McHale's Navy (film)

McHale's Navy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bryan Spicer
Produced by	Bill Sheinberg Jonathan Sheinberg Sid Sheinberg
Written by	Peter Crabbe Andy Rose
Starring	Tom Arnold David Alan Grier Dean Stockwell Debra Messing with Tim Curry Danton Stone Bruce Campbell French Stewart Ernest Borgnine as 'Admiral Quinton McHale Sr.'
Music by	Dennis McCarthy
Cinematography	Buzz Feitshans IV
Editing by	Russell Denove
Studio	The Bubble Factory
Distributed by	Universal Studios
Release date(s)	18 April 1997
Running time	108 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$31,190,000 (estimated)
Box office	$4,529,843[1]

McHale's Navy is a 1997 military comedy film starring Tom Arnold as the son of Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale (retired), known by the same name. The movie is based on the television series that starred Ernest Borgnine.

Plot

Retired Lt. Commander Quinton McHale Jr. (Tom Arnold) has committed to spending his days taking care of the people of San Moreno, especially Roberto, his friend's orphaned son. He does this in part by trading goods and services and selling home-brewed beer, ice cream and swimsuit calendars to the men of the San Ysidro Naval Base now commanded by Capt. Wallace B. Binghampton (Dean Stockwell) and Lt. Penelope Carpenter (Debra Messing). Capt. Binghampton believes his men have gone native and confiscates all of the products McHale has sold them. He wants to resurrect his career after having mistakenly sunk a luxury cruise liner.

Major Vladikov (Tim Curry), the second best terrorist in the world, takes control of the baseball field and beach on San Moreno to stage an attack on the Pentagon. After Roberto inadvertently alerts Vladikov that to McHale's presence, Vladikov blows up McHale's home and nearly destroys his PT-73, a PT Boat, as they have been rivals since training together under Cobra (Ernest Borgnine). In fact, Vladikov is the man responsible for Roberto's father's death. Vladikov also invades the center of the village close to his new base and displaces everyone that lived there.

Cobra instructs Binghampton to stand down in favor of McHale. Upon learning that the village was destroyed, McHale accepts the assignment with the stipulations that he be given his old crew, men stationed at San Ysidro, and complete autonomy from Binghampton. Binghampton appears to agrees but enlists Ensign Charles Parker (David Allen Grier) to spy on McHale. Slowly both Parker and Carpenter realize that Binghampton is inept.

McHale sets up a camp site for the villagers and heads to Cuba for supplies to fix the PT-73 and and to combat Vladikov. McHale and his crew use a pirated variety show broadcast to block Vladikov from stealing launch codes and entertain the villagers. Binghampton attempts an attack on Vladikov's base but upon arrival, it is vacated and shown to be a front. Vladikov has killed the men that hired him to blow up the pentagon as he motives are finally revealed. He was monitoring communications between McHale and Cobra and is aware that Cobra is en route. Vladikov attempts to kill Cobra using his stealth boat. Roberto is aboard and he tries to short out the boat to no avail. After Ensign Parker saves Roberto, McHale successfully kills Vladikov. Cobra lands safely and reveals that he is McHale's father, none other than now Admiral Quinton McHale, Sr. Finally, the film ends with the promotions of Lt. Carpenter and Ensign Parker, the US Navy rebuilding the baseball field, McHale re-retirement so that he may pursue a relationship with Carpenter and Binghampton's apparent demotion to umpire for a kids' baseball game.

Cast

Actor	Role
Tom Arnold	Lt. Commander Quinton McHale, Jr.
Dean Stockwell	Captain Wallace B. Binghamton
Debra Messing	Lt. Penelope Carpenter
Ernest Borgnine	Admiral Quinton McHale, Sr. (aka Cobra).
David Alan Grier	Ensign Charles T. Parker
Tim Curry	Major Vladikov
Bruce Campbell	Virgil
French Stewart	Happy
Brian Haley	Christy
Danton Stone	Gruber
Tommy Chong	Armando / Ernesto

Reception

The film received largely negative reviews from critics and was a bomb at the box office, grossing only $4.5 million in ticket sales. McHale's Navy was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Remake or Sequel, losing to Speed 2: Cruise Control. It maintains a 3% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

References

1. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mchalesnavy.htm

External links

• McHale's Navy at the Internet Movie Database
• McHale's Navy at AllRovi
• McHale's Navy (film) at Rotten Tomatoes