An odd one, this Buffalo Soldiers. Joaquin Phoenix plays Elwood, one of those guys who got shoveled off to serve in the US Army instead of spending six months in jail. His company is based in Germany in 1989, but Phoenix and his buddies don't even know where the Berlin Wall is. He's more interested in milking the situation, getting comrades to buy his heroin or help out in scams, and noticing how his colonel (Ed Harris) is a hesitantly ambitious klutz, ready to be played for a fool.

There's a high-energy look, powering a tone of sorta satirical deadpan comedy. High-ranking personnel are gotten around, suckers are screwed over, tanks are blown up, and Phoenix reacts to it all with dead-eyed stares into nowhere and nihilistic shrugs. The comedic rhythm is all a bit MASH, and although I still can't bring myself to like that movie, because I just can't latch onto its tone, the funny stuff here works better -- it's more focused on looking at the humour of evil pranks and absurd situations than fuzzy jabs at bigger issues.

Problems arise when the director, Gregor Jordan, tries to combine his hip cynicism with a fully rounded story. A running argument with a sergeant (Scott Glenn) turns into something dramatic mixed up with a romance involving his daughter (Anna Paquin), and during the action climax a whole lot of cutaways to shots of the Berlin Wall falling down seem tacked in there just to snatch at significance.

The movie is fun enough to be worth seeing, but it would get more respect if it figured out a way to run for feature length without stopping to play dumb for romances, double-crosses and out-of-place character development.

(Released by Miramax Films and rated "R" for violence, drug content, strong language and some sexuality.)

Review also posted on www.ukcritic.com.