Movie Review: Delta Farce (2007)

The movie stars Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall, DJ Qualls, Keith David and Bill Doyle.

To be honest, I have avoided watching this movie ever since it first came out. This is because military comedies just don't have the same impact they used to and because films starring stand up comedians don't always work out as well as they should.  

However, I was waiting for my wife and daughters to get home from running some errands on Saturday and, since the film was on one of our movie channels, I took the time to finally watch it. The movie, as expected, wasn't the best comedy I've ever watched. But, I will admit, it was considerably better than I expected.

Larry the Cable Guy and Bill Engvall play very well off of each other in this film. But, I think the actor who really stands out is Qualls. His performance is definitely something I would describe as over the top. However, his character, who wasn't too bright and possibly a little insane, was just fun to watch as a result of that and, in many ways, kept the film from becoming nearly as boring as it could have become.

The movie's biggest negative is it is very predictable. As I said, Qualls kept it interesting, but there wasn't much about this movie that surprised me. For example, when they buried their "deceased" sergeant (David), I kind of figured they would see him again. And, even the little twist at the end, when their mistake is discovered, was something I would expect to see in a dozen other comedies.

I also think the movie made a mistake by letting the heroes discover their real location so early on. Some of the funniest jokes were the result of them mistaking one culture for another and there really was no reason to let them in on the big secret so quickly. As I said, it still was better than expected. But, it might have been much funnier had the writers found a way to keep them in the dark longer.

Thanks mostly to Qualls, this movie was much funnier than I was expecting it to be. However, the predictable plot does keep it from being anything overly memorable.

My Grade: B