Stateside

I don't know if it matters to anyone, but the 'real life' model for this picture is supposedly Sarah Holcomb, a luminous young actress of the late 70's and early 80's. She played the 13 year old check out girl in 'Animal House' who befriends Tom Hulce (and passes out naked after dropping the bombshell of her age), and later played the Irish waitress Maggie in 'Caddyshack'. After that, she disappeared. I guess the movie explains why.

A Danny Holcomb is cast in the movie, and the credits thank an anonymous 'S.H.' Ms. Holcomb these days lives in deliberate obscurity far away from show business.

"Stateside" is 'based on a true story' and tells the tale of a rich teenager who gets into trouble and is allowed to avoid prison by enlisting in the Marines; he falls in love with a disturbed young woman. We wander to five states (California, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina) in this disjointed, smoky soap opera. The talented young actors do their best with the mess they are given.

GRADE = "C"

Interesting movie. Has some real thought provoking parts. The main female lead (Cook) is shown as having schizophrenia. Usually, movies show such people as evil and people to be feared, which is not accurate and only worsens the negative stigma of mental illness - but makes for money making movies.

Knowing a lot of the mental illness of schizophrenia, I can state that the producers of this movie have done a very good job of showing a real person with schizophrenia. Cook does a great job of showing that person.

Yes, movie is somewhat disjointed and the ending somewhat abrupt. But it's still a meaningful movie.

If you're over 18 you're bound to be disappointed by this movie. It delivers nothing. It, actually, depresses me. The entire movie is about senseless dramas of stupidity and boredom. In spite of the celebrity cast, it does not take you anywhere emotional, enlightening, or even amusing. What's happening in Hollywood? What's happened to those genius brains? I like to watch movies because I like to escape from reality. However, with the help of Hollywood films, I unfortunately dump from the frying pan into fire. Sad, indeed. I should just stick to foreign films then.

I Just finished watching Stateside and I got to say that I really enjoyed it. The plot really hit home for my girlfriend and I because I'm going to be going to boot camp for the Marines in a month, so we just happened to pick it up and were instantly locked in. Val Kilmer gives an amusing and extremely different performance as a Marine DI, he steals all of his scenes and his dialog with the recruits is hilarious. While I liked the film i'll admit i'm being a little biased since i'm going to enlist in the Marines, this movie is not for everybody. It's a good movie for men and women in the military who have to deal with being able to see the ones they love not as often as they'd like to. It's just a sweet romance movie that has real and down to earth dialog, that will remind anybody about those little dorky moments that lovers have and always remember.