''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 ol ...

directed by

Jonathan Lynn Jonathan Lynn (born 3 April 1943) is an English stage and film director, producer, writer, and actor. He is known for directing the comedy films such as '' Clue'', '' Nuns on the Run'', ''My Cousin Vinny'', and '' The Whole Nine Yards''. He als ...

and written by

Andy Breckman Andrew Ross Breckman (born March 3, 1955) is an American television and film writer and a radio personality on WFMU. He is the creator and executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning television series ''Monk'' on the USA Network, and is co-hos ...

. It is an adaptation of the 1950s television series ''

The Phil Silvers Show ''The Phil Silvers Show'', originally titled ''You'll Never Get Rich'', is a sitcom which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959. A pilot titled "Audition Show" was made in 1955, but it was never broadcast. 143 other episodes were broadcast – all half-a ...

'', often informally called ''Sgt. Bilko'', or simply ''Bilko'', and stars

Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominate ...

, Dan Aykroyd,

Phil Hartman Philip Edward Hartman (; September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter and graphic designer. Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and his family moved to the United States w ...

and

Glenne Headly Glenne Aimee Headly (March 13, 1955 – June 8, 2017) was an American actress. She was widely known for her roles in '' Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'', ''Dick Tracy'', and '' Mr. Holland's Opus''. Headly received a Theatre World Award and four Joseph ...

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 warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

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 o ...

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 i ...

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 Favorite Song may refer to: * "Favorite Song" (Colbie Caillat song), 2011 song featuring Common * "Favorite Song" (Chance the Rapper song), 2013 song featuring Childish Gambino * "Favorite Song" (Toosii song), 2023 song * ''Favorite Song'' (TV s ...

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

as Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko * Dan Aykroyd as Col. John T. Hall *

as Maj. Colin Thorn *

as Rita Robbins *

John Marshall Jones John Marshall Jones is an American actor, best known for portraying Floyd Henderson on The WB sitcom ''Smart Guy''. He is currently the spokesperson for Pizza Hut. Career Since 2021, Jones has had a recurring role as U.S. Air Force General Nel ...

as Sgt. Henshaw *

Pamela Adlon Pamela Fionna Adlon (; ; born July 9, 1966) is an American actress. She is known for voicing Bobby Hill in the animated comedy series ''King of the Hill'' (1997–2010), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award. She also voiced Baloo in '' Jung ...

as Sgt. Raquel Barbella * Austin Pendleton 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 s ...

as 1st Lt. Monday * Steve Park as Capt. Moon *

Debra Jo Rupp Debra Jo Rupp (born February 24, 1951) is an American actress best known for her roles as Kitty Forman on the Fox sitcom ''That '70s Show'' and its sequel series ''That '90s Show'', and Alice Knight-Buffay on the third through fifth seasons o ...

as Mrs. Hall *

Richard Herd Richard Thomas Herd Jr. (September 26, 1932 – May 26, 2020) was an American actor, appearing in numerous supporting, recurring, and guest roles in television series and occasional film roles, from the 1970s to the 2010s. He was well known in th ...

as Gen. Tennyson *

Dan Ferro Dan Ferro was an American actor, best known for his role as Tommy Ortega in the 1980s television series '' Falcon Crest'' and for his role as drug lord Tony Romero in '' Death Wish 4: The Crackdown''. Among his other works, he played an inept ...

as Spc. Tony Morales *

John Ortiz John Ortiz (born May 23, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for his antagonist role as Arturo Braga in ''Fast & Furious'' (2009) and ''Fast & Furious 6'' (2013), and Clyde in ''Jack Goes Boating'' (2010), which earned him a nomination for t ...

as Spc. Luis Clemente *

Max Casella Max Casella (born Maximilian Deitch; June 6, 1967) is an American actor. He is known for his roles on the television series ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'', ''The Sopranos'', ''Boardwalk Empire'', ''Vinyl'', '' Cro'' and the voice of Daxter in the ''Ja ...

as Spc. Dino Paparelli * Daryl Mitchell as Pfc. Walter "Wally" T. Holbrook *

Mitchell Whitfield Mitchell Whitfield (born September 8, 1964) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Barry Farber in ''Friends'' (1994-2000), Dr. Bruce Hampton in ''Minor Adjustments'' (1995-1996), and Stan Rothenstein in ''My Cousin Vinny'' (1992 ...

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 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 Wang ...

, ''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 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 The 19th Stinkers Bad Movie Awards were released by the Hastings Bad Cinema Society in 1997 to honour the worst films the film industry had to offer in 1996. Listed as follows are the different categories with their respective winners and nominee ...

. 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 IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is ...

References

External links

* *
''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