Buffalo Soldiers (2003)

The pitch must have been Catch-22 told from the viewpoint of Milo Minderbinder; unfortunately, the end result only goes to demonstrate why Yossarian was the hero. Starts off smug much like Heller's brilliant novel, but where that novel eventually shaded over into horror, outrage and outright surrealism, Gregor Jordan's film instead sticks to realism. Which wouldn't be a problem if we were given any reason to care about these scummy characters. By the end of the film, the tone has crossed into meanness and Jordan's resorted to blowing things up in order to resolve the plot. Too broad to work as satire and not broad enough to work as farce, this is ultimately a misfire.

Grade: C