoyed watching men follow Tom Arnold around (which, according to Bruce Campbell, is mostly all him and French Stewart were directed to do -- and if you watch for this, you'll see it right away).
We also have Dean Stockwell, Debra Messing (before she was big),Tim Curry and Ernest Borgnine (the original McHale from the TV series). I am suspicious that whoever wrote this also wrote the "Maverick" movie, because there are some eerie similarities (some of which I can't get into without spoiling it). I don't know if that's a good thing or a very bad thing.
I should also note this movie felt, to me, degrading to women. On one hand they're congratulating Penelope Carpenter (Messing) on her accomplishments as a woman, but then the next moment they are treating her different than everyone else. She is seen as supportive and inferior, and really her only purpose in the plot is to be a romantic interest for McHale -- the ultimate in secondary characters. Normally this wouldn't bother me, but they made it so obvious.
All in all, I really did enjoy this movie. Why it received such a poor response from viewers, I don't know. The cast is eclectic and fun, the jokes silly but endearing. And as long as you like Tom Arnold (I don't mind him) you should be able to enjoy this film. Everyone seems to confuse it with "Down Periscope", which is too bad -- this is a good one in its own right.