McHale's Navy was released 22 years ago yesterday (April 18, 1997)

[TMC]

https://bombreport.com/yearly-breakd.../mchales-navy/

McHale’s Navy quickly began development in 1995 when The Bubble Factory was launched. Here’s a brief look back at The Bubble Factory. The company was founded by Sid Sheinberg, who had run MCA Inc., (parent corp of Universal). In 1990 MCA was acquired for $6.59 billion by the Japanese conglomerate Matsushita. Then in 1995, the Canadian liquor company Seagram bought 80% of MCA for $5.7 billion and after 34 years of running MCA, Sheinberg’s reign ended. He was given a seat on Seagram’s board and the giant entity agreed to fully finance his new production company The Bubble Factory. Sheinberg was given full autonomy to greenlight 3 to 4 movies per year for 5 years with budgets between $35M and $40M and without approval from Universal. It was widely known that the reason he was given such a fantastic production deal was his close relationship with Steven Spielberg, who made it very clear that as long as Universal kept Sheinberg in-house, he would continue to make films for the studio. Universal did not want the arrangement with The Bubble Factory, but they were desperate for Spielberg to direct The Lost World: Jurassic Park and the deal with Sheinberg was launched.

The Bubble Factory was a disaster, that quickly churned out a series of ******** movies that all flopped. Most of their output was turning old TV programs into features and the first movie out of the gate was the bomb Flipper (1996). Next up was That Old Feeling and two weeks later was the trainwreck McHale’s Navy. At this point Spielberg had finished The Lost World, but he went off to focus on his fledgling company DreamWorks and had no other projects lined up to direct at Universal. Just two months after the McHale’s Navy & That Old Feeling embarrassment, Universal wrote Sheinberg a massive check for an undisclosed amount and ended their relationship with The Bubble Factory. Universal had two more Bubble Factory releases to waste money and time on — A Simple Wish set for July and For Richer or Poorer dated for December. Both died at the box office.

And now back to the disaster that was McHale’s Navy. The reported budget was $42 million. The Bubble Factory hired TV director Bryan Spicer, who made the leap to features with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995) for both McHale’s Navy and For Richer Or Poorer. He successfully returned to his career in television after churning out his three theatrical hack jobs.

Along with sending its director back to TV, McHale’s Navy also mercifully put the kibosh on anymore Tom Arnold studio vehicles. After his supporting roles in two hits True Lies (1994) and Nine Months (1995), Warner Bros tried to launch him into a bankable star with three dreadful pictures in 1996: Big Bully, Carpool and The Stupids. All three were critically destroyed and did miserable business.

As the April 18, 1997 release was approaching, Sid Sheinberg’s son Jon Sheinberg, who also ran The Bubble Factory began hyping McHale’s Navy by telling the press: “In terms of production values, it’s going to look like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.” That’s not a selling point, that’s a warning to audiences. Also, by 1997, there had been a series of mostly failed moronic military comedies in the mid 90s, which had given us such offerings as In The Army Now (1994), Renaissance Man (1994), Operation Dumbo Drop (1995), Major Payne (1995), Down Periscope (1996) and Sgt. Bilko (1996) — and McHale’s Navy could easily give the Pauly Shore movie a run for the worst of the bunch.

McHale’s Navy bowed against Murder At 1600 and the low budget 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag. Reviews were abysmal, with most calling it one of the worst of the year and the movie was stillborn at $2,128,565 — placing #7 for the slow weekend led by the holdover Anaconda. The few that showed up gave McHale’s Navy a poor C+ Cinemascore and it sank 57.2% to $911,890 in its second frame and then promptly lost most of its theater count. The domestic run quickly closed with just $4,529,843. Universal would see returned about $2.4M after theaters take their percentage of the gross — which barely covers the cost of just striking release prints and the advertising expenses and budget would be all red ink.

Universal dumped the movie straight to video overseas.

[Hazel Anyday]

Don't insult McHale's Navy with that horrid movie with that talentless boob for it's "star".

[TMC]

My World of Flops McHale's Folly Case File #176 Control Nathan Rabin 4.0 #187 McHale's Navy (1998)

Now that I have seen McHale’s Navy and Sgt. Bilko I can say that my hunch was one hundred percent correct. Terrific turns by Steve Martin and Phil Hartman elevate Sgt. Bilko to the level of affable mediocrity whereas McHale’s Navy desperately wishes it could be average. Instead mediocrity is poignantly out of its reach.

McHale’s Navy does just about everything wrong, beginning with the casting of Arnold as Lt. Commander Quinton McHale, Jr., a whip-smart, quick-witted hustler who has been hanging around an island near Cuba, running various scams and serving as a white savior/benefactor to all of the grateful locals since retiring from the Navy.

It’s a role that fatally misunderstands the nature of Arnold’s appeal. Arnold is an affable goober, a likable oaf. He’s not Bill Murray or Steve Martin. McHale’s Navy miscasts him as the fastest, smartest, hippest guy in the room as well as an unassuming Saint who coaches children’s baseball and looks after a dead colleague’s family.

When a movie like McHale’s Navy contains famous faces and big names like Tim Curry, Bruce Campbell, David Allan Grier, Ernest Borgnine reprising his role from the 1960s McHale’s Navy television show, Debra Messing, French Stewart, James Hong and Tommy Chong, then the decision to make it a Tom Arnold movie feels like a choice at once arbitrary and deeply wrong.

As McHale’s Navy opens, its titular wisenheimer is happily retired from military life and living on a little island all his own outside a Naval base not far from Cuba. McHale’s life of schemes and scams is rudely interrupted by the re-emergence of his most hated enemy, Maj. Vladakov (Tim Curry), a notorious terrorist, and oily and antagonistic officer Capt. Wallace B. Binghampton (Dean Stockwell) setting up shop at the base.

Vladakov is introduced as the second best terrorist in the world, a designation that gives him an insecurity complex treated by a psychiatrist whose family he has kidnapped. The idea of a ruthless criminal neurotic about only being considered second best is borderline chuckle-inducing when first introduced. By the twentieth time someone references Vladakov’s second-place status, however, it’s closer to rage-inducing.

There are so few jokes and ideas in McHale’s Navy’s overstuffed and under-funny screenplay, however, that it makes sense that it’d feel the need to beat its one halfway inspired conceit to death.