The war movie fan's dream.

Rating: 6/10 (9 September 2002)

It's clear that what they wanted to do here was the longest action sequence in movie's history. Everything else is irrelevant. They found a real story to back the razzle-dazzle action, and off they go. The fact that this is a Ridley Scott movie actually saves this from being completely boring and uninteresting. Because frankly, the premise is too thin. You can experience some emotion when the movie is building up to the military offensive but then when it actually comes, it is so long that you only the die-hard-military-movie-fan will not be eventually bored by the constant sound of bullets, gunshots, explosions and the occasional gruesome violence. In other hands, this would turn out an atrociously awful turkey. But Ridley Scott has surrounded himself with the experts, and thus it is explained all the oscar-hype around the movie. His talent manages to save the script and make this slightly above the standard war action fest. But don't be cheated about a movie that is way too long to sustain such a simple story. They should have been more modest. Anyway, the production values are top-notch, specially the cinematography. A well-decorated mess.