B Movie

Very few of Neil Simon's plays have made good movies. Most of what makes them work onstage evaporates when shot and packaged for the screen.

Mike Nichols' Biloxi Blues is one of the better adaptations. Still, even with a script by Simon, it doesn't quite work.

It's about a group of recruits in boot camp during World War II. Unfortunately, any time the movie leaves the base, it gets less interesting. Of course, the play has this problem, too.

Worse, and what makes the film hard to watch, is Corey Parker's performance as Epstein. I realize the character is supposed to be different from the others, but Parker is so affected all I can see is the tics, and not the person underneath.

The film is worth watching because, if nothing else, it's the only film version of Matthew Broderick's Eugene Jerome, the Neil Simon stand-in that he played onstage three times. It also has a memorably spooky performance by Christopher Walken as the pyschotic Sergeant Toomey. With just a bit of rewriting and recasting, though, it could have been a lot more.