Looks, Sounds, Feels Authentic; Plenty of Action to Go Around

Rating: 7/10 (1 September 2002)

This is a good movie. The characters never get fleshed out, but it works. The circumstances are such that you don't need to know that the machine gunner is a Pirates fan with a kid from a previous marriage who is struggling with self-esteem issues to understand that he is very scared and doing very brave things in order to stay alive and keep his buddies alive. The dialogue (with the notable exception of the General's Hollywoodized operation order) feels very authentic. This is how soldiers talk (though they don't realize it).
As a film attempting to document the events in Mogadishu from the American perspective, this works. This is a good movie.