Eugene Jerome (Matthew Broderick) is a year out of high school and joining the Army in 1945. He is sent to basic training in Biloxi, Mississippi with various characters. There are the brutes like Wykowski, a brainiac Epstein, and the tough drill Sgt. Toomey (Christopher Walken). Jerome wants to write and has to survive this unstable collection of people.
The Neil Simon script is quirky and cute. It comes off as a little light weight when compared to all the other great military training movie. There are every stereotypes in the book. The protagonist Eugene is sarcastic smart mouth. Epstein is a super effeminate Jew. Every character is a 3 word descriptive cartoon. There is only so much that director Mike Nichols can do with this Neil Simon recollection of his wartime life.
The Neil Simon script is quirky and cute. It comes off as a little light weight when compared to all the other great military training movie. There are every stereotypes in the book. The protagonist Eugene is sarcastic smart mouth. Epstein is a super effeminate Jew. Every character is a 3 word descriptive cartoon. There is only so much that director Mike Nichols can do with this Neil Simon recollection of his wartime life.