BILOXI BLUES
RATING: 7 / 10 --> Good movie
Review Date:
October 11, 1998
Director:
Mike Nichols
Writer:
Neil Simon (based on his play)
Producer:
Ray Stark
Actors:
Matthew Broderick as Eugene Morris Jerome
Christopher Walken as Sergeant Toomey
Corey Parker as Epstein
Penelope Ann Miller as Daisy
Genre:
Comedy
Year of Release: 1988
This film was the second
installment of Neil Simon's trilogy of plays based on his own
youth. In 1986, BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS debuted as part one, with
Jonathan Silverman embracing the lead role of Eugene Morris
Jerome. BILOXI BLUES came out in 1988, with Matthew Broderick as
the lead, and three years later, the TV movie BROADWAY BOUND
closed off the triad, with Corey Parker as the protagonist.
PLOT:
Story follows one Eugene Morris Jerome, an insecure,
highly-observant wannabee writer, and virgin, from New York, over
his ten-week World War II boot camp trial in Biloxi, Mississippi
. Several divergent young recruits highlight his group of
trainees, as well as an abusive drill sergeant who will stop at
nothing to discipline this naïve set of youths. Many rites of
passages and lessons of life are entertained during this unsure
time of their lives.
CRITIQUE:
Interesting, playful comedy covers most bases of youthful
exuberance and insecurity, offers a terrific performance by
Christopher Walken as the highly unstable drill sergeant, but
ultimately does nothing to reinvent the boot camp Army flic
genre. This movie's strongest points of consideration are its
witty and well-skewered lines delivered via the pen of writer
extraordinaire, Neil Simon, and the fascinating exhibition
delivered by Christopher Walken, in one of his best roles of his
career.
Most of the characters in this film play caricatures of this
period, but as a whole, the gang worked on the platform on which
they were asked to perform, and many of their presentations were
top-notch. Corey Parker was particularly outstanding as the
arrogant, outspoken, Jewish recruit who delivered one of the most
poignant and relevant lines for me as a writer, "Once you
start compromising your thoughts, you're a candidate for
mediocrity." Great line!
The style of the film does not offer us much more than any other
film of its genre, and the soundtrack could also have used a
giant boost, but overall, the film does deliver many laughs, some
decent performances, and a pretty intense scene between Walken
and Broderick nearing its finish. Also, I have always been a fan
of epilogues, so I did enjoy this one as well, but will admit
that it did turn out to be a little too schmaltzy if you really
think about it. But most of all, it is the idiosyncratic and
genuine performance by Christopher Walken that solidified this
movie for me. He delivered all of his lines with extreme coolness
and pinache, and drew out a perfect scene as the drunk sergeant
on the brink of sanity. If you liked him in TRUE ROMANCE (9/10)
and AT CLOSE RANGE (7.5/10), you'll love him in this wonderfully
unhinged achievement.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars:
The stage version of this film also saw Matthew Broderick playing Eugene Morris Jerome (He
also replayed the character in the stage version of BRIGHTON
BEACH MEMOIRS), Penelope Ann Miller as Eugene's first love, Matt Mulhern as
Eugene's sometime-nemesis Wykowski, and Park Overall as the
earthy, whiskey-voiced prostitute who teaches Eugene a thing or
two about a thing or two.
Corey
Parker, the actor who
portrays the part of Epstein in this film, played the lead
character in Neil Simon's third installment of the series,
BROADWAY BOUND, Eugene Morris Jerome (part played by Matthew
Broderick in this film.)
Jonathan
Silverman, the actor
who portrayed Eugene in the first installment of the series,
BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS, also showed up in the TV movie BROADWAY
BOUND, as Stanley Jerome.
Christopher
Walken's real name is
Ronald Walken. He has been married to Georgianne Walken since
1969.
During the same year as this film, Penelope Ann Miller also played Winnie, PeeWee Herman's girlfriend, in BIG TOP PEE-WEE.
Neil
Simon's full name is
Marvin Neil Simon.
(c) 1998 Berge Garabedian
Movie Reviews by Berge Garabedian
Movie Reviews starting with "B"
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