When looking at the beginning credits of this English-dubbed version on YouTube, one of the players is ID'd as "Madonna Ciccone" of which the surname is that of the actual music superstar. So when a scene of a beautiful woman with a very familiar face shows up at the inspection scene (with a hilarious visual of mens' bulges in their pants) the cuts to her look like they were edited from another film though when the woman is depicted in bed with either Huey or the sergeant, I'm guessing it's of the actual woman who appeared in this film. This was a spin-off of the Lemon Popsicle series following the fourth one Private Popsicle of which only Zachi Noy as Huey, the sergeant, his girlfriend from the womens' Army, and the captain from that one return. Other than that one scene I mentioned, there wasn't too much that was funny though the last 15 minutes were also good for some laughs. So I say give Private Manoeuvres a chance. Edit to add: I just watched scenes of another English-dubbed version on YT where I found out the actual woman who was replaced by Madonna in the first version I watched was Sibylle Rauch who was previously Freida in Hot Bubblegum.
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"Sababa" or "Private Manoeuvres" is a co-production between West Germany and Israel from 1983, so this film will have its 35th anniversary already next year. According to IMDb, the primary language here is German, but looking at the cast list and my perception that many actors got dubbed in the version I watched I am not sure about that at all. Anyway, this film is not seen as an official entry to the Golden Globe nominated Lemon Popsicle film series (basically an older Israeli equivalent to the American Pie films), but it is still really close to Sapiches, the 4th entry, so you could call this one here somewhat Lemon Popsicle 4.5 I guess. Zachi Noy (the chubby one, who recently appeared in German Celebrity Big Brother) is on board here and he has always been somewhat my favorite from the trio. But he was surprisingly ineffective here I must admit. The best for me easily and probably the only aspect here was Joseph Shiloach channeling his inner de Funès at times. Other than that, it's all the same like in the other movies, many dirty sex-oriented jokes and also some nudity here and there, mostly through voluptuous supporting actress Sibylle Rauch, one of very few German actors in here and normally you rather find her in much more hardcore stuff really. This is a (not too funny) comedy that is soft-core at best. Or at worst, depending on your perspective. So yeah if you really like the franchise and humor in the other films and especially in Sapiches or other military boot camp comedies, you can check this one out. Just don't expect too much. I cannot say this was a good watch and that's why I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
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BandSAboutMovies5 March 2022How much do I love Cannon?
I haven't just watched every Lemon Popsicle movie, I've now moved into the spinoff, in which Yudale enters into his mandatory Israeli army service and helps Sergeant Shemesh defeat a rival base. Maybe that'll happen, but they're both obsessed with sleeping with the Swiss ambassador's wife (Sibylle Rauch, who was also in another movie in this series, Hot Bubblegum).
If you think that Italian and Japanese movies have bad dubbing, let me introduce you to this movie, which sounds like the absolute most deranged voice recording that I've ever heard before.
Director Zvi Shisei also made the 2001 reboot Lemon Popsicle: The Party Goes On and man, realizing that I still have so many movies in this series kind of makes me fearful for the extent of the obsessive-compulsive love of Cannon that I have. -
darren shan12 August 2000Truly awful teen comedy, in the spirit of PORKY'S and other such "classics" of the early 80s. Even given the limitations of the genre, this is crude, unimaginative, and worse -- unfunny. Don't waste your time on this turkey!
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mortimersallius16 January 2024I saw this movie the other day on Youtube. There is only one version available in English... and this is the one that has been running on YT for years now! The quality isn't the best and the sound isn't excellent either. Furthermore, there are several cuts that reduce its lifespan.
All in all it's quite funny, if you take it for... what it is.. That is, a simple "Porkys with Israeli style" comedy, where there are a lot of jokes and funny scenes, as well as some sex scenes. In one of these, there is a young Madonna Ciccone (the film dates back to 1983) who plays the part of the wife of the Swiss ambassador (in the original Israeli version, she is played by the German actress Sybille Rauch; who would shortly thereafter become , an important international porn diva). Perhaps the sex scenes with Madonna are really the funniest: there is one where Madonna gets out of the car, beautiful and sexy, in front of a group of soldiers lined up to greet her... and suddenly, everyone has a " erection" of their thing, under their pants :) Another where Madonna fucks the entire team of fellow soldiers and Zachi Noy finds himself in front of the group collecting the money and distributing the condoms.. At the time he was surprised to learn that Madonna had made certain types of films. Then later I discovered that her figure was "inserted" later, in the English version and distributed online.
However, despite everything, it is a cute, entertaining little film that deserves to be seen at least once...