As one who spent 23 years in the army and three of those years as a drill sergeant, I found this movie very funny. While women have been in the military for years, none quite like this mother.
7 Reviews
Very funny
pops-931 May 1999
not at all funny
sandcrab2779 March 2018
Someone probably thought using the cute skits from jeanie would work here ... they didn't ... barbara eden made a complete sham of this film about like everything else she does ... she is no comedian but rather a pimple on the arse of funny ... she would do well to check joan o'brien's performance in operation petticoat to learn real comedy
Cute, but very inaccurate.
she-9762211 July 2020
While I was in the Army, I received a call from Anson Williams. He wanted to make a movie, about my step-son and I.
I about had a heart attack when I watched it.
I was serving before he enlisted. So the movie, is total fiction!
Suspend Disbelief And Just Enjoy It
Heres_Johny6 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
YOUR MOTHER WEARS COMBAT BOOTS
*May Contain Minor Spoilers*
I can't lie: within the first five minutes of Your Mother Wears Combat Boots, I'd already decided I was going to pan the thing. There's suspension of disbelief, and then there's "Within the infinite realms of the multiverses, this scenario does not exist in a single one." It was easier for me to believe a bunch of little-people and their band of multi-racial buddies went on a quest to destroy an all-powerful evil Ring than it was to buy Your Mother's setup. The short version is as follows: after a middle-aged woman's son enlists in the army, she follows him to paratrooper school and masquerades as a cadet on a hunt for her wayward son, without a single official realizing she has no business being there.
Yeah. I know. Rick and Morty has a deeper rooting in reality than Your Mother Wears Combat Boots.
The humor is the exact sort I detest: clean. It's an eighties flick, complete with equally repulsive hair-do's and shoulder pads. Hector Elizondo is in it, but he's not a butler, which threw my entire world-view into absolute chaos. The military is presented as a corp of clueless comedic buffoons, and the characters – or caricatures, rather – are overt clichés and tropes dressed up as people.
I intended to wage total war in verbal form on Your Mother Wears Combat Boots. And then something amazing happened.
Hell froze over, and I found myself laughing.
Barbara Eden of I Dream Of Jeannie fame plays Brenda Anderson, who the modern lexicon would probably label a helicopter parent. Her husband died in Vietnam, but it wasn't Charlie who killed him. It was a 'parachute accident', whatever the heck that is. Brenda's son, Jimmy, is intent on joining the Army and enlists at the first opportunity, kicking off the entire plot when his mother receives a letter from him informing her "Na-na-na boo-boo, I joined anyways", or something to that effect.
Brenda's character reminded me of Phoebe from Friends: her act of utter ignorance and naivety can't possibly be anything than an act. As with Phoebe, I quickly decided she was possibly the smartest person present, and though she was on a mission, she had to be having a real lark, yukking it up at all the idiots buying her moronic facade. Pushing the envelope, seeing how stupid they could possibly believe a human would be.
Basically she's an 80's live-version internet troll, and her entire life – every word out of her mouth – is an elaborate prank on the legions of the gullible morons populating her fictional universe.
Let's remember the key to literary criticism: the creator's intent means diddly. My subjective experience with the art is all that matters.
So if I say she's Phoebe, she's Phoebe, damnit.
Having accepted this multi-faceted aspect of an otherwise one-dimensional film, I found it far easier to accept as well the cast of flat supporting characters. Besides Hector Elizondo trading in his butler's livery for the facade of a tough drill-instructor, there are more big names and recognizable faces than I'd expected. Megan Fay, easily recognized from approximately ninety separate television shows, plays Edie, Brenda's squadie and roommate. She embodies both the aggressive butch-army-chick role, and the recalcitrant buddy trope. Conchata Ferrell makes some funny appearances as well in a supporting role, employing the same dry delivery and humor she later brought to Two And A Half Men. David Kaufman (playing Jimmy Anderson) has since moved into voice-acting, but it was the eighties and he was young, so I give him a pass on the stilted ridiculousness.
