Almost great.

Rating: 8/10 (5 June 2004)

This comes close to being a great film, but is stuck at being merely good. If it were re-edited to eliminate between 45 and 60 minutes of the touchy-feely relationship crap, its greatness would be complete. This is not the observation of a misogynist action-film maven -- romantic comedies are among my favorite films -- but of a movie lover who's upset by what appears to have been conscious insertion of structural flaws into the plot in order to appeal to a wider audience. The pacing of the action is wonderful until about an hour before the end. We then must digress into the personal lives of the central characters to see "Awww, they do have relationships and lives outside of work." We then get back to resolution of the film's primary conflict, and on to a satisfactory ending. This is not the film for that sort of thing, and it is flawed for that reason. It's still worth seeing, just leave the room about 2 hours in, make a sandwich, and return about 45 minutes later.