i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Keaton is one of my favorite actors. I grew up with this movie. Good American movie but it's just an average movie.

The auto plant in Hadleyville, Pennsylvania had closed down after 35 years. The town is desperate. Foreman Hunt Stevenson (Michael Keaton) travels to Japan to convince Assan Motors to reopen the plant. He's successful to his complete surprise. He's hired by new plant manager Takahara Kazuhiro (Gedde Watanabe) as liaison with the American workers. Takahara had been shamed for being a bad executive. Hunt struggles between the demands from Japanese management and the expectations of the American workers.Director Ron Howard makes light-hearted fun from a difficult subject matter. For the most part, it works for me. It can be off-putting for an audience that is either pro or anti-union. Howard essentially splits the difference by having both workers and management come together in a happy ending. Michael Keaton is fun. He faces the challenge with charm. Another director would make this a tougher movie but Howard is not that guy.

OK, we all like Michael Keaton and it's fun to sit back and watch a light silly 80s movie. The only thing is after Night Shift and Mr. Mom, they must have ran out of ideas because this one fell far short. It had some funny moments and some decent ideas, but it didn't really go anywhere. There was a strange awkwardness throughout the whole film as if there wasn't a clear vision of what was supposed to happen. Many scenes were almost funny or even almost dramatic, but very rarely hit the mark. Also, by the late 80s pop music hit an absolute low and here we get to sample some of the most awful tunes including one near the end in the factory that actually spoiled a scene that could have accomplished something. I must also point out the strange acting or was it bad casting or directing? Watanabe was great in Sixteen Candles, but was he a little young to play a top executive or was that just me? George Wendt was very odd, doing things that didn't quite make sense or feel right. I really wanted to like it and I guess it was pleasant enough, but I realize now why it's only rated a 5.7. It reminded me of The Dream Team- you wished it was good, but it just wasn't.

I remember watching "Gung Ho" as a child with my mother, and wondered why she would always cry in the last few minutes. I, of course, found the entire movie hilarious, particularly the mannerisms of the characters. It wasn't until I was much older and watched it again that I realized how much deeper this show actually is.Michael Keaton and Gedde Watanabe shine in their roles as the reluctant mediators. Keaton ceases to amaze me with his real-life style of line delivery, and Watanabe adds humor and pathos to the mix. I also thought that Patti Yasutake (Umeki) was simply fabulous in her role as the comic relief.I think this movie is one of the most underrated films of the 80s. We can all learn a lesson from the merging of the American and Japanese workers in this film...sometimes you really *can* have "the best of both worlds." And now I understand why my mother felt the way she did in those closing moments. I'd rather have one of those cars, too.