Wow what a mess. The script, directing, and music are awful. The cast tries irably to save the movie (both on and off screen, if you believe Russell) but there's only so much you can do, and people seem to have a bit more faith in these guys than they deserve. Makeup and effects folks do a great job though, especially with Holliday's sickly appearance.

I'm lumping the direction and script problems together because ordinarily if there's a problem with…

The fascist high school sequence is not something I think about often but as it plays I'm shocked at how clearly I each segment, and rightly so, as it's absolutely essential to setting up the rest of the movie.

Right off the bat the movie starts playing with gender. Rico is a dumb, pretty rich guy who wants to follow his much smarter and more competent girlfriend into the military (college). It turns out he's too stupid to get…