Done, but done well

Rating: 7/10 (19 April 2000)

"Rules of Engagement" is probably one of the best courtroom dramas ever made. It really makes you wonder about the proper moral and legal judgement on the defendant. The acting is top notch. The incident itself is original. Everything else is not. If the courtroom dramas haven't been done to death over the past ten years, it would have been a highly enjoyable movie. It even ranks above the ultimate courtroom movie, "A Few Good Men," with which it shares more than the courtroom setting. However, it is simply no longer possible to stay excited about surprise witnesses, cross examinations, the people changing their minds, destruction of evidence, discovering new evidence . . . this is just all so done before. A 7.