Three wrongs don't make a right

Rating: 4/10 (22 October 2006)

The story: During the summer Olympics in Munich 1972, the Israeli delegation are attacked and killed by Palestinian terrorists, who want the world's attention for the lack of a Palestinian state. In an attempt to strike back, the Mossad (the Israeli intelligence agency) appoint a bodyguard (Eric Bana) to lead a strike-team. Their mission: To kill 11 people responsible for this and other terrorist attacks.
The verdict: While the attack is a historic fact, it's blatantly obvious Spielberg either didn't do any research or has been terribly ill informed when accepting the rest of the script. (Another possibility could be poetic license, as "inspired by real events" is stated at the beginning of the movie). Anyone reading this knowing anything about the Mossad, the world most organized and respected intelligence service, will probably laugh of the idea that they would use a couple of guys with regular jobs who've never killed before for such delicate missions.
With this in mind, the film becomes almost unwatchable and certainly way too long. There is some reasonable acting, some quality pictures, but never did I have the feeling of watching a film that justified it's huge budget. Spending just a few dollars more on a reasonable script could have made this okay. Instead, it's boring most of the time and has a couple of very funny moments (not a good sign for a movie about such a serious subject). The script proves it's awfulness once more near the end, showing Bana having memories of events he wasn't even near at the time they happened. Depending on your mood, this scene can be either appalling or hilarious.
Concluding: The Palistinians should stop killing innocent people, the Isreali should stop building a wall on ground that isn't rightfully theirs and Spielberg should stop turning turd-like scripts into movies. Three wrongs don't make a right.