#96 – In the Army Now

Movie Recruits,

Last night we went back to the well. Back to that good good time called “The 90’s”. When a skinny little weasel captivated America with his gen X slacker ways. We watched the Pauly Shore classic “In The Army Now”. 
I remember watching this movie A LOT, it came out when I was 14 and I was a big Pauly Shore fan. This movie is the third in the “Pauly Shoriverse” and was released after Encino Man ($40 mill) and Son in Law ($36 Million). ITAN followed that path and grossed $28 Mill. If you want to keep going… Jury Duty ($17 million) and Bio Dome ($13 milllion). 

So what killed Pauly Shore’s career is not some sort of Sampson-esque head shaving curse. But the fact that he pretty much played Pauly Shore in all his movies and people just got tired of that. But If I was going to rank the Shore movies. I would go…

1. Son in Law
2. Bio Dome
3. Encino Man
4. In the Army Now
5. Jury Duty 

Now I haven’t seen Jury Duty since I saw it IN THEATERS… but after the rewatch of this one… it’s probably very bad.

Plot.

Honestly It’s not going to be funny to recap this plot. Pauly and Andy Dick are dummies that work in a electronics store, they get fired. Pauly convinces Andy that they can join the reserves to get money for their OWN STORE. They totally do that. Pauly leaves his impossibly hot girlfriend behind and they go to basic training. (who is also in Summer School and Austin Powers) cut to scenes of Pauly being a 90’s slacker and his female drill sergeant yelling at him. But they learn some valuable lessons and make friends with their new buds Lori Petty and David Allen Greir in Water Purification class.

They complete Basic, but are instantly called into action in CHAD. Which has Scud missiles and Chemical weapons. It’s a wild plot point that seems to be included by the Pentagon in return for use of some military equipment and troops.
they make enemies with the special forces guys because they are dicks. One note characters. But they are sent out on the same mission? together? The convoy is ambushed, they get away in the water truck. But Andy Dick blows the engine because he doesn’t was to listen to PFC Pauly Shore’s orders.

They wander the desert, there’s a joke. Semi-hilarity ensues with scorpions.

They are captured by the Chadians, who have also KILLED MOST OF THE SPECIAL FORCES TEAM! Except for the main dude, who leads them in an escape even though he is shot in the leg. They find the SF supply drop and get cool dune buggies and rocket launchers. They are informed by their Sargent (not General) that they are the only people that can complete the mission and stop the CHEMICAL WEAPONS LAUNCH. So they try to paint the target with a laser…but fail. So they have to shoot a rocket launcher at it, they kind of fail at that too, but hit some kind of chain reaction and blow everything up.

The Apaches and Blackhawk helicopters arrive and I’m assuming kill 100’s of Chad soldiers. Everyone is proud, they did it! USA USA USA. 

Back at home they open a Desert Cam0 themed Stereo store and everything works out. He does not get his really hot girlfriend back, but has Lori Petty instead. 

The End. This movie swept the Oscars in 1994 and is at the top of AFI’s greatest American films list. 

As a 14 year old, I do remember being very excited that the slackers came together and completed the mission. But now… oh god is it all so slow and stupid. We calculated that there’s a joke about every 12 minutes. At that pace there’s about 10 jokes in this movie.    

also fun fact. this movie has 5 writers. 

-Mark

Encino Man

Son In Law

In the Army Now

Bio Dome

Jury Duty

Chris