An unemployed Detroit ad man accepts a short-term position teaching English -- ultimately and primarily Hamlet -- at Fort McClane to an octet of boot-camp laggards (a.k.a., "squeakers," a.k.a., "double D's," i.e., "dumb as dogshit"). The classroom sessions, especially the early, feeling-out ones, are enjoyable in their patly written way. (The level of stupidity in the students is never convincing, much less daunting: just a sitcom assortment of two-dimensional "types.") But wave after wave of triumph and uplift near the end is too much to bear; is tantamount to gloating. (Even the flinty drill sergeant gets won over by a foot soldier's rain-drenched rendition of the Crispin's Day speech from Henry V.) The motto of the army base is "Victory Starts Here"; the motto of the movie is "Victory Never Stops." With Danny DeVito, James Remar, Gregory Hines; written by Jim Burnstein; directed by Penny Marshall. (1994) — Duncan Shepherd
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