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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a Modern day Catch 22, October 19, 2007
In someone would want to remake the 1970's film Catch-22, Alan Arkin's role should be played by Jason Biggs. WAIT A SECOND, Guy-X is so similar to Arkin's Catch-22 that you feel this new tale of the modern day miltary is so similar to the classic film.
Biggs's Rudy is an everyman to the wonders that this black comedy avails to miltary life. Guy X pokes a stick at a baying miltary and its red tape. This film does not let up, when coming to their biting satire. As Catch-22 and M*A*S*H poked fun at other styles of the miltary life and SNUFUS. This comedy similar to those and the films Buffalo Soldiers and Jarhead , which showcases how screwed up our miltary is.
This film is cute in spots. It is also sharp and to the point regarding our miltary
Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty good if you watch in the right mood, June 12, 2009
Beware: a few spoilers here...
I realize that the term "dark comedy" doesn't mean a barrel of laughs, so I wasn't expecting that. There are a few funny moments, however. Jason Biggs is underrated in this film, as it's a quality departure from the American Pie antics that made him famous.
More should have been shown of the conspiracy aspect with the Vietnam vets in the "ward." Throwing in a flashback or two to their experience in Vietnam would have explained a lot, although being an indie movie, the producer probably just didn't have the budget.
The film ends with very little closure, and the practically impossible idea that the the Soldiers could just fly off to other installations and assume the identities of random high-ranking officers. Seems like another case in which Hollywood makes the US Military look like a disorganized bunch of buffoons... whether they were trying to or not.
Overall, this is an interesting, well-acted film that had so much potential... until it was made.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
an anti-war wet dream, April 4, 2011
The flick is based on a falsehood: that there was a secret hospital in Greenland where maimed casualties of the Korean War were housed so that they could die unbeknownst to their families. (For the movie, natch, the war was updated to Vietnam.) Unlike the author of No One Thinks of Greenland: A Novel, and unlike the producers of this film version, which was made in the comparative comfort of Iceland, I have actually been to Greenland and researched the legend of Hospital Valley.
Alas for legend, there's nothing to it. A considerable hospital was indeed built in Narsarsuaq in 1942, both to handle sick and injured military personnel stationed in Greenland, but also to serve as a waypoint for severe casualties being sent home from Europe. It treated 2,137 patients in 1943, its high point. The airbase--Bluie West One--was active into the 1950s, when it was a refueling point for jet fighters deploying to Europe. By that time the hospital staff was down to three physicians, so one wing was used as a thirty-student school and another as the BW1 officers club. Sorry! No armless, legless, or faceless soldiers from Korea, never mind Vietnam. It was closed in 1958 when the US turned the base over to Denmark, and the hospital buildings were salvaged for lumber, so valuable in treeless Greenland. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford
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