Really Good

Rating: 8/10 (12 November 2002)

Really good war movie, with both its greatest strength and greatest weakness being that there was no attempt to really make a larger statement. Thankfully it avoided an agenda, either excessive flag-waving or political finger pointing, and just stuck to the action, which was exceptional. The movie managed to simultaneously express the chaos of the running street battles that evening in Somalia while keeping the audience always up to speed on what was going on. The movie also benefitted immensely from being able to show about 2 1/2 hours of a 12 hour long battle. You are dragged into the battle along with the soldiers instead of just being shown a highlight package, and the brutality of war is conveyed by war itself rather than a bunch of preachy statements or Hollywood plot cliches. All of which makes it a very good war movie. But its lack of ambition to be anything more than a war movie probably does keep it from going beyond its genre and a notch below a classic such as Saving Private Ryan. An 8/10 and one of the best movies of the year.