Some flaws but Entertaining

Rating: 7/10 (17 April 2004)

This movie about the Kennedy Administration during the Cuban Missile Crisis is flawed, but is still entertaining. First there is Kevin Costner's role as Special assistant Kenny O'Donnell. Costner gