I knew Steven Spielberg’s 1941 would be a tank less than five minutes after it began. Spielberg used a few seconds of John Williams’ Jaws theme (“dent-dent-dent-dent-DENT-DENT!”) to aurally announce the arrival of a Japanese sub off the California coast. Right away I said to myself “Spielberg is paying satirical tribute to his own, relatively recent blockbuster?” It was such an unfunny egoistic instinct that I knew 1941 would be a bust.
“AS THEY ROARED INTO BATTLE, ONLY ONE THING WAS MISSING….LAUGHS!”