Sgt. Bilko: Critic Reviews

The film is full of gratifying gags like these, but it also has to strain for newly enlarged scope.

Director Jonathan Lynn has had his hits (My Cousin Vinny) and stinkeroos (Greedy). This falls in between.

Martin's aggrieved expressions and sublime physical bits are constantly entertaining.

One of the pleasures of the movie is all the little jokes hidden in the corners.

[A] celebration of high jinks.

Though Martin and a solid supporting cast produce a few scattered moments of near-hilarity, for the most part the terrain here is as flat as it gets.

This Sgt. Bilko should be court-martialed.

Aside from the sheer insanity of trying to leap into the shoes of the irreplaceable Phil Silvers, surely Martin should have recognized that the film had no script, no gags and no discernible point.

Martin's Bilko is a career grifter who comes out on top every time. He's a Bilko for the nasty '90s, oily and smug.

We've seen it before, almost frame for frame, in every other service comedy, especially Stripes.

This is shoddy hackwork, replaying classic scenarios (the honest new recruit, audits by Pentagon bigwigs and manoeuvres in Nevada) with such disregard for narrative structure the reels might be in the wrong order.

A big disappointment.

There is lots of yelling.

CLassic Stevey Martin full of great one-liners.

Awful