Good concept, poorly executed.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Steven Spielberg's "1941" ranks as one of that legendary director's artistic nadirs. His first and only pure foray into comedy was derided by critics as a bloated, unfunny mess, and due to its massive budget it failed to meet its studio's financial expectations in stark contrast to Spielberg's previous efforts.Set on the California coast prior to Christmas 1941, the plot is inspired by the real paranoia and fear of an imminent Japanese attack that gripped the U.S. West Coast in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor. Even in 1979, this was questionable material for a slapstick comedy and some of the WW2 generation objected including some older Hollywood stars who passed on roles in the film. To make it even more questionable, the film also has a full-fledged violent riot based upon the infamous 1943 Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots which were racially motivated between white servicemen and Mexican-American youths wearing "unpatriotic" Zoot Suits. War induced paranoia and race riots are not exactly the stuff of knee-slapping comedy. Yet, Spielberg, who allegedly couldn't stop laughing while he read the screenplay, soldiered-on.One can definitely see what Spielberg was aiming to accomplish. He wanted to make a late 70's version of 1963's "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World," a very frantically paced, broad, and slapstick comedy with an all-star cast, combined with the cheeky sexual/fratboy humor of 1978's "Animal House." He even got John Belushi and Tim Matheson to reprise their "Animal House" roles except "Bluto" and "Otter" are respectively re-named: "Captain 'Wild Bill' Kelso" and "Captain Loomis Birkhead" in "1941."Sadly, the "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World"/"Animal House" combo didn't work. "1941" is essentially a who's who of late 1970's comedic talents frantically running around and shouting their lame dialogue while stuff explodes and falls apart about them as they deal with both imagined and real Japanese air and naval attacks. It just tries way too hard to garner its few tepid chuckles. The spectacle can be amusing at times, but it's mostly just exhausting, annoying, and tiresome. Even Spielberg has referred to "1941" as his "unfunny comedy."The film does have some decent stuff:1) John Williams' rousing score.2) Slim Pickens' small role as "Hollis Wood."3) The choreography of the USO dance and ensuing riot.4) Nancy Allen and Dianne Kay (the hot blonde sister from "Eight is Enough") in 1940's outfits are very nice eye-candy.However, overall, it's a just a very loud, overlong, not particularly funny, and indulgent mess that fortunately Spielberg was able to dust himself off from and move-on.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor paranoia swept across the nation as the United States was swept into World War 2. One of the most prominent areas of paranoia following December 7th was the West Coast, in particular California cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. Nothing like the films events occurred in real life, but at the time it was a real concern. The plot of 1941 is in the context of this paranoia. While the film isn't great (especially by Steven Spielberg standards), to say the film is boring would be false. One of the best things about the movie is the characters. There are a few throw away characters but those played by Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, Toshiro Mifune, Christopher Lee, Ned Beatty, John Candy, Warren Oates, and Slim Pickens are a lot of fun to watch, even if some of them aren't in the movie very long. There's also a bunch of great gags. But the flaws are pretty prevalent as well. As funny as some of the jokes are, there's also other ones that are just painful or awkward. In conclusion, the film is relatively enjoyable but the flaws can leave you imagining how it could have been a better movie. I do recommend it as it is very entertaining, but the flaws exist.

Steven Spielberg was, like many people, part of my childhood, and to this day 'Jaws', 'ET', 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' are still favourites. 'Schindler's List' is also a masterpiece, and 'Jurassic Park' still leaves me awestruck with the revolutionary dinosaur effects.Despite being widely regarded as Spielberg's biggest disaster, am personally not of the opinion that '1941' is quite his worst film. It's one of his worst, and on reflection his most disappointing considering the ideas and the talent, but to me 'The Lost World' (both that and the third were a disgrace to the original 'Jurassic Park') gets that dishonourable title.'1941' has its moments where it succeeds. Technically, it looks fabulous, being beautifully shot (wasn't crazy about the dance scene in general but the cinematography in the scene was impossible to find fault with) and audaciously designed. John Williams delivers yet another rousing music score, not one of his better efforts but a very good and perfectly fitting within the film one all the same.A few good scenes and standout performances. The ferris wheel and house destruction scenes are technical marvels, are wonderfully anarchic and extremely funny, and even more so the opening of the Coke and Slim Pickens scenes. Mustn't forget the 'Jaws' parody either. Of the cast, faring best are a wonderfully crazed John Belushi (a nothing part but Belushi makes the most of it), a hilarious Slim Pickens, Robert Stack as an army general who loves Dumbo, a nerdy and madcap Eddie Deezen and a wonderfully stoic Christopher Lee.Others don't fare so well though. John Candy has nothing to do and looks bored, Dan Aykroyd is similarly wasted in a slapstick that is far too over-the-top and busy to find much entertainment value in, Treat Williams overdoes the aggressive condescension of his character and comes over as an irritating bully, Tim Mattheson and Nancy Allen are pretty bland and while good Lorraine Gray and Ned Beatty are underused.Furthermore, '1941' suffers from being bloated and trying far too hard. It has too many characters, most of which either have very little to do or are sketchy at best or feature too much with not much interesting at all. Likewise there are also too many plot-lines, which gives the film a too busy and sprawling structure at times, the worst faring one being the love story subplot that just grinds the film to a halt and is truly dull.Humour wise, '1941' has moments where it's funny, but too much of it is too loud, too over-egged, sloppily timed and gratuitously vulgar (this kind of humour has worked very well in other films like 'Animal House' but in those instances the timing was much sharper and less manic). The film takes far too long to properly get going, with the appearance of Slim Pickens being where it properly shows signs of coming to life. Despite the dazzling cinematography and a suitably intense brawl, the dance scene is not that interesting and goes on forever. The dialogue is crass and left me stone-faced rather than crying my eyes out laughing.Spielberg shows expertise on the technical and visual front, but when it comes to momentum and keeping control of the too many plot strands and characters he fails and shows himself less than natural with comedy.Overall, not a complete disaster but a lesser Spielberg effort that tries far too hard. While it succeeds in a few areas it fails badly in many others. 3/10 Bethany Cox

(15%) What happens when you combine the writing talents of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale (they both later penned the fantastic Back to the future movies), all-time great funny guys Dan Aykroyd, John Candy and John Belushi, and then you make out a big cheque to Steven Spielberg so he can blow the lot on the next big blockbuster? Well you get 1941, a truly awful movie. Everything is cranked up to 11 so much that it makes for a painful ordeal to watch at times, and with no main character to focus the story on (there is one in there somewhere I think) things just happen at what feels like pure random. The script is aimless, pointless, childish, crude and underdeveloped and the big set pieces just feel like a big waste of money. Belushi is hardly in the movie and was either drunk or stoned whenever he was, his part is pointless anyway, John Candy looks genuinely bored at times and he's hardly in it either. Dan Aykroyd is the only one with more than five lines, but his talent is hardly pushed to the limit, and most of the other cast members just goof around, shout, fight, dance and argue with each other, its really tiring to watch. And poor Christopher Lee probably wished he'd stuck to playing mute vampires rather than a pointless nazi part with only a few lame lines. A massive headache of a movie. Avoid at all costs.