Sgt. Bilko is in charge of the Motor Pool at an Army base. He's also a lovable con man, providing gambling facilities for the soldiers on base. When an old antagonist from his past shows up to inspect his records and steal away his fiancé, Bilko has to put his skills to creative use.....Made in a time when Hollywood for some reason decided to mock their armed forces with films such as McHale's Navy, and Down Periscope, Bilko is the best of a bad bunch, and it's thanks to Martin's energetic performance, and Hartman's wonderfully asexual villain.Throw in a cast of people who you recognise from better things, and Dan Ackroyd slumming it as a buffoon of a captain, you end up with a mediocre comedy that never really grates, but never really entertains in the way it should be.It's one of those films that looks okay from the trailers, you end up watching it because you have a hangover, and then it finishes and you get on with the rest of your day.When this was made, Martin wasn't really hitting big anymore with his movies. And like another SNL alumni, one Eddie Murphy, he was only getting hits with remakes of older films, and then, Bowfinger.These five years in his career were really bad for him. He was churning out films that were trying to emanate the films that made him a household name in the eighties, but this was the late nineties, and audiences wanted something a little fresher.Proof of this was when Pseudo English Journalist 'Dennis Pennis' approached Martin with a microphone and asked him one simple question'How come your not funny anymore?'...The look on his face is both saddening and sobering.Much like the majority of his output in the nineties....

I missed this when it came out, and just caught it after one of those free weekends for premium channels. As a long-time fan of Phil Silvers' fabulous series of the 1950s, I was skeptical about this movie, although I usually like Steve Martin's films--especially Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.I thought it was quite true to the spirit of the TV show. I was pleased that it was PG and not full of foul language and other things not fit for children. They didn't try to duplicate everything in the original, merely to present a similar group of characters, with the same names. The plot was not unlike one in the series, but was not a remake of any episode from the series.They had some lines that sounded like they could have come from the series. They had a way to signal "brass coming" so Bilko's men could quickly put away all their gambling devices and make the motor pool look like one--just as the series did, only more elaborate. Col. Hall in the film, just like on TV, acknowledged that Bilko knew more about what was going on, and, in effect, ran the post.Other reviewers have detailed the plot. One highlight for me was the clever way Bilko arranged for his adversary to give himself away after ruining the test of the hover tank, not knowing the machine was not going to work in the first place. That was thinking like the Phil Silvers' version would have done.I agree that Silvers, and Nat Hiken, would be proud that their series was re-created as a feature film 40 years later. It wasn't the funniest movie ever, but it was surely no worse than a "very funny" film.

Steve Martin should quit trying to do remakes of classic comedy. He absolutely does not fit this part. Like the woeful remake of the Out Of Towners, this movie falls flat on it's face. How anybody ever thought Steve Martin could even come close to Jack Lemmon's wonderful performance is beyond me and the same is true for this movie. Dan Ackroyd could have played the Bilko part better. Martin is great when doing his own original characters but fails miserably trying to recreate other people's classic work. It's a sad statement when the funniest part of a movie is contained in the first line of the credits when the movie is over. The line "The producers gratefully acknowledge the total lack of cooperation by the United States Army" was just about the only line that actually made me laugh. If you want to see the real Bilko, get hold of the original episodes of the Phil Silvers Show. Those are guaranteed to make you laugh, unlike this mistake that should never have happened. I put this movie in the same category as the aforementioned Lemmon classic and the remake of Psycho. None of them should ever have happened.

...I say that I like the movie. I think that Steve Martin was the perfect person to play the role, and that it was good for him and Dan Aykroyd to co-star after all these years. If it was lower humor than we usually associate with the two, then the crazy scenes justify that. I remember that I saw this a week or two after I saw "Mr. Holland's Opus", and was surprised to see Glenne Headly doing such a different role. Phil Hartman, meanwhile, makes one nasty dude (it reminds you what we lost when he got killed).Anyway, this is a silly movie, but quite funny. I suspect that up in that great army base in the sky, Phil Silvers must feel honored that they made this movie.Also featuring Chris Rock and Silvers's daughter Cathy in supporting roles.