In the early 1980’s Steve Martin made a comedy called Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. In it the filmmakers took footage from old black and white crime noir thrillers and then cut in new footage of Steve Martin and his modern co-stars also filmed in black and white to make a brand new film. In 1979 Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman did a similar stunt to create J-Men Forever although they actually wrote new dialogue for the old footage and over dubbed the soundtracks of the old serials from which they had gathered their footage. Military Intelligence And You is the most recent attempt to make a film using this technique.
Miltary Intelligence and You uses old black and white war films, most of them shot for the servicemen of World War II, and cuts them in with newly shot black and white footage to create a spoof army training film. Patrick Muldoon plays Major Nick Reed part of the intelligence gathering crew. Some American soldiers have been shot down by the German “Ghost Squadron” and the Nazis are attempting to wrest information from the men about America’s war plans. Reed and his crew are trying to find out where the Ghost Squadron is based so that they can take them out and protect the big mission the Americans are planning to carry out.
Military Intelligence and You pokes fun at some of the conventions of WWII films as well as the overly narrated training films of the day. When the Nazis bring an American soldier in and treat him to a good meal to trick him into releasing information, the narrator notes that the actual chances of the enemy serving you a nice meal are extremely slim as they will most likely torture you to get the desired information. Many satirical pokes are also made at the Iraq War with characters discussing how the country would never go to war with faulty intelligence and casting off the idea of doctoring the military intelligence to make their case.
Military Intelligence and You has some funny moments, but I didn’t find it laugh out loud hysterical either. Some of the humor is very subtle. Some of the movie, however, doesn’t feel funny at all, at least to me. There is a subplot concerning a tug of war for the affections of Lt. Monica Tasty (Elizabeth Ann Bennett) that feels like a bad movie cliché rather than a parody of a bad movie cliché. It’s like the writers let the guys behind Meet The Spartans come in and write that section. It’s not about finding the humor in the action, it’s about reminding you that you’ve seen this bit before and so that should make it funny. Sadly that approach is rarely funny as anyone that has sat through Date Movie can attest.
Overall Military Intelligence And You is not a bad film, but it’s not as good as it could have been. I give it 2 stars.
365 Days of DVDs 