Good but not Great

Rating: 7/10 (20 February 2002)

Well, if you want action, this one has it. About two hours of action and that is the major strong point. However, what this movie is short on, is script and emotion. The scenes not involving the actual gun battles are just flat. It had the feel of a Bruckheimer film, create a series of detailed action scenes and then slap a story around it. Part of this might be the fault of the actual story as told in the book, but I don't think so. I am probably being too negative here, because it was a pretty good film. However, some of the action scenes were in desperate need of some other scenes in between. At some points in the film there is action for at least 30 minutes straight, although realistic in a combat situation, it grows tiring in a movie theater setting. Moreover, there were no real standout performances. I believe that the Academy really would have liked to have given a nomination to one of the actors, but nobody really was that strong or stood out. Man, I was too negative. This was a pretty good film. Good but not great. A solid 7.5 on a scale of 10.