Reviews

This movie is a cross between Herbie the Love Bug remake and the Shaggy D.A. remake.....It tries to be serious then it gets to be surreal. The script was awful and the flashback sequences made it hard for young children to watch and follow. Even though the narration of the film is from the boy, there are flashbacks from everyone including the dog. For most young ones it is impossible to see movies that are not linear. Everyone in the film has a flashback or a "vision". Add on top of it the need to show the dogs bodily functions. Why the film has to have a dog crapping scene? Plus the dog had as much gas as anyone in any National Lampoon movie. I don't know if this was meant to be a child's movie, but it wasn't. In the final scheme, a children's film that tried to be adult but wasn't and wasn't children enough to be a children's film.....

This is an awful remake. They follow the script almost line for line. But they have not an actor who can act. Belushi tries to be Humphrey Bogart and he doesn't even know how to be a soldier. His pot-belly sticking out, he really is bad. The British doctor is such a shell of a character. He is almost plastic. Skip this one and watch the original. As you watch you see the lack of knowledge of World War II. It doesn't seem that the director of this film understand the reason the original film was made. The reason for some many different nationalities was to show the strength in the United Nations. In this film it seems ludicrous.

When ever one watches a remake of a film, one always wants a movie that advances on prior treatment of the subject. The original movie was about unspoken prejudice, but for some reason the makers of this film wanted it to be a pointed film. Making Ann-Margaret's Dallas to be only a bar hall girl not the prostitute of the original. For some absurd reason Dallas is kicked out of town because she was the reason for a quarrel between two men that ended in a killing. So now Dallas hates the Army....The mystery of the characters is not to be found...they are now a stereo-typed. They all now have met and have preconceived animosity instead of creating relationships good or bad. Bing Crosby's doctor is terrible, Alex Cord as the Ringo Kid is flat and lifeless; Red Buttons attempting to be a frightened and shy person is way beyond his capacity to play Mr. Peacock. Finally, Mike Conner's can in no way hold a candle to the acting of Carradine. Also, Curly the sheriff is in it for the money and not a character of law and order but of selfishness. Sad to see that this film ever made it to the screen, it should have stayed unmade.