A Black Hawk Let Down

Rating: 6/10 (9 February 2002)

Sorry to be a party pooper on this one. I am a serious Ridley fan :Christ, I quite liked "Hannibal", and "Blade Runner" is quite simply the best movie of all time. And I was expecting great stuff from BHD, a sort of "Saving Private Ryan" for the 1990s. And after a great, ominous build up, culminating in that marvellous shot of the choppers belting towards Mogadishu over the kid with the mobile phone, I settled down to enjoy a cracking movie.....which never really arrived. The action scenes are competently directed, the acting is first rate, a huge number of extras and buildings expire in spectacular fashion, but after about half an hour I actually got bored. It felt like I'd seen it all before; I kept expecting the maestro Ridley to add an extra ingredient, to show me modern war in a new and frightening light, but it just didn't happen. Which is a great shame. I'm afraid made for TV Band of Brothers is a much worthier successor to SPR.
Still, the RPGs hurtling across the screen were quite fun.