Pauly Shore was the wrath of different moviegoers and critics during the early 1990's because of his annoying "Valley Guy" roles, that in some early efforts like "Encino Man", and later ones like "Bio-Dome" and "Jury Duty", really did prove annoying and just painful. In between all of those was 1993's "Son In Law", where Shore did play that obnoxious character, but the movie had a lot of likability in it's fish-out-of-water premise,and the way Shore interacted with his supporting cast. Then there was this movie, which is a formula that continued after Goldie Hawn starred in "Private Benjamin" 14 years earlier. The formula: One of the most popular comic actors of their day would do a fish-out-of-water service comedy. Immediately following was Bill Murray in "Stripes" and then eventually Shore signed on for one as well. If you hate Pauly Shore the good news is, you will find him more tolerable and bearable here. While he has some aspects of his previous "Valley Guy" roles in this movie, he is much more restrained here playing more of a dumb straight man, than a dumb, goofy one. He plays an electronics store salesman who is fired when he and his friend Andy Dick mess around on the job. He is then informed about the Army reserves thinking his commitment will be minimal and ignoring the fact that he has to go through training. Thinking it will be the easiest area in the reserves he and Dick sign up for water purification due to his brother being a pool man, and after barely surviving basic training, little does he know he and his team are about to be the first called to a desert war in Chad, and off all of them go to defend the U.S. in Africa. The movie although far more appropriate than "Stripes" is nowhere near as funny, but Shore and his supporting cast do squeeze a little bit of humor into it. The best moments are of course in training, from the moment he gets the classic Army haircut and screams like a little girl at the horror of seeing it, to his female drill sergeant played by Lynn Whitfield, and then pretending that he and Dick are gay to get a discharge so they won't have to go to Chad. Also David Alan Grier gives a very funny supporting performance as the meek, wimpy dental student who becomes part of Shore's team. He is such an underrated comic actor, who brings this movie moments of high comic relief it needs. Lori Petty the only female water purifier of the group, has some nice chemistry with Shore, though she really doesn't quite seem to be his equally goofy match. I guess the idea of them being polar opposites makes it more funny or so the writers thought anyway. Dick is actually more annoying than Shore is here, and seems to be playing a more restrained version of his real life persona. I cannot stand Andy Dick but thankfully he is not the entire focus of the story here making his character merely tolerable, though its a shame they couldn't have found Shore a better sidekick like what Harold Ramis was to Bill Murray in "Stripes." Overall, though formulaic there are some very funny moments and good comedic performances that makes this Shore comedy arguably the comedic actor's finest hour, for what that is worth anyway.