The director, Penny Marshall, belongs to a group that includes Ron Howard and Rob Reiner. They reliably produce family movies that are commercial in that they're emotionally satisfying, politically correct, show little or no smoking, and are without special challenge. Their products are to movies as Time Magazine is to news. That doesn't necessarily mean they're poor movies. You want basic news in a familiar format, you read Time Magazine.
In this case, poor Danny DeVito is an award-winning advertising man who loses his job and takes the only alternative -- teaching on an army base to a dozen soldiers who are marginal and need to be taught to think.
The diverse students are scornful, having been ordered to attend the class. DeVito feels hopeless. But, bit by bit, both DeVito and the class come around to mutually relish the bond they've formed. On top of that, DeVito, who marched against the Vietnam war, accommodates himself to the army, and the students learn the difference between a simile and a metaphor.
It has its funny moments -- DeVito stranded on top of a tall tower -- but the underlying theme is a serious one. That's how you make a commercial movie that the whole family will enjoy. It's not an insult to the intelligence, not an orgy of blood, not based on a comic strip or a cartoon character, and it has a happy ending. The ending is predictable because it's part of a friendly formula: mismatched teacher and class who learn from each other, as in "The Blackboard Jungle," "The Private War of Major Benson," or "To Sir, With Love." The reason it's part of a formula is that it's been proved to work.
On the whole, the students may be ignorant, in the sense of not knowing much about high culture or grammar. They may not be able to write twelve-tone music, but they're not stupid, in the sense of being unable to learn quickly. I taught night school at Camp Lejeune and the Marines were as bright as any, and a few were very quick on their mental feet indeed.
In this case, poor Danny DeVito is an award-winning advertising man who loses his job and takes the only alternative -- teaching on an army base to a dozen soldiers who are marginal and need to be taught to think.
The diverse students are scornful, having been ordered to attend the class. DeVito feels hopeless. But, bit by bit, both DeVito and the class come around to mutually relish the bond they've formed. On top of that, DeVito, who marched against the Vietnam war, accommodates himself to the army, and the students learn the difference between a simile and a metaphor.
It has its funny moments -- DeVito stranded on top of a tall tower -- but the underlying theme is a serious one. That's how you make a commercial movie that the whole family will enjoy. It's not an insult to the intelligence, not an orgy of blood, not based on a comic strip or a cartoon character, and it has a happy ending. The ending is predictable because it's part of a friendly formula: mismatched teacher and class who learn from each other, as in "The Blackboard Jungle," "The Private War of Major Benson," or "To Sir, With Love." The reason it's part of a formula is that it's been proved to work.
On the whole, the students may be ignorant, in the sense of not knowing much about high culture or grammar. They may not be able to write twelve-tone music, but they're not stupid, in the sense of being unable to learn quickly. I taught night school at Camp Lejeune and the Marines were as bright as any, and a few were very quick on their mental feet indeed.