Most overrated movie of the year.

Rating: Null/10 (27 January 1999)

After a month of waiting for a film I thought was going to open on Christmas, I finally saw A Thin Red Line. It is quite simply the most overrated movie of the year. First, the opening 15 minutes are an utterly boring montage of shots of natives and tropical landscapes with a narration by the lead character slurring a southern accent that I didn't believe for a minute. This apparently is supposed to send a "message" of technological man intruding into a tropical paradise. Alright, I got it in the first two minutes, I didn't need it rammed down my throat for a quarter hour. Don't misunderstand me, Nick Nolte's performance as a washed up Lt. Col. trying to gain prestige and promotion through a victory was great and perhaps worthy of an Academy Award nomination. The combat scenes were spectacular and realistic, however, the film's useless baggage of montages, boring interscene shots and an absolutelessly pointless third hour cripples what would otherwise be a great film. The studio should have take control of this film and edited it down to two hours. The result would have been a leaner and substantially better film. Already, the word of mouth is going out on this film and patrons are starting to stay away in droves. It's not going to make a dime of profit.