This movie is trying to be all things to all viewers, and it fails at each of them. There's plenty of story here, but the mixture of comedy and drama is so uneven and just plain weird, that the movie is completely unsatisfying.
There's a pretty good service comedy buried somewhere in there, but its never given a chance to fully come out and build up a head of steam. There's also an interesting character study of a troubled young guy (Andy Griffith) and his attempts to grow up in the military during WW2 (he even gets to use his Matlock skills at one point). There's also the basic story line from "An Officer and a Gentleman" in here, with Andy dealing with women just interested in marrying a military man for his pay and benefits. Unfortunately, each of these potentially interesting stories are tossed together, so that you never know from one scene to the next, which story is about to have its turn.
Andy and Walter Matthau played a great antagonistic relationship in "Face in the Crowd". Here, they're playing comedic pals, and they seem to work less well together. A drunk scene, in particular, looks like the worst dinner-theatre acting I've seen in some time.
There's a pretty good service comedy buried somewhere in there, but its never given a chance to fully come out and build up a head of steam. There's also an interesting character study of a troubled young guy (Andy Griffith) and his attempts to grow up in the military during WW2 (he even gets to use his Matlock skills at one point). There's also the basic story line from "An Officer and a Gentleman" in here, with Andy dealing with women just interested in marrying a military man for his pay and benefits. Unfortunately, each of these potentially interesting stories are tossed together, so that you never know from one scene to the next, which story is about to have its turn.
Andy and Walter Matthau played a great antagonistic relationship in "Face in the Crowd". Here, they're playing comedic pals, and they seem to work less well together. A drunk scene, in particular, looks like the worst dinner-theatre acting I've seen in some time.