Generic war epic with an incredible opening act

Rating: 3/10 (3 September 1999)

After the first 20 minutes or so of incredibly gut-wrenching special effects, Saving Private Ryan becomes a rather simple (and simple-minded) war movie with a cliched plot and cardboard characters. While Tom Hanks and the other actors do a reasonable job, there really isn't much meat for them to chew on, acting-wise.
After leaving the theater, my initial impression was "wow, what a great movie." But 20 minutes later, I realized that I was basing my opinion on the spectacular opening act, which really presented a realistic view of a large scale offensive.
But that's about all the movie has going for it. The first act leaves the audience stunned, and Spielberg uses the diversion to traipse through the rest of the movie with nary a thought of actually doing anything remotely original or interesting. At the end, I really didn't care if Ryan was saved or not.