Thoroughly disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (21 May 2006)

I lost interest in the movie in about 30 minutes. While the acting was notable, Tom Hanks believable, filming quality professional, the plot-line was easily guessable and long-winded in it's unimaginative explanations that were really, recooked plots borrowed from other movies.
It just seemed to me, Howard hoped that stirring up controversial topics would blind the average movie viewer to not notice this lack-of-creativity "Hollywood" seems to be suffering from in the past decade.
I was neither offended, nor cared about any topic this movie tried to stoke emotions upon, it's old news and perhaps, if made 40 years earlier, it would have made half the nation livid with indignation... but now that most of us appear to understand what these organizations and religion have done in the past, it's really nothing more than a last desperate grasp of Hollywood trying to stoke interest in organized controversial movements, regardless of how old or inaccurate it may be on the topic.
I would recommend The Fifth Element over this one for entertainment value and remember that movies should be for escaping reality - NOT making history convoluted for theater audiences... keep the historical flicks to cable TV.
Just my two-cents.