Loads of great actors, good action scenes, shame about the plot.

Rating: 3/10 (8 April 2005)

Rules of engagement, on a purely entertainment level, is a great film about cowardly injustice to the brave men and women who put there lives on the line for honour and country. Unfortunately the writers have decided that the men, women and children Yemen, are all barbaric gun toting murders.
The American embassy in Yemen is under attack from gunmen who have taken up positions in and around local civilians protesting the American presence. The marines are called in to protect the ambassador and his family while they are evacuated. This is all well and good until the marines start taking fire and the commanding officer, Samuel L. Jackson, orders his men to return fire. Seems only fair, considering they themselves did not start the fight, they are just finishing it. The problem arises when the fighting stops and it turns out they have slaughtered dozens of of the civilians in the process. Here starts the courtroom drama with repeated flashbacks as eye witness accounts are heard throughout the proceedings. Each recount of the events slowly changes the setting from innocent civilians being used as body armour for unscrupulous killers, to complicit members of the attack. Eventually Culminating with the scene of a little girl with a crutch now wielding a machine gun. Basically saying anyone is fair game.
If the American embassy in Yemen had been attacked, which it wasn't, and a small girl on a crutch had picked up a machine gun, wouldn't it be more interesting film making to delve into the reasons she was on a crutch and felt compelled to pick up the gun, let alone use it. When teenage American kids go into schools guns blazing the question on everyones lips is why how could this happen. There is often a TV movie made about it. So why can't Hollywood make intelligent enquiring pieces that rather than uphold and promote cultural stereotypes, investigate poignant present day concerns and actually inform its audiences rather than blindfold them.