So Bad it turns you off movies. Avoid at all costs.

Rating: 1/10 (9 July 2005)

What a disappointment this movie was. An interesting topic, a good cast and tens of millions to burn... and what's the result? A mish-mash script directed incoherently and photographed poorly.
This film was for me one the nadir of recent Studio production. Anyone with a modicum of taste should have seen the dailies and pulled the plug, or at least fired the director of photography and the director. B But of course John Toll and Ed Zwick have the awards. It proves they're great, so the Studio executives think, in the way they always neglect to use their heads.
John Toll's photography is terrible and Ed Zwick can't direct action. The two together makes for an unwatchable, if expensive, piece of tripe that repeats itself ad nauseam because the screenwriter, probably inspired by the director, neglected to have a story that could extend past 20 minutes without endless boring repetitions.
speaking of repetitive, how about those endless, boring, slow-motion scenes. Will someone give a clue to Zwick and his bad action director brethren that slow-motion is not touching, nor is it a way to make the violence more poignant. It works when used in small doses, something the Studio bosses don't understand.
And then they wonder why the box-office keeps sliding. It's films like The Last Samurai that turn you off going to the theater again.