Review of Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) by Diego T — 01 Aug 2013

Back in the days when Robin Williams didn't suck, he made Good Morning Vietnam, a legitimately funny movie that unfortunately tries too hard to MASH-ify itself. It seems that the film just couldn't decide which way it wanted to go, serious and darkly comical, or upbeat and hilarious. Films like this usually end up clashing too impossibly with themselves, and end up being like Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, incapable of finding a consistent tone and sticking with it.

Good Morning Vietnam is the story of a disc jockey who is given a job playing DJ for the troops during the Vietnam War. His unorthodox method of broadcasting is funny, but honestly, there's no acting taking place at this point-- it's just Robin Williams being Robin Williams. I laughed out loud, but the movie clearly needed more of that level of humor. It just wasn't all there when it came to the subplot, about Williams trying to get a Vietnamese girl to go on a date with him. As it usually does with comedies from the eighties, it got unnecessarily touchy-feely and melodramatic. It's entertaining enough, but there's too much drama and not enough laughs to keep it going.

It's got plenty of quotable lines, and there are some really funny scenes, but what kind of kills Good Morning Vietnam is the complete under-usage of the supporting cast, specifically Williams's boss. The banter between the two is great, but it's only used intermittently, spliced in with an unfunny and unnecessary side story. Williams sees a girl on the street and falls in love, then follows her to her English class and starts teaching there. And yes, it's just as stupid as it sounds.

If this were two separate movies, I would grade the disc jockey one as a good 9/10 and the story with the girl as a 3/10. I really hate it when writers try to mash two completely dissonant stories together into one movie; that's how you get jarring tonal shifts like in Cowboys and Aliens. Does it COMPLETELY kill the movie? Not really, but it's distracting enough to make it far less enjoyable to watch. You don't watch a great movie while thinking "Yeah, whatever, just get back to the part of the story I'm actually ENJOYING.".

To its credit, the disc jockey scenes are hilarious. Williams is one of the fastest, rapid-speaking comedians of all time, and it's hard to keep up. Sometimes you wonder if his brain just works faster than his mouth does, and he's just playing catch-up. He works at lightspeed, firing off one-liners and hilarious anecdotes like a witty machine gun. It's incredibly entertaining and fun to watch. If only he had stayed at this level of comedy instead of making Mrs Doubtfire.

Final Score for Good Morning Vietnam: 6/10 stars. It's certainly watchable and funny, but I wouldn't recommend it highly to anyone. It's more of a sideshow to Williams's real talent, which is stand-up comedy. It tries to throw in some meaning to the proceedings about war and censorship, but at the end of the day, it's really nothing other than a fluff piece about Robin Williams. Fans of his comedy should see it, but if you dislike him even a bit, you'll probably find this movie to be grating and unappealing.