Stripes

Bill Murray is as funny here as anyone has ever been funny and I can’t see anyone else getting away with half the things he says here much less have them sound so cool and inspired. Read full review

Stripes is an anarchic slob movie, a celebration of all that is irreverent, reckless, foolhardy, undisciplined, and occasionally scatological. It's a lot of fun. Read full review

Murray's initial transition from the small screen is a classic. Read full review

Finally, a word about John Candy, the Second City-trained performer who has worked with great success on the "SCTV" shows. Candy, the plump one of the troupe, is more than just a jolly fat man in "Stripes." He becomes one of Murray's allies, because his comic persona allows him to be as sharp-witted as the next man. This is a switch, because the fat man in a comedy usually is the butt of a lot of physical humor...The point is this: Candy deserves to star in his own movie. He's that funny. Read full review

Though it's occasionally tasteless and eventually crumbles, STRIPES is an often hilarious film that provided Bill Murray with a perfect opportunity in which to display his comedic skills. Read full review

The chief thing it counts on is a built-in appreciation of the Murray sense of humor, which is growing ever more refined as Mr. Murray proceeds with his movie career. Mr. Murray hasn't yet reached the point at which his routines can be sustained for more than 10 minutes at a time. But he has achieved a sardonically exaggerated calm that can be very entertaining. Read full review

Reitman, who also originated Animal House and Meatballs, manages a reasonable success rate at pulling off the numerous verbal and sight gags with which the script is peppered. Read full review

Stripes is a cheerful, mildly outrageous and mostly amiable comedy pitting a new generation of enlistees against the oversold lure of a military hungry for bodies and not too choosy about what it gets. There’s little in the way of art or comic subtlety here, but the film really seems to work. Read full review

The picture is just a flimsy, thrown-together service comedy about smart misfits trying to do things their own way in the Army. But it has a lot of snappy lines (the script is by Len Blum, Dan Goldberg, and Ramis), the director, Ivan Reitman, keeps things hopping (it's untidy but it doesn't lag), and the performers are a wily bunch of professional flakes.

IN THE BEGINNING, Ivan Reitman begat Animal House and Animal House begat Meatballs and Meatballs begat Stripes. In the end, the box-office deity surveyed this handiwork and pronounced it good. Good and stale. For you can tamper with the setting, you can fiddle with the cast but, by all that's holy in the land of the cash flow, don't ever mess with a lucrative premise. [27 June 1981]