Holy Propaganda Batman!! This is a commercial to join the marines.

Rating: 5/10 (10 January 2006)

PLOT: two buddies stumble their way through desert storm as marines(even though they look gay and don't pass as men much less marines). They wind up being Snipers and it is no easy task to fight for freedom in the mean ol desert. You will see the usual transformation from boot camp to live combat.
You will recognize the lead in this movie as Donnie Darko with no hair. This movie IS watchable but it is downright dangerous to show this thing as an accurate representation of war in this day and age where we should freaking know better by now!!!! In this movie, nobody dies in a method that isn't surgical and bloodless, and therefore it is acceptable as being OK to murder in the thousands. When these guys go to war, no one gets hurt really and none of the truly brutal realities are presented. Yep, if you believe this silly flick no one but good guys and bad guys duking it out and the good guys won ..wheee. Mainly it was meeting new friends learning good discipline and it was all really good fun looking back on it..*sigh*. Fighting for freedom and never dying- good times!! Join up today!!
I guess these guys weren't in the divisions that bulldozed over and crushed white-flag waving civilians. In this fake war story, we are to believe there were no Depleted Uranium rounds that caused radiation poisoning for this and future generations of Iraqi kiddos. Etc... realism is NOT so important to this tale-except in safe, tiny details such as uniforms or memorized sayings which appear to be very close= it's a whitewash propaganda feel good about war flick.
This movie is entertaining to some degree, sort of like having some nice soup when you really want an Angus thick cut steak instead. This movie is indicative of the general march towards mind numbing stupidity that our current (lack of) culture embraces like a teddy bear in the absence of any logical reason.
Bottom line- there are many, many, many better war films out there yet this is watchable and accessible to a younger generation so in some ways certain people will be especially impressed with those flick. Those would be the ones that had to struggle with all their might simply to get a GED.
This movie is a total failure in that it doesn't really have the balls to show the true face of war, and in that pussed out omission- it encourages war as an acceptable solution since it's not really that bad and sometimes it's just a bunch of fun with the guys- nobody you know gets killed.. etc.. lame. Like I said- it's watchable but gets low points for being a deceptive piece of propaganda trash for no good reason other than who happens to be president right now.
Far, far better choices include: Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, The Big Red One, Black Hawk Down, Deer Hunter.