Yawn

Rating: 3/10 (3 June 2003)

You cannot make a movie that is nothing more than a two-hour shoot-out. It just doesn't work. Apart from the fact that the 'shock' of the fight wears off after a while, having a battle scene that takes up 75% of the film's run-time leaves no room for character development - and hence you could not give a monkeys who lives or who dies. This was the same problem with 'We Were Soldiers', where all of the storyline was condensed into the first 30 minutes, freeing the remaining screen-time to be dedicated to nothing but non-stop gratuitous violence. You need to even out the action scenes with advancements in the plot to give the story any meaning and to keep your audience's attention.
What's even worse is that the battles aren't even that impressive. Certainly the visuals, sound and editing were better in both 'We Were Soldiers' and 'Saving Private Ryan' (a film made some years ago now).
There are obviously certain historic issues that need to be addressed, but when a movie is this dull anyway, who cares?
Any film that has me fighting to stay awake on a Friday night must have something seriously wrong with it.
3/10