“I did that film 18 or so years ago, Johny. I played a soldier. I haven’t seen the movie in so long and films are shot out of sequence.”
– Bill Paxton, asked where he is in Stripes.
Bill Murray joins the Army. Much silliness ensues. You’ve got your slapstick version of basic training, with lots of rain and people falling down and mortars being fired in the wrong direction and so forth. You’ve got John Candy mud wrestling. You’ve got the guys accidentally invading East Germany. Basically, you’ve got Bill Murray being Bill Murray for an entire movie. I have to admit, he kind of gets on my nerves after a while. But if you want silliness, you’ve got plenty of that.
As for our Bill, well, ten points for anyone who can spot him in this movie. I’ve watched it three times, and damned if I can find him. He’s listed in the credits as “Soldier” (along with nine other guys), but this being an Army movie, there are, like, seven thousand guys playing soldiers in it, so that doesn’t really help. It’s a teeny role, whatever it is. You want to see Bill as a soldier, go watch Aliens.
Well, you can always watch his name go by in the credits.
One star, for hiding Bill in a sea of olive drab so that no one can find him.