What were Chris Cooper and Tom Wilkinson thinking???

Rating: 2/10 (20 May 2003)

I gave this movie 2 out of 10. I saw it in a movie theater in Reykjavik, with my friend who forced me to see this movie, I hate peer pressure!! But before I begin you may find some errors in my spelling, but not as many as I found in the script :)
Historical errors in movies are not just sad, they´re funny too. But what isn´t funny about this movie is the fact that it´s so full of over the top patriotism and I have nothing against the American flag, it´s a beautiful flag but to show him in nearly every scene makes you kind of tired. It´s the same with movies like "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbour".
I think that´s the reason why many of us Europeans kind of laugh at the american patriotism. But what isn´t laughable is the acting Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger display in this movie! Heath Ledger has never been good, he look´s like kangeroo, it´s got nothing to do with the fact that he´s an Aussie, and I´ve just started to hate him since I saw him in that movie "10 things I hate about you" or what I like to call "10 things I hate about this movie". 8 out of 10 is Heath Ledger.
And what about Mel Gibson. He´s not as bad as Heath but he hasn´t given a good performance in his entire life, with the exception of the movie Braveheart where he was surprisingly good, or even say that he´s was great.
But what I didn´t understand was the fact that two great actors, Tom Wilkinson ("The Full Monty" and "In the Bedroom", which he got an Oscar nomination) and Chris Cooper ("American Beauty and Adaptation-Oscar winner) were in this movie. I guess they got tempted by the money figure, because the script is really, really bad.
But I rated this movie 2 out of 10, instead of giving it 1. because I started to like the bad guy, who was so ridiculously evil and overplayed that it made me laugh.