The only blockbuster of the year worth watching

Rating: 8/10 (8 February 1999)

Bruce Willis seems to mirror the capabilities of his co-actors somehow, and will thus make much better movies cast with John Travolta or Alan Rickman than he will with Alec Baldwin or Kim Basinger. Here he has three of the finest working actors working at the mo: Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck and Steve Buscemi.
The four of them, along with Liv Tyler and Peter Stormare and most of the other supporting cast give likable believable performances. The action sequences are good, high-paced and very exciting.
This movie reminded me of "The Full Monty", a group of losers take on a task they are completely unqualified to do, and then pull together, needing each other emotionally, to do whatever is needed to get the job done. It attempts an intelligent ending, and has an enjoyable interesting plot.
Best performance in the film goes to the excellent Billy Bob Thornton, who is even better here than he is in "Simple Plan" or "Slingblade". Compared to the other blockbusters this year - Deep Impact, Godzilla, Avengers - definitely the only one worth watching.