Not bad, actually

Rating: 8/10 (11 November 2019)

All things considered, this was a pretty good genre flick. The story was elementary, men in war. With not a lot of needless psychiatric expose, Basic in the "guys caught in a maelstrom, with no choice but to do as they're trained to do"vein. Not a lot of soul searching or wrestling with the deadly, dangerous task at hand. If you're looking for "Platoon" keep looking. This is more in the vein of "Private Ryan" without the nervous tremors.
The dialog for the most part exists only to advance the story. Some of the dialogue is reduced to period piece, Gung Ho, rubbish, but it's not important to the narrative.
The effects were adequate for the settings. There is the slight feel of computer combat flight sim to much of it. A lot of exploding airplanes and ships and a blizzard of anti-aircraft fire. A cacophony of explosions. Perhaps a little overcooked, but, hey, it's Hollywood and everyone was having fun.
The cast was interesting. Harrelson was adequate as Nimitz as was Quaid as Halsey. Neither had a big stretch to make. Patrick Wilson as Ed Layton was underwhelming. Frankly, I thought he was not nerdy enough for his role. The rest of the cast did their part. The story was the star in this picture. Except for Ed Skrein, who absolutely nailed the role of Dick Best. A lot has been said about his accent with some of the Corporate critics calling him out for his "Jersey" accent. Let me tell you, the accent was absolutely perfect. Perfect to a point where, being a native of New Jersey, I guessed the location of Best's actual home within 10 miles, only on the basis of Skrein's acting. Best was from Bayonne, NJ, but I didn't know that until I looked it up, I had guessed Newark. And then to learn Skrien is a Brit, well, Bravo, sir, well done.