Young Audience Doesn’t See the Silvers Lining of ‘Sgt. Bilko’

“Who’s Phil Silvers?”

Jason Ridgeway, 12, was clueless. He’d just fidgeted through a showing of “Sgt. Bilko” at the Edwards Hutton Centre in Santa Ana and had no idea the movie was a remake of an old TV series called “The Phil Silvers Show.”

When told that Silvers played Bilko way back in the 1950s, Jason just shrugged. Apparently, anything from his parents’ childhood couldn’t be that funny.

“I’m thinking he wasn’t as good” as Martin, sniffed Jason, who lives in Irvine. “This wasn’t the best, but [Martin] was pretty on.”

And were Jason and his buddy, Lance Brickowski, 13 and also from Irvine, surprised that Hollywood had to reach back four decades for inspiration?

“They do that all the time,” Lance said. “They did ‘The Brady Bunch,’ and that was kind of stupid too.”

Actually, both kids enjoyed the new “Sgt. Bilko,” even with their small reservations. Martin, they agreed, was hilarious doing his physical comedy, and both boys could relate to the way he subverted the rules-heavy military.

His Bilko, like Silvers’ Bilko, turns his motor-pool barracks into a gambling den and searches out every money-grabbing angle he can while avoiding dim-bulb superior officers, in this case played by Dan Aykroyd and Phil Hartman. Look at it this way: Martin is just like a devilish kid in school, and his bosses are slow-on-the-draw teachers.

“He’s way smarter than they are, even when they think they are,” Jason offered.

“Smart guys always know how to do things better” and get away with stuff, Lance added.

This fantasy Army that Bilko prances through seemed like a happening place to Bret Li of Westminster. The 14-year-old said he’d sign up if he could be part of an outfit like Bilko’s.

“All they did was party,” Bret noted. “You didn’t see them training or fighting or anything like that. I know it’s not like that, [because] it’s just a comedy.”

The movie is basically a one-trick pony, with Martin’s mugging always in the spotlight, a fact not lost on Lydia Lopez, 10, of Santa Ana. Lydia said she laughed at most of the gags--especially an early one involving a horse suspended from the barracks’ ceiling and accompanying piles of manure--but thought the picture was repetitive.

As with her pal, Jennifer Hughes, also 10 and from Santa Ana, she wanted to see less of the same jokes and more character development.

Lydia said she was most interested in a young black recruit who first is leery of Bilko but eventually comes around to his way of thinking.

“I liked the way they showed him.” Lydia said, indicating that she appreciated how his character evolved.

What neither Lydia nor Jennifer liked was an overweight recruit who never bathes, a point that came up frequently during “Sgt. Bilko.”

“That was just gross,” Jennifer said.

Lopez simply offered the universal thumbs-down: She winced and wrinkled her nose.