Starring: Kelsey Grammar, Rob Schneider, Lauren Holly, Rip Torn This movie is a classic family favorite. At least for most members of my family that is. One of us rolls our eyes at the mention of this movie and thinks, "What a stupid movie." I'm not that person though. I still find this movie highly amusing. I just watched it again last night with someone who had never seen it, and I laughed just as hard as the first time I watched it. It's still very funny to me.

Naval Captain Tom Dodge (Grammar) is a bit of a black sheep in the navy. He's the kind of guy who will play golf while on a sub, cracking a ball onto a golf course while they sail past it. He's the kind of guy who will get drunk, pass out, and wake up with a hangover and a tattoo on his dongle. He's not the kind of guy that everybody wants to be commanding a sub.

But Dodge is at the end of the line. He's put in applications to get command of his own sub several times, and if he doesn't get a sub this time, he's headed for a desk job, meaning that's it for naval life. The Admiralty decide to give him his own boat, but they don't give him a new nuclear sub. They give him a diesel sub, an ancient relic from World War II. His mission is to clean her up and take her out on the Atlantic for a war game.

Dodge is obviously a little bit frustrated to have such a crappy boat given to him when he's worked so hard to get to the point that he's at, so he goes and talks to Admiral Winslow (Torn) about it. Winslow explains the purpose of the war game. Diesel subs are still being sold out there in the real world, to countries like Iran, Iraq, and Libya, to name a few. Winslow wants to know what would happen if some renegade captain in a diesel sub came to the States and tried to smuggle a nuclear warhead into one of the bases. Would they make it? Dodge and most of the Admiralty don't think so, but Winslow wants to know for sure, hence why he has devised this war game. Dodge's mission is to take the Stingray out to sea, then try to evade the U.S. nuclear navy and blow up the American naval bases. In simulated battle, of course.

So, that's about as deep as the plot gets. This is not a plot driven movie. It's a stupid movie that is just a big gag. It makes fun of itself, and you are not expected to take it seriously. If you're looking for good dumb laughs on a Friday night, I'd urge you to check it out.

Bottom Line: 3 out of 4 (worth a look)