Delta Farce (Blu-ray + DVD-Video/Lionsgate)
Picture: B-/C+ Sound:
B-/C+ Extras: D Film: D
If I got a penny for every unfunny comedy I have ever
seen, I could bankroll a couple dozen of new ones. The new flick barely worth another Lincoln in
the jar is C.B. Harding’s Delta Farce,
which acts like it will spoof all the War films it can think of, but instead is
a tired, predictable, one-joke disaster that even on-the-rise comedian Larry
The Cable Guy cannot save because he is “full metal straight jacketed” by the
terrible Bear Aderhold/Thomas F.X. Sullivan script.
I knew we were in trouble when the first poster for the
much-delayed theatrical release spoofed the classic poster for Stanley
Kubrick’s ever-amazing Full Metal Jacket
(reviewed on HD-DVD elsewhere on this site).
A group of guys are mistaken Army reservists, are supposed
to then be sent to Iraq, but land up in Mexico with a Humvee and are enough of
a wreck to discourage immigration (legal or illegal) of any kind. There is a good comic idea here… somewhere…
but if it is there, it is not in any of the very, very long 89 minutes of this
film. Despite a cast who are cast to be
amusing, this is bad early on and it just gets worse and worse and worse. Calling this funny would be a “farce” indeed.
The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on the
Blu-ray is not that much better than the soft, anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1
DVD version, both shot in HD of some kind.
None of the shots are particularly memorable, including the visual gags,
which are among the worst since the also awful Epic Movie. Both discs have rather weak, Dolby Digital
5.1 EX sound, even when the surrounds try to kick in. Dialogue is not well recorded and the PCM 7.1
16/48 mix makes this even more obvious. Extras on both discs include stills, six
featurettes, a gag reel that is not too funny either and deleted scenes that
are no better than the main mess.
Watching this is like extra mess hall duty, with all the
mess already on screen. Avoid it like a
terrorist attack!
- Nicholas Sheffo
