19411979

51/100 This is Spielberg's attempt at comedy, and it about halfway succeeds, but halfway's not nearly enough to make this an enjoyable experience. Multiple talented actors and actresses are wasted on this terrible script. Now I will give the film this: you really couldn't make a movie like this, where the whole point is showing how stupid and paranoid Americans are, nowadays, at least not in the US. The problem is that the film takes this funny premise and does it with an unfunny script. The jokes are a mile-a-minute here, but unfortunately their quality makes it feel like this fast-paced cartoony film begins way too slowly, especially with the need to introduce about five different plotlines in quick succession. The film relies way too heavily on slapstick without knowing how to do it properly, and the characters themselves are annoying, particularly John Belushi as "Wild" Bill Kelso. The film also has some really dated jokes, like some racist humour and a running gag of a guy trying to rape a woman. Probably funny back then, but just gross nowadays. Now I will give the film this, it gets funnier as it goes on, until it actually turns into a pretty good comedy near the end, but it's far too little and far too late for me to forget the hour and a half of garbage before that. The actors themselves also manage to save several of the gags and you can tell they're really trying. I'd also be remiss if I didn't point out the best joke in the movie, which is Dan Aykroyd putting oranges over his eyes and saying "I'm a bug." It's stupid, but I think it's funny anyways. Finally, I'd like to comment on how John Williams is going way too hard for a movie of this caliber. Seriously, the main theme is actually a banger, and I felt the score was overall the best part of the movie. Overall, 1941 has some great talent in it and there are definitely some good jokes in there, but overall, it's too unfunny to be a comedy and too unserious to be an epic, leaving nothing for it to be but mediocre.