Battle minus script or plot details

Rating: 6/10 (26 February 2002)

Over-hyped, under-scripted and over in Somalia, this long, fairly anonymous 1993 battle scene has still picked up four Oscar nominations. Ewan McGregor and others slug it out as part of a U.S. peace-keeping force in Mogadishu. The locals rise up more or less en masse against them and reassure us that the episode was one of America's foreign policy `mistakes'. Quite why they are so unwanted is not really explained. A bit more convincing than, say, Pearl Harbor, but I personally am unable to share the enthusiasm that many feel for this noisy action piece.