Major Payne (1995): Dir: Nick Castle / Cast: Damon Wayans, Karyn Parsons, Steven Martini, Michael Ironside, William Hickey: Formula driven military comedy about an individual succeeding the thresholds of war and now reduced to a different trial. Damon Wayans plays Major Benson Winifred Payne who returns from a South American drug raid that contains a hilarious reference to Apocalypse Now. Unfortunately he is placed in charge of a group of misfit kids that he immediately lines up and unloads every insult possible in accordance to any physical standout in their appearance. This lands him in hot water with the mother of one of the boys. She is played by Karyn Parsons and her job is to lecture and predictably become the cardboard romantic interest. Wayans holds his own injecting harsh reality to these kids including an amusing sequence where he unloads his gun on a closet door to prove to one kid that nothing scary is in there. The pranks pulled by the kids always backfire proving Payne to be ahead of them intellectually. Supporting cast are an assortment of cardboard cut-outs. Steven Martini plays the rebel older kid in need of a reality check. Michael Ironside is wasted in one scene as an abusive father. William Hickey appears briefly to prove that he has more insects in his office than cans of Raid. While it satires military and behaviour, its delivery is a pain all its own. Score: 5 ½ / 10
Review of Major Payne
