a waste

Rating: 3/10 (28 December 2005)

When a movie says it is "inspired by actual events", i have to wonder how much of it is made up. Naturally, I assume that everything except the name, rank and general outline of events is true for the soldiers. The narrative in the beginning of the movie tries to make me believe otherwise, so I assumed it was at least halfway true. (anyone else wonder how a lt. colonel and captain were involved in such a high risk operation such as this?)
Back to the movie: It was bad. The dramatizations of the POW's experiences seemed overdone or just poor. Emotions seemed too high for me to believe any of the pain that these soldiers felt. Good effort, I guess, on the roles of the filipino and Japanese military..the inclusion of the viewpoints in war movies are welcomed but should be excluded if acting is prejudicial or just plain bad. A lot of the time it seemed like the actors playing these roles all knew how to speak English and tried hard, but forgot how, to speak broken English. (Perhaps being Asian makes my perspective a bit different).
There was also a love story injected into the movie. What happened to that? Who are these people? bad character development, nothing to anchor the love on. It seemed just like some sort of high school crush.
Action? there was some. more about tension than anything else. perhaps this was the most real part of the movie. Although it doesn't blow you back, it is worthy of some mention. BTW How are the Japanese such bad shots? (only 1 American soldier was KIA)
This movie should not even be rented. If you still want to watch it, do something not recommended by the MPAA or just borrow it from your less than intelligent neighbor.
3/10 is for the inclusion of asians