"Stripes" is considered by many a 1980s comedy classic ( /Film once called it Ivan Reitman's second best movie ), but once the characters complete basic training, the film moves to Italy where our troublemaking heroes cause an international incident by joyriding in the EM-50 Urban Assault Video, at which point the movie suddenly loses all momentum and stops being funny. It just turns into a generic action comedy that leaves Bill Murray and Harold Ramis with little room to riff. And yet the first half of "Stripes" is such a riot that you can almost forgive the movie completely crapping out — that is, if you're not John Candy.

The brilliant Candy was finally starting to break through as a big-screen comedy star when he appeared as the weight conscious cadet Dewey "Ox" Oxberger. Candy fam

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