Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Predrag This comedy flick is about a spoiled Jewish-American woman Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn) who joins the Army after her new husband dies right on their wedding night during sex and duped by sneaky recruiting Sgt. Jim Ballard (Harry Dean Stanton) convinces her that military life to be glamorous, she gets a rude wake up call in boot camp after getting in trouble constantly, especially by Judy's hard-nosed superior officer Capt. Doreen Lewis (Eileen Brennan) prompting her to want a quit the Army, but then Judy has a change of heart and decides to stick it out leading her to a series of adventures that eventually lead her to a promotion and a transfer to Paris, France.The entire cast is outstanding, but especially Hawn who lights up the screen with her charm and beauty. Goldie Hawn is made for this kind of role, and as usual delivers the goods. There are some genuinely 'laugh out loud' moments as she struggles to adapt and make friends. Unfortunately the film seems to run out of steam half way through. Whereas the first half is true comedy, the second half has very little in the way of humor to offer. Having met a French gynecologist who she falls for, she wangles a posting to Paris to be with him. This is where the humor disappears as Judy leaves the army to be with him and he turns out to be a control freak that turns Judy into a clone of his ex girlfriend. It's almost like watching two separate films. I think it would have been better if the whole movie was her in the army not broken into basically two parts one distinctly comedic and the other a love story. Still, despite some glaring flaws, Private Benjamin is a good movie with a good story to tell. Unfortunately, what was probably a pretty daring look at gender rolls for its time has gotten really stale. If you overlook that, though, the movie is very entertaining.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

rioplaydrum Sigh. The innocent 80's and what used to pass for a movie way back when. I remember first seeing this movie in the theater 30 years ago and being mildly amused by Judy and Company. I should have left it at that.While camped-out at a friend's horse ranch, I found the movie on VHS and decided for a trip down memory lane. Big mistake. How this over-rated comedy ever became nominated for THREE Oscars baffles me to no end. Guess it was a SLOW year for comedy in 1980.The screenplay and acting is on the same level as a bad sit-com. The acting is cardboard and sophomoric. The plot? Beyond simplistic. The entire package presented couldn't suspend the disbelief of present-day 12 year old.Just a pile of disorganized fluff that never should have made the big screen but should have been adequate for a made-for-TV-movie now long forgotten and mercifully so.

blanche-2 Goldie Hawn is "Private Benjamin" in this 1980 comedy/drama also starring Eileen Brennan, Sam Wanamaker, Barbara Barrie, Mary Kay Place, and Armand Assante. Hawn is Judy Benjamin, whose second husband dies on her wedding night. Inconsolable, she calls into a radio show, where another caller says he can help her. When they meet, he turns out to be an Army recruiter who promises her a condo on the water and says she can quit if she doesn't like it. Adrift, Judy joins. She doesn't get the condo, and the only water is when it rains or she falls in the mud during training.In spite of having no interest or commitment and incurring the wrath of her superior (Brennan), when Judy tries to go AWOL, the army gives up and sends for her parents. It's then that Judy decides to become a soldier and refuses to leave. She does well, and after sexual harassment from an officer (Robert Webber), she gets to be transferred anywhere she wants. She chooses France, so that she can take up with a one-night stand with a French doctor (Armand Assante) who visited America.The problem with this film is that it's Goldie Hawn, and audiences expected a comedy and instead got more of a comedy-drama. It's almost two films, the second beginning when Judy becomes re-involved with the Assante character.On the plus side, the acting is terrific, and the film holds interest. If the writers hadn't tried to do too many things at once, or been clearer with their intentions from the beginning, the movie could have been a lot better. As it is, it's good, and a great vehicle for two wonderful talents, Hawn and Brennan.

jbartelone One would believe, with the talents of Goldie Hawn, that Private Benjamin would be a comedy smash hit. While it has its moments, it falls short of the mark needed for a great movie.The first half is good. Goldie Hawn's Judy Benjamin lives a ritzy social life. Judy is the spoiled pampered princes who faces uncertainty and confusion about her future when her husband (in an all too brief occurrence by Albert Brooks) Yale dies on their wedding night.Depressed, downtrodden, and seeking self-fulfillment. Judy decides to join the Army after visiting her local recruiting office. She is told about how wonderful the Army is, and decides to try it. Judy is convinced that the Army is like it's advertised on TV, with yachts and exciting adventures.Predictably, Judy struggles through basic training with a mean drill sergeant. The other women in her platoon squad at first resent her, but gradually warm up to her, pulling pranks on the drill sergeant and laughing at Judy's jokes and campfire stories about her life. Goldie does a fine job with the material here. However, the script IS predictable, and strained. The last good part of the movie is the Thornbird's parachute training sequence to the song, "The Battle Hymn of The Republic." Than the movie falls apart in the second half. After basic training, Judy's squad is recruited to France where she reunites with family and friends at a bar. She quickly falls for a French man and the movie becomes a mess. It's never really explained why Judy would have feelings for such a man. At this point, the story almost becomes a totally different movie where the viewer no longer cares and just wants the movie to end. A rapid wedding is planned, but before the ceremony, Judy comes to the realization that the Frenchmen was just using her. He insults her, she responds by decking him, than says, "don't call me stupid" and walks out of the church, a liberated woman.It is as if the writers ran out of the good Army material in the first half of the movie. Than they sloppily tacked on Judy's relationship to the Frenchmen, because they needed to stretch the movie for another half hour. The lesson here is you can't just take what would have been a good movie had it focused on Goldie Hawn in the Army exclusively, and tack on a subplot that makes no sense and offers no explanation for why it's there, other than to add time to the picture.What could have been a 7/10 movie gets downgraded to a 5/10 because of this. There is not enough good story plot in Private Benjamin for it to succeed as a full-length movie.