''Sgt. Bilko'' is a 1996 American

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by Jonathan Lynn and written by Andy Breckman. It is an adaptation of the 1950s television series '' The Phil Silvers Show'', often informally called ''Sgt. Bilko'', or simply ''Bilko'', and stars Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, Phil Hartman and Glenne Headly.

Plot

Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko is in charge of the motor pool at Fort Baxter, a small

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

base that develops new military technology. Exploiting this position, he directs a number of scams, ranging from gambling to renting out military vehicles. His commanding officer,

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

John Hall, overlooks Bilko's money-making schemes, as he is more concerned with problems in the "Hover Tank" that the base is designing. Major Colin Thorn, an officer from the U.S. Army Inspector General's office, arrives at the camp and begins to scrutinize Bilko's record. Officially, Thorn is at Fort Baxter to conduct a general inspection and determine if the base should remain open in light of recent defense cutbacks. He is also determined to get revenge on Bilko to settle an old score the two have from Fort Dix, where Thorn was nearly court-martialed after a fixed boxing match which resulted in Thorn being shipped off to

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland ...

in the belief that he tried to fix the fight. Bitter and unprincipled, Thorn is not above breaking the law to ruin Bilko. He attempts to steal Bilko's long-time fiancée Rita, whom Bilko has stood up at the altar more than a dozen times. Rita is tired of waiting and gives Bilko 30 days to win her back or lose her for good. Bilko, with the help of newly assigned Private First Class Wally Holbrook, devises a means of avoiding Thorn's attempt to transfer him to Greenland: He rigs a demonstration of the base's malfunctioning Hover Tank, staged before a four-star general and numerous government officials. Since Thorn had deliberately tried to sabotage the tank the previous night, he confronts Bilko, Hall, and the general, loudly insulting Bilko and Hall. While ranting, he confesses to sabotaging the Hover Tank. Thorn is sent off again to Greenland. The last day of Rita's ultimatum has come. Just as she sadly begins to write Bilko off forever, Rita hears men outside her house, serenading her with a favorite song of hers and Bilko's. Looking out, she sees Bilko and his platoon. Bilko asks Rita to marry him, and she accepts. The next day is their wedding day, but Rita shows up late, due to a mix-up over

Daylight Saving Time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...

. After they play another card game (if Bilko wins, they get married), they finally get married. Unknown to Bilko, Rita is holding four aces in her hand.

Cast

* Steve Martin as Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko * Dan Aykroyd as Col. John T. Hall * Phil Hartman as Maj. Colin Thorn * Glenne Headly as Rita Robbins * John Marshall Jones as Sgt. Henshaw * Pamela Adlon as Sgt. Raquel Barbella *

Austin Pendleton Austin Campbell Pendleton (born March 27, 1940) is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor. He is known as a prolific character actor on the stage and screen who has appeared in films including '' Catch-22'' (1970); '' W ...

as Maj. Ebersole * Chris Rock as 1st Lt. Oster *

Cathy Silvers Cathy Silvers (born May 27, 1961) is an American actress and author. She is the daughter of actress Evelyn Patrick and actor/comedian Phil Silvers. She is best known for her role as boy-crazy teenager Jenny Piccolo in later seasons of the TV si ...

as 1st Lt. Monday * Steve Park as Capt. Moon * Debra Jo Rupp as Mrs. Hall * Richard Herd as Gen. Tennyson * Dan Ferro as Spc. Tony Morales * John Ortiz as Spc. Luis Clemente * Max Casella as Spc. Dino Paparelli * Daryl Mitchell as Pfc. Walter "Wally" T. Holbrook * Mitchell Whitfield as Pfc. Mickey Zimmerman *

Travis Tritt James Travis Tritt (born February 9, 1963) is an American country music singer and songwriter. He signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1989, releasing seven studio albums and a greatest hits package for the label between then and 1999. In the 20 ...

as Self

Casting

Albert Brooks Albert Brooks (born Albert Lawrence Einstein ; July 22, 1947) is an American actor and filmmaker. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for 1987's '' Broadcast News'' and was widely praised for his performance as a ...

was offered the role of Ernest G. Bilko, but turned it down.

Reception

On the film-critic aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, ''Sgt. Bilko'' received a 31% positive ratings from 39 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a score of 47 out of 100 based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave it two thumbs up on their television show. Ebert praised Steve Martin's performance and enjoyed "all the little jokes hidden in the corners" of the movie. Audiences surveyed by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film a grade of "B+" on a scale of A+ to F. It won the award for Worst Resurrection of a TV Show at the 1996 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. It also failed at the box office.''Sgt. Bilko''
at

Box Office Mojo Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb, which itself is owned by Amazon. History Brandon Gray be ...

References

External links

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''Sgt. Bilko''
at

{{Brian Grazer 1996 films 1996 comedy films American comedy films 1990s English-language films Films about con artists Films about the United States Army Films based on television series Films directed by Jonathan Lynn Films produced by Brian Grazer Films scored by Alan Silvestri Imagine Entertainment films Military humor in film Films with screenplays by Andy Breckman Universal Pictures films 1990s American films