once we started laughing we couldn't stop

Rating: 1/10 (6 December 2006)

Problems with this film:
1) Joseph Fiennes is supposed to be a great leader of men, the last bastion of American authority in a Japanese POW camp. But he's always sick, and the only guy he interacts with is his buddy. He writes his girlfriend that "my love for you is all that makes me strong, and that strength makes the men strong...", but he ignores everyone, and hardly ever gets out of bed!
2) The journey to the camp by the rescue team is drummed up as a glorious, seat-of-your-pants epic. And then suddenly they're just there, no problem. Actually, they set up a base half a mile from the camp and pore leisurely over maps, discussing their plan of attack.
3) The Japanese camp commandant becomes the Terminator at the end, darting out from underneath huts, smirking maniacally.
4) You keep hoping and praying you won't have to hear the letter Joseph Fiennes' girlfriend writes him. Then, at the end, the voice-over of the extraordinarily long, clichéd letter begins---and you realize that God doesn't exist.
5) Benjaminn Bratt as the hard-as-nails platoon leader. You wouldn't follow this man into a Baskin Robbins, let alone a Japanese POW camp.
6) Complete, entire lack of suspense.
Want a good war movie you may not have seen? Try Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory". Leave this mulch-heap alone.