An entertaining movie

Rating: 6/10 (31 March 1999)

The first 30 minutes I sat with my toes clenched. People around me were sobbing, which I honestly found to be over-reacting. After the 30 minutes the movie begins to slow down and the wafer thin plot is introduced. The characters in the movie are never really fully developed and stay two dimensional. That's why I was surprised about the Oscar nomination for Tom Hanks, in my view totally undeserved. The visuals are good and effectively show the chaos during combat. Overall I would put the movie in the same category as "The dirty dozen" and other mission type war movies, very entertaining but not worth the hype this movie has gotten.