The conflict redoubles when Jimmy inevitably discovers his mother's ploy, and Brenda's squadies wanting to Private-Pyle her when her antics routinely get them all in trouble. Son and mother make a wager of sorts: if she can complete her inaugural jump, he'll drop out of paratrooper school and transfer to the motor-pool. The squadies, meanwhile, do not go Full Metal Jacket on Brenda. Instead she twists their arms to help her get through cadet school, either with good honest elbow-grease or outright trickery.
Will she prevail? Doesn't matter, it's a comedy. We're here to laugh, not to make any sense of a fundamentally illogical plot line.
"Light-hearted romp" definitely fits the bill for describing Your Mother Wears Combat Boots. These days, with Batman being all super-serious and the Joker becoming a tragic anti-hero, I'll admit I can be guilty of the jaded viewer syndrome. I expect every film into which I invest my (not-so-valuable) time to deliver diamond-encrusted gold on every facet. From a comedy I expect a deep social commentary; from a drama I expect mind-boggling cinematography; even our action films are supposed to be more than action films these days.
I'd encourage you to turn that bit of your brain off, here.
Don't read too much into it. Watch it alone when you can really let yourself have a giggle free of any judgment or derision from your peers. Get back in touch with your eighties-child, or meet it for the first time altogether if you were fortunate enough to have been born sometime later.
There is absolutely nothing special about Your Mother Wear Combat Boots. Not a single spectacular angle to it. But it made grumpy old me laugh, and I suppose that's all it ever aimed for.
*May Contain Minor Spoilers*
I can't lie: within the first five minutes of Your Mother Wears Combat Boots, I'd already decided I was going to pan the thing. There's suspension of disbelief, and then there's "Within the infinite realms of the multiverses, this scenario does not exist in a single one." It was easier for me to believe a bunch of little-people and their band of multi-racial buddies went on a quest to destroy an all-powerful evil Ring than it was to buy Your Mother's setup. The short version is as follows: after a middle-aged woman's son enlists in the army, she follows him to paratrooper school and masquerades as a cadet on a hunt for her wayward son, without a single official realizing she has no business being there.
Yeah. I know. Rick and Morty has a deeper rooting in reality than Your Mother Wears Combat Boots.
The humor is the exact sort I detest: clean. It's an eighties flick, complete with equally repulsive hair-do's and shoulder pads. Hector Elizondo is in it, but he's not a butler, which threw my entire world-view into absolute chaos. The military is presented as a corp of clueless comedic buffoons, and the characters – or caricatures, rather – are overt clichés and tropes dressed up as people.
I intended to wage total war in verbal form on Your Mother Wears Combat Boots. And then something amazing happened.
Hell froze over, and I found myself laughing.
Barbara Eden of I Dream Of Jeannie fame plays Brenda Anderson, who the modern lexicon would probably label a helicopter parent. Her husband died in Vietnam, but it wasn't Charlie who killed him. It was a 'parachute accident', whatever the heck that is. Brenda's son, Jimmy, is intent on joining the Army and enlists at the first opportunity, kicking off the entire plot when his mother receives a letter from him informing her "Na-na-na boo-boo, I joined anyways", or something to that effect.
Brenda's character reminded me of Phoebe from Friends: her act of utter ignorance and naivety can't possibly be anything than an act. As with Phoebe, I quickly decided she was possibly the smartest person present, and though she was on a mission, she had to be having a real lark, yukking it up at all the idiots buying her moronic facade. Pushing the envelope, seeing how stupid they could possibly believe a human would be.
Basically she's an 80's live-version internet troll, and her entire life – every word out of her mouth – is an elaborate prank on the legions of the gullible morons populating her fictional universe.
Let's remember the key to literary criticism: the creator's intent means diddly. My subjective experience with the art is all that matters.
So if I say she's Phoebe, she's Phoebe, damnit.
Having accepted this multi-faceted aspect of an otherwise one-dimensional film, I found it far easier to accept as well the cast of flat supporting characters. Besides Hector Elizondo trading in his butler's livery for the facade of a tough drill-instructor, there are more big names and recognizable faces than I'd expected. Megan Fay, easily recognized from approximately ninety separate television shows, plays Edie, Brenda's squadie and roommate. She embodies both the aggressive butch-army-chick role, and the recalcitrant buddy trope. Conchata Ferrell makes some funny appearances as well in a supporting role, employing the same dry delivery and humor she later brought to Two And A Half Men. David Kaufman (playing Jimmy Anderson) has since moved into voice-acting, but it was the eighties and he was young, so I give him a pass on the stilted ridiculousness.
The conflict redoubles when Jimmy inevitably discovers his mother's ploy, and Brenda's squadies wanting to Private-Pyle her when her antics routinely get them all in trouble. Son and mother make a wager of sorts: if she can complete her inaugural jump, he'll drop out of paratrooper school and transfer to the motor-pool. The squadies, meanwhile, do not go Full Metal Jacket on Brenda. Instead she twists their arms to help her get through cadet school, either with good honest elbow-grease or outright trickery.
Will she prevail? Doesn't matter, it's a comedy. We're here to laugh, not to make any sense of a fundamentally illogical plot line.
"Light-hearted romp" definitely fits the bill for describing Your Mother Wears Combat Boots. These days, with Batman being all super-serious and the Joker becoming a tragic anti-hero, I'll admit I can be guilty of the jaded viewer syndrome. I expect every film into which I invest my (not-so-valuable) time to deliver diamond-encrusted gold on every facet. From a comedy I expect a deep social commentary; from a drama I expect mind-boggling cinematography; even our action films are supposed to be more than action films these days.
I'd encourage you to turn that bit of your brain off, here.
Don't read too much into it. Watch it alone when you can really let yourself have a giggle free of any judgment or derision from your peers. Get back in touch with your eighties-child, or meet it for the first time altogether if you were fortunate enough to have been born sometime later.
There is absolutely nothing special about Your Mother Wear Combat Boots. Not a single spectacular angle to it. But it made grumpy old me laugh, and I suppose that's all it ever aimed for.
once again, Barbara Eden's attire is out of place in the armed forces
lee_eisenberg3 October 2012
One of Jeannie's main traits is that her colorful outfit looks like the exact opposite of the clothes worn by the men around her. So when Barbara Eden's overprotective mother decides to pull her son out of the army in "Your Mother Wears Combat Boots", she enters wearing a new set of colorful clothes while surrounded by people in boring outfits!
This is a very lighthearted comedy directed by Anson Williams (Potsie on "Happy Days"). Nonetheless, it's pretty funny how Eden's character goofs up everything, irritates her sergeant (Héctor Elizondo), and draws the ire of the rest of the people in her platoon. While taking the time to complain about the cholesterol content of what her sergeant eats! Certainly OK for a few laughs. Watch for Eden's son Matthew in a small role.
This is a very lighthearted comedy directed by Anson Williams (Potsie on "Happy Days"). Nonetheless, it's pretty funny how Eden's character goofs up everything, irritates her sergeant (Héctor Elizondo), and draws the ire of the rest of the people in her platoon. While taking the time to complain about the cholesterol content of what her sergeant eats! Certainly OK for a few laughs. Watch for Eden's son Matthew in a small role.
Barbara Eden in boots!
Jerry-912 March 1999
A Funny Fun Mother and Son Movie , Very Very Enjoyable,
pat-1768 June 2001
A great movie starring Barbara Eden and her real life son , Matthew Ansara. Barbara as Brenda Anderson, the overprotective mom tries to keep her son out of the airforce and wants him to go to college. But in the process everything goes astray and instead Brenda (Barbara Eden) winds up in the airforce. Things get very funny as she alienates everyone in sight by getting them on KP for her screwups. In one hilarious scene she appears on the battleground wearing short shorts because she misunderstood the term BDU (battle dress uniform) to mean BVD's ,which of course, she told her sergeant, she was no way going to wear. In the end she is forced to do a jump from the plane to set an example for her son and winds up encouraging him to stay in. I strongly suspect, from the reality of the scenes that they were done with the cooperation of the airforce. Barbara as usual makes everything hilarious with her antics. A great fun movie.
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