When this movie premiered in 1996, I was unaware that it was based on a 50s TV show. After watching It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, I noticed that Phil Silvers had played Bilko. Huh. Maybe I'll check that out. So I did.
Master Sergeant Ernie Bilko (Steve Martin) is in charge of the motor pool at Fort Baxter, commanded by Col. Hall (Dan Akroyd), but his primary occupation is gambling. The motor pool is mostly a casino and the soldiers are mostly oblivious to actual soldiering. Yet somehow, through charm and distraction, Bilko has managed to play his cons for many years. In fact, he tells a story of Fort Dix where he was beset by Lt. Thorn (Phil Hartman), who tried to tame Bilko. However, Thorn was eventually reassigned to Greenland, after taking the fall for one of Bilko's cons.
"What happened to Lt. Thorn, Sarge?"
"I don't know."
Later that day, Major Thorn arrived to inspect progress on an experimental hover tank being developed at Ft. Baxter. As luck would have it, he also discovered that Bilko was still in the Army! Payback time!
The end result is so-so. Any one of Bilko's cons might have been hilarious in a given episode of a TV show but all together in one movie makes Bilko a blight on the Army. It would be one thing if he did his cons on the side and did some real work. Nope. It's all con, all the time. As for Thorn, he finds computer files showing that Bilko rents motor pool vehicles to the public, beer funds, gambling enterprises, and several other items but decides to frame Bilko for something he didn't do. Sigh.
Mediocre.
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