Great Attempt at staying awake

Rating: 5/10 (12 August 2005)

I will not bother with a summary of the movie's details since you will read it other places on this site. This movie was boring from beginning to end. The producers (and director) took an important story and made basically a big screen movie of the week. The Great Raid has a low budget feel from the first scene until the last scene. Now the cinematography is nice, but the acting and story are just weak. There is not one character that you really care about because of the tepid acting. Benjamin Bratt is the WRONG choice for this film. Bratt is more of a TV actor and not a film actor. When Bratt tries to give his inspirational speech (to his men) he falls flat on his face. Bad speech, bad acting. The Japanese (and yes, they were HORRIBLE to our men) brutality was shown over and over and over. I believe it should have been shown to make the audience realize what our men went through. Again the film falls flat here---the brutality is shown in the civilian population and hardly ever in the POW camp. Why did we need to have a love story? Is it needed? No. The love story had no significance whatsoever. Another Hollywood write-in to have a female lead. I give this movie a 5 because of it's historical significance. The movie going experience would have been a 3. Directing would have been a 3. Acting would have been a 2.