Renaissance Man (1994)

Directed by Penny Marshall. Starring Danny DeVito, Kadeem Hardison, Khalil Kain, Richard T. Jones, Lillo Brancato Jr., Gregory Hines, Stacey Dash, Peter Simmons, James Remar, Mark Wahlberg, Gregory Sporleder, Isabella Hoffman. [PG-13]

Lesser entry in the already dubious sub-genre of inspirational teacher movies has DeVito’s unemployed adman getting a job teaching undereducated Army recruits basic reading comprehension, which he does by introducing them to Hamlet. Woefully contrived and shamelessly packaged, the classroom is stuffed full of cardboard archetypes, and DeVito fails to generate an appealing rapport with any of them. He clashes with a drill sergeant (Hines) over what these youngsters need to be spending their time doing—training to become good soldiers or memorizing the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V—and it’s not a good sign that the antagonist makes the better case. No surprises, no sentimentality that’s earned, no laughs (unless the mere site of the diminutive star struggling to rappel down a wall leaves you in stitches), and it groans along for over two hours—if you signed up in haste, do yourself a favor and go AWOL. Wahlberg’s acting debut; he also raps on a few soundtrack cuts under his stage name, Marky Mark.

37/100