1941

Zemeckis, Candy, Lee, Ackroyd and Spielberg...how can you say no?

Plot: Following the bombing of Pearl Harbour, hysteria grips America. An assortment of paranoid Army and Airforce personnel scramble to protect the Los Angeles coastline from the imagined enemy. There is one small, but serious, Japanese contingent awaiting; but no-one can get it together to fight them.

We might expect more from Spielberg, and from the pen of Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future): so we should. This plot is threadbare. And can anyone tell me who the main character is? Belushi is on the DVD cover. Dan Akroyd's there, unconscious. Sir Christopher Lee plays a nazi, for about a minute. The ensemble, however cartoonish, are well drawn and belong in this parallel universe. It is funny. And silly. Absurdist, goofball comedy. It's the slapstick Dr Strangelove. And Spielberg directs it. So it pretty much works.

Budget: $35,000,000

Gross: $92,455,742

Fun Fact: A veritable who's who of cast members. Look out for John Landis (An American Werewolf in London) and Mickey Rourke. John Wayne and Charlton Heston were both offered roles, but felt the film was unpatriotic. 

review by Simon Hansen.