exceeds expectations

Rating: 9/10 (17 December 2004)

I expected this to be a another semi-cheesy and mediocre war film that's only worth watchable once, and even that might be an overstatement. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned about to be fairly accurate about the immorality and horror of Vietnam (since I'm just a teenager I obviously don't know s**t myself, I'm basing that from what I've heard from vets)and also stars Willem Dafoe, who's always great and fun to watch. It's cool how there aren't any protagonists in this movie; the guy you'd expect to be the hero (Charlie Sheen) turns out to be just another dude who's corrupted by the war and turns into bandanna-sporting pothead (but what's wrong with that?). On a parallel with the primary review, my favorite scene was also when Elias comes hauling ass out of the forest, getting shot repeatedly and getting into that dramatic but somehow not cheesy posture while the Huey books it out of there. Barnes is obviously very hate-able, while the other characters fit into their roles well. The movie's the right length (2 hours), features some nice cinematography in the jungles, is free of cheesiness, is realistic and features strong performances from its cast. This movie definitely gets a 10/10 (trying not to be biased) and is without a doubt worth buying. In my opinion, it's a tie between Platoon and Apocalypse Now concerning which is a better Vietnam movie (although Apocalypse Now is definitely more surreal), but the solution if you haven't seen them is to rent and then buy both.