DON’T TRY TOO HARD TO FIND THIS LOST ‘WEEKEND’

Want to get back at a few people? Invite them to “Weekend Warriors” (citywide), then let them sit through it while you sneak out of the theater. They’ll never forgive you.

Another excruciating “daffy, goofy, sex-crazed guys” comedy, “Weekend Warriors” gives us a bunch of draft-leery 1961 Hollywood zanies--screenwriters, makeup artists, gossip columnists, and doo-wop singing groups--who wind up in the local Air National Guard unit.

There they’re persecuted by a Neanderthal top sergeant, a martinet captain and a deranged, idiotic colonel. And a sadistic congressman threatens to ship them overseas, unless they shine at a general inspection. Also present will be the Romanian ambassador; a world crisis will be triggered by any military deficiencies.

Are these fun-loving Hollywood madcaps discouraged? Not on your life. The story is ludicrous, the jokes inane, and the entire cast--under the direction of Bert Convy--either talks like Elmer Fudd or acts like a convention of TV game-show hosts and guests. The one exception: Lloyd Bridges, who plays the deranged idiot with relative subtlety.

Lost in the chaos is the movie’s engaging star, Chris Lemmon--whose father, Jack, once engineered another military swindle in 1957’s waggish “Operation Mad Ball.” Unfortunately, next to “Weekend Warriors” (rated R), his dad’s “Mad Ball” looks like “Citizen Kane.”