Even worse than Pearl Harbor

Rating: 2/10 (30 September 2006)

Although this is guaranteed an audience by the fairly large number of people who will watch ANY war movie, this one will disappoint anybody looking for a good cinema experience.
While it can't really be faulted too much on a technical basis, the characters are all one-dimensional and there is too much gung-ho John Wayne god-and-country stuff to capture anybody who isn't a war buff. It might even be a pro-war propaganda blurb, in which case it doesn't deserve even two stars.
Like Pearl Harbor, the maudlin romantic sub-plots and gooey sentimentality go a long way toward wrecking what might have bordered on an enjoyable experience, even if one could overlook the wooden performances. Of course, these are the very things responsible for all the 9s and 10s this film has received here. The producers of this kind of film are well aware of this and are not above this sort of manipulation.
I can't really bother to enumerate all the things wrong with this film; all I can say for sure is that I had big trouble sitting through the whole thing, which usually isn't a good sign. In my book, a good film is one that keeps me thinking about it for days after seeing it, and compels me to watch it at least once or twice more. This isn't one of them.