Basic Training (1985) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

Basic Training is basically a typical grade-B straight-to-vid tits-'n-jokes film from the 1980s. The comedy is on the level of a slapstick TV show, like I Dream of Jeannie or Gilligan. The nudity is supplied mostly by anonymous extras, but there's plenty of it, including several frontals, and the three stars remove their tops as well.

NUDITY REPORT

Rhonda Shear, Ann Dusenberry and Angela Aames show their breasts. Barbara Peckinpaugh and Erika Dockery are seen naked at the start of the film convincing a pentagon official to buy their weapons.

Several extras show it all at a pool party and elsewhere.

DVD info from Amazon.

  • no features

  • no widescreen version

  • The transfer is not bad at all. The Dusenberry topless scene looks great.

Ann Dusenberry plays a Midwesterner who moves to D.C. to seek a career. She is thrilled to get an entry-level position at the Pentagon, but she finds out that the military guys are all incompetent or incurably horny or both. At first she finds this offensive, but as time goes on she realizes that the competence vacuum, coupled with the willingness of the brass to do anything for some 'tang, gives her an opportunity to run the American military virtually on her own. When she finds that the Russians equal the Americans in both incompetence and lust, she heads toward complete domination of the world, all while working ostensibly as a lowly secretary to a junior officer.

TUNA's THOUGHTS
Basic Training (aka Up the Military) is a titty comedy written by a TV writer (Bernie Kahn), and was the second and last directorial attempt from producer Andrew Sugerman.

Ann Dusenberry comes to DC from the midwest hoping to land a job where she can make a difference. She is to room with her old friend, Rhonda Shear. When she arrives, Rhonda is busy in bed with her boss, and is surprised to see Ann. Rhonda has a roommate, Angela Aames (the naked parachute jumper in H.O.T.S.), and the two work at the pentagon. They land Ann a secretarial job there, but Ann soon learns that a secretaries duties include boffing the boss, and nobody does any work. Seeing the vacuum, she decides to fill it. She also finds that the Soviet embassy got their work ethic from the pentagon, single handedly stops the cold war, and becomes Secretary of Defense.

The filmmakers were on solid ground while they were showing naked women, but the plot is lame, the attempts at humor bad sitcom quality, and the acting mostly over the top.

The Critics Vote

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The People Vote ...

 
The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, this film is a low C-. I think it's OK if you're looking for a brain-dead titillation film. The humor is juvenile, and the acting is Catskills schtick, but the women are attractive, so I guess its an acceptable genre film for genre aficionados. If you're looking for something besides Gilligan humor mixed with female flesh, the abysmal IMDb score of 3.5/10 should tell you that whatever you seek, it won't be found here. Tuna says, "As a titty flick, I suppose it is a C-, but barely. Take away the exposure, and it would be rated much lower as a comedy."

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