A Wasted Opportunity For a Good Film

Rating: 1/10 (10 July 2000)

Once again Roland Emmerich creates a film that insults the intelligence of the educated moviegoer. Especially since this film is set during one of the most important historical events of our country's history, I thought Emmerich would take this opportunity to become a legitimate filmaker instead of creating another brainless big budget piece of garbage like ID4 and Godzilla. But unfortunately, the result is the same type of mass-audience nonsense that is written for the lowest common denominator. This recklessly written script focuses on the less common but more sensational types of war practices in an attempt to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create a typical "Hollywood" good vs. evil plot. You can find all the typical elements of a typical big budget action film including an overblown unrealistic villian, annoying dialog including countless annoying lines of comic relief, and of course a cheesy, predictable ending. The only reason I saw this film is because I am very interested in American History, but I just hope my fellow Americans don't show up to the theater expecting a realistic history lesson, because all you will get is a lesson in how to waste a 100 million dollar budget on a movie that could have been a wonderful "Braveheart-type" epic.