Major Payne (1995)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Sadly Over-hyped

Let's be realistic.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Major Payne: ReviewAs with all movies, specific audiences are targeted to maximize a film's profit. Major Payne (Castle 1995), directed by Nick Castle, is no except to this ideology. Making over 29 million dollars since being released in March of 1995, the movie definitely had a specific target audience (imdb.com). This movie was for teens and tweens with stereotypical middle school boy humor. Major Payne is a comedy that portrays a hardened killing machine of a soldier who is transformed into a loving, friendly father/mentor figure.After watching this film, people will either absolutely love it or hate it. The script is full of hilarious one liners and bodily function type humor; while incredibly funny to some people it may be considered childish and impractical to others. Major Payne employs the use of stereotypes from start to finish. It is used in character development, the storyline, and even the film's musical score. None of the stereotypes disappoint. They are funny, well timed, and make for a movie that is hard to forget. Ultimately, Major Payne could end up being one of the next great cult classics like Monty Python: The Holy Grail.One of the wisest choices of the entire movie is the use of music throughout the film. At the start, Major Payne (the hardened soldier) is taking over a city and its drug lord single- handedly. The song "Bad to the Bone" is playing in the background typifying Payne's badass persona. Later in the movie, the song "RESPECT" is played to increase the comedic side of the story as well as increase the amount of sympathy for the boys in the JROTC and Ms. Walburn. Finally, at the end, while Major Payne is waiting for his train and completing his characters' transformation, the theme song for "The Donna Reed Show" plays in the background. Payne has gone from killer to father figure and the music has gone from hard rock to a sickenly sweet family friendly tune.Another aspect of the film is the choice of actors. Damon Wayans plays his role perfectly as Major Payne. His personality and standup comedy routine-like performance is exactly what makes Payne so funny and likable. He deadpans his lines as the killing machine of a soldier and yet has a very distinctive and trademark laugh to help with his transition as mentor/father. As for the character of Ms. Emily Walburn, Karyn Parsons is an incredibly bubbly individual who is precisely what every student would want in a school nurse. She is extremely attractive and dressed in short skirts, tender, motherly, and nurturing to a fault with the boys. Additionally, Steven Martini stars as Cadet Alex Stone. While Major Payne is the main character and undergoes the biggest transformation of character, Alex Stone's supporting character is the one the audience will most easily identify with throughout the movie. Stone's persona is that of a kid with a troubled past, an over-bearing stepfather, he is not respectful of authority, as well as refuses to take anything seriously. Payne's and Stone's character transformations are affected by each other. As Payne begins to soften, Stone becomes more sure of himself. As Major Payne begins to show interest and concern for him, Stone begins to show desire, respect, and proves to be a very effective leader. In the end, we see him as the heart and soul of the squad and having confidence in his own abilities along with the other cadets. The little used aspect of narration in the film provides context about situations in the movie. Throughout, Major Payne acts as the narrator to further show how tough of a marine he really is. One scene has him riding over to Madison Academy in a military hummer. Major Payne narrates by saying, "Finally after two whole weeks of living a civilian's puke existence, I was back in the corps, back in uniform, and back to the sweet smell of mustard gas." We are left with little to the imagination as to how tough Major Payne is supposed to be as the marine and drill sergeant.The story line is a familiar one: tough guy comes in, a woman and some lovable kids melt away his toughness, then a happily ever after ending to finish it all off. But while this is a comedy feature film, the underlying story is one of hard work, perseverance, and family. So even though a ten year boy will laugh and laugh at all the gags and crude humor, any parent would be happy to take their kids to see these kinds of values portrayed on the big screen. I know as an eight year old I loved the humor and memorized tons of lines that made even my grandparents laugh as I repeated the quips that included curse words. Major Payne shows the boys working together and becoming a family with Payne's mentoring. Payne goes from soldier/killer to mentor with a girlfriend. Ultimately, Major Payne works as a film because Damon Wayans portrays his character perfectly (Ebert). The movie is light hearted, funny, and memorable. It is also my family's favorite and has provided us with many fun evenings together. All in all, I would give Major Payne a 5 out of 5 star rating as a must-see movie because of the comedy and execution of the story line.Work Cited: Major Payne. Dir. Nick Castle. Perf. Damon Wayans, Steven Martini, Karyn Parsons. Universal Pictures, 1995. DVD. "Major Payne." IMDb.com. n.p. n.d. Web. February 23, 2014. "Major Payne." Roger Ebert. Movie Reviews. March 24, 1995. Web. February 23, 2014.

My favorite movie of all time. I guess you could call it "dumb" humor, but hilarious nevertheless. Damon Wayans plays a killing machine in the US Military and is then discharged when "there's no one left to kill." He then take up a job as a ROTC commander at a Virginia school. From there, he turns the boys from "turds" to "maggots." The boys try to get rid of Payne any way they can, but Payne always prevails. After making getting some sensitivity training from Ms. Walburn, Payne begins to win over the cadets and successfully trains them for the Virginia Military games. I highly recommend this film, you are guaranteed to laugh more every time you see it!

Here's a movie that I watch all the time.Major Payne is just a funny movie.It's a true classic.The jokes are just so well done that you want to watch this movie over and over again.The acting was okay, but is made up for when the way the movie is meant to be funny.The music is very good with a great mix of all kinds of music.I just have fun watching Major Payne.Overall if you want a classic movie that is very funny, then Major Payne is the movie for you.I give Major Payne 10 out of 10.A true Classic.

This movie is hilarious, I don't understand how someone cannot like this movie. It's a movie about a Major who was discharged from the Military, and was assigned to an Junior ROTC program, it proves to be the biggest challenge of his life. He's is very sinister and cruel, but in a funny way. The way he goes about training his Cadets is amazing, as much as they wind up hating him, they wind up to be like a family in the end. They are a lot of sight gags in the movie, as I said the humor is excellent, Damon Waynes is excellent in this movie he is intelligent and hilarious. There are cameos from some other people in the movie like Micheal Ironside, Karyn Parsons was also excellent as the counselor she hasn't done much since Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but this was excellent.. Overall an 8 out of 10