Good Morning Vietnam – 1.5 stars

Based on a true person if not story, Adrian Cronauer (Robin Williams) is a popular disc jockey stationed in Vietnam where he entertains the troops with his wacky hijinks, falls in love with a local gal, has a run in with her Viet Cong brother, and finds out that the true enemy is not the North Vietnamese, but an uptight sergeant (J.T. Walsh) who hates his funny so much he routes him through a VC-controlled highway, presumably, because he hopes he will be killed.

Because Cronauer is a wise ass, and later, a humanitarian, he must die. 

Barry Levinson’s (Diner, The Natural) schmaltz fest is really just a vehicle for Williams to be zany. He more than delivers. In the doing, the men love him and snigger at the squares who do not, including the sergeant who so hates bits, sound effects, impressions, and double entendres he tries to have Cronauer killed. 

But our watermelon-smashing Gallagher Christ, he won’t be held down.  Not after this pep talk:

EDWARD

And I literally think that you owe it to all of them to get your ass back on the air.

ADRIAN

If you haven’t noticed, the army doesn’t really want me, Ed. They’ve been harassing me since the day I got off the plane.

EDWARD

So what? It’s the guys in the field that matter, remember? Those are the guys that are dyin’.

A homogenous 80s sit-com fluff ball with half-hearted altruistic pretensions, powered solely by Williams’ manic energy, which, to be fair, can be entertaining.