As I've always said, it's really hard to make a good war comedy. War is a pretty dramatic subject matter, so it takes an awful lot of finesse to make people laugh at it. I'm sorry to say, The Last Time I Saw Archie isn't any good. It feels like a group of friends got together and filmed what they thought was funny when they cooked up the idea the weekend before. Usually, the humor in "buddy weekend" comedies doesn't usually translate to the audience. Hopefully at least Jack Webb, director and star of this WWII flick, enjoyed himself.
The title character is played by Robert Mitchum, whom I normally love. In this movie, he's a smooth-talking, manipulative slacker who talks his way out of every situation. Remember in The Night of the Hunter when he lies about his wife running off with a drummer in order to gain sympathy? Well, the entire movie is like that, only not half as good. He's so obviously lying in every scene, and yet the characters continue to believe him? It doesn't make any sense that someone who's so obviously a liar continues to get his way. The jokes feel a little flat, and the set ups are either dated or weren't any good to begin with. If this were the first Robert Mitchum movie I ever saw, I wouldn't like him at all. To avoid anyone falling into that terrible fate, I wouldn't recommend renting this one.
The title character is played by Robert Mitchum, whom I normally love. In this movie, he's a smooth-talking, manipulative slacker who talks his way out of every situation. Remember in The Night of the Hunter when he lies about his wife running off with a drummer in order to gain sympathy? Well, the entire movie is like that, only not half as good. He's so obviously lying in every scene, and yet the characters continue to believe him? It doesn't make any sense that someone who's so obviously a liar continues to get his way. The jokes feel a little flat, and the set ups are either dated or weren't any good to begin with. If this were the first Robert Mitchum movie I ever saw, I wouldn't like him at all. To avoid anyone falling into that terrible fate, I wouldn't recommend renting this one.