Wait for the DVD

Rating: 6/10 (5 November 2005)

Great acting (esp. Foxx and Sarsgaard) wasted on a story that's pretty pointless (maybe intentional) and ultimately unsatisfying (maybe also intentional).
I didn't buy the emotional causes-and-effects we see, and walked out feeling I didn't know enough about these guys to care much about the happens to them, either in the desert or after they get home. We see a lot of crazy stuff, but never learn why it happened, or why these guys were stuck in it.
Many of the characters are your classic war-movie card-board cut-outs (good 'ol boy from Texas, Latino new dad, jack-ass officers, wimp with glasses), whose obligatory character-establishing scenes distract from and eventually undermine the main story.
This is not an action flick, for those looking for another Rambo. It also doesn't compare with the warrior movies it directly references (Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now). It isn't even as good as Courage Under Fire or Three Kings, from the same war.
There *are* some excellently composed and executed vignettes, but the whole just didn't really go anywhere or make any kind of point. I had the same reaction to American Beauty, but loved Road to Perdition, so go figure.