a major disappointment

Rating: 1/10 (24 December 2005)

I entered the theatre anticipating a tense drama based upon the 1972 olympic team hostage-taking, and the revenge sought by israel in the aftermath. despite its balanced portrait of the middle eastern conflict and its futile cycle of violence and lives left in ruin (and, comments posted herein to the contrary notwithstanding, the film's perspective is relatively unbiased), this overly-long study is very slow going, with little dramatic momentum and not much light shed on its topic. surprisingly turgid, it's tough to sit through -- not because of painful truths being revealed but, rather, because boredom soon sets in. the cast, featuring eric bana, daniel craig and geoffrey rush, leaves little impression, with the exception of rush, who's not in enough of the film to keep it aloft. miss this, and see the superior 'syriana'.