huh?

Rating: 1/10 (17 December 1999)

The almost universal praise this movie is getting is puzzling. Not only is it not a great movie, it's not even a good movie. For one thing, it's deadly dull. Far from being the riveting thriller it's made out to be, it's an extremely slow and tedious film about a trivial subject. It's also poorly directed. Until I saw this movie I never understood the phrase "over-directed," but now I do. It's filled with useless and messy camera movements and weird compositions. I don't know if Mann was trying to impress beyond his means, or simply trying to keep us awake through the boring movie, or both, but either way it doesn't work. He just doesn't have the knack. He had a similar problem with the disastrous Last of the Mohicans.