Slackers Bones Conway and Jack Kaufman work at "Crazy Boys" discount electronics store in Glendale, California. While goofing off on the job, both aspire to open their own electronics store in the future. Both are fired though after destroying a rack of television sets.
Looking to score some quick start-up money for their store and believing that the commitment will be minimal (they are easily lured by the recruiting slogan "One weekend a month, two weeks a year"), the two join the United States Army Reserves. Bones chooses water purification for their field since his brother was an experienced pool man and the field appeared to be devoid of combat. After surviving basic training, they attend water purification training, meeting up with Christine Jones, a female recruit longing for infantry, and skittish dental student Fred Ostroff. Adopting the nickname of "waterboys", the group then returns to Glendale.
Unbeknownst to Bones and Jack, Libya has been planning an invasion of Chad, and they are consequently called up for service overseas. They first try to get a military discharge by pretending to be homosexuals, but they fail.
Upon arriving in Chad, the four do not get along well with the full-time soldiers, particularly Special ForcesStaff Sergeant Stern. On a routine mission to resupply a forward base, their convoy is ambushed by a Libyan commando squad. The misfit reserves are thought to have been killed in action (KIA) and are left to fend for themselves. After a few days lost in the desert, they are captured by the Libyan forces and spend a night in a Libyan POW camp. There the reservists meet up with Staff Sergeant Stern who has been shot and captured in an ambush. He briefs them on his failed mission to rendezvous with two HALOedFast Attack vehicles and destroy mobile Scud launchers carrying missiles armed with chemical warheads aimed at American bases in the region.
During an airstrike, the four reservists and Stern escape and find the Fast Attack vehicles. They make contact with the American headquarters and are ordered to finish the Special Forces' mission. After locating the missiles, they have a difficult time holding off a battalion of Libyans while painting the missiles with a laser for an incoming airstrike. The airstrike goes off-target, forcing the reservists to destroy the missiles themselves. Bones grabs an AT4anti-tankrocket launcher and destroys the Scud launcher base in one hit, but not before accidentally firing one rocket backwards, forcing the group to use the last rocket they have.
The "waterboys" return home as heroes. At the end of the film, they open up their electronics shop next to an Army recruiting station — where two men like themselves are looking skeptical about joining the reserves.
Cast
Pauly Shore as Private First Class Bones Conway (the leader of the Waterboys)
Lori Petty as Private Christine Jones, Bones's love interest (the member of the Waterboys)
David Alan Grier as Private Fred Ostroff (the member of the Waterboys)
Andy Dick as Private Jack Kaufman (the co-leader of the Waterboys)
In the Army Now was universally panned by critics. It holds a 12% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 34 reviews, with an average score of 2.6/10. The consensus states "This 1994 Pauly Shore vehicle stretches its star's thin shtick to the breaking point with a laugh-deficient screenplay that borrows shamelessly from Bill Murray's far superior Stripes".[4]
^P. Means, Sean (January 1, 1995). "'Pulp and Circumstance' After the Rise of Quentin Tarantino, Hollywood Would Never Be the Same". The Salt Lake Tribune (Final ed.). p. E1.
^Craft, Dan (December 30, 1994). "Success, Failure and a Lot of In-between; Movies '94". The Pantagraph. p. B1.
