McHale's Navy (1997)

3% of critics liked it
(29 reviews)
37% of users liked it
(8,882 ratings)

The most disorganized crew in the Navy returns in this updated adaptation of the once-popular TV sitcom. Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale (Tom Arnold) has retired from the U.S. Navy and is living on the old PT boat he used to command. He spends his days making the rounds of the Caribbean Island of San… More The most disorganized crew in the Navy returns in this updated adaptation of the once-popular TV sitcom. Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale (Tom Arnold) has retired from the U.S. Navy and is living on the old PT boat he used to command. He spends his days making the rounds of the Caribbean Island of San Moreno, where he was stationed at the end of his career and now peddles pin-up calendars and booze to sailors. However, McHale's idyllic surroundings are soon spoiled when Vladikov (Tim Curry), tired of being known as the "second-best terrorist in the world," decides to stage a bid for world domination and targets San Moreno first. Desperate to fend off Vladikov, Capt. Binghampton (Dean Stockwell) calls McHale back to active duty. McHale is once again saddled with a crew of misfits and losers, including the easily frightened Ensign Parker (David Alan Grier), straight-laced Lt. Carpenter (Debra Messing), good-natured Happy (French Stewart), and Virgil (Bruce Campbell). Ernest Borgnine, star of the original TV series, appears in a small role as a high-ranking Pentagon official who turns out to be McHale's father. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 49 min.
Directed By: Bryan Spicer
Written By: Peter Crabbe
Genres: Comedy

In Theaters: Apr 18, 1997 Wide
On DVD: Jun 3, 2003
Studio: Universal Pictures

Critic Reviews

Leonard Klady, Variety
A ham-fisted, fitfully amusing lark that quickly runs aground.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
By the end, this soporific comedy makes 105 minutes feel more like a two-year hitch.
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
A useless movie. Not funny, suspenseful, moving or even offensive enough to want to torpedo. Just devoid of any conceivable value.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
Leaky PT-boat of a comedy.
Jeff Millar, Houston Chronicle
I didn't laugh once, not even giggle.
James Berardinelli, ReelViews
Suitable only for movie-goers who have undergone frontal lobotomies.
Rob Nelson, Boston Phoenix
All apologies to the handful of Americans who've waited decades for this big-screen update of the '60s sitcom--the result is both awful and awfully irrelevant.
Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide
This shotgun marriage of coarse laughs and low-rent action cliches is, of course, utterly predictable: Cutting-edge comedy isn't lurking under the corpses of old TV shows.
Robin Clifford, Reeling Reviews
The most idiotic, unfunny script imaginable.
Steve Crum, Kansas City Kansan
Tom Arnold is no Ernest Borgnine. A profound statement.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Dear God, why?
Scott Renshaw, rec.arts.movies.reviews
[Trots] out the same tired cliches -- unorthodox heroes, inept commanding officers, officious little weasels getting trampled by the zany crew -- which haven't been funny since...well, ever.
Scott Weinberg, eFilmCritic.com
How to turn a so-so series into a witless movie. Earns a half-star for Bruce Campbell.
Kim Williamson, Boxoffice Magazine
This McHale's Navy would never have floated as programming ballast on a bad night of network TV.
Leslie Rigoulot, Film Scouts
The problem is that when the jokes are as flat as two-day old Coke, your mind has time to think about all the plot incongruities too.

Read all 15 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Jason S

Lame comedy
Christopher B

I saw this in the theater simply because Bruce was in it. They must have saw me coming.
FanGirl B

Three and a half stars? Really? All I can say is Bruce Campbell!!!