What a horrible excuse for a movie.

Rating: 4/10 (2 February 2002)

I did not like this movie at all and am surprised to see that other people have given it good ratings. I usaully do not write things like this but what the hell; I don't see many other people recognizing the crappiness of this film. First off, there is no plot set up as there is in other very good war movies such as Full Metal Jacket and Saving Private Ryan. Second, there is a sad attempt at character development; the "heroes" are given tragic deaths while the viewer sees no tragedy because he or she does not "know" the character. One could say that we do "know" the characters: Young, American GI's. That would be fine and I could see your point if there was no attempt made at character development, but there is. Some characters are briefly labeled as "the idealist" who "believes in what we are doing here" or as a bozo who shouldn't really be here fighting this war. Besides that, the acting was so-so and the score was mediocre to horrible; at times the music didn't even remotely fit with what was going on in the action. I am getting tired of writing this review as I feel that I am wasting my time: people will flock to this movie because it plays up to their new-found patriotism, rather than the intelligence that they never had. I would really appreciate it if the intelligent people among you who enjoyed such films as: Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, and Saving Private Ryan took my advice and did not go see this film: it is not worth watching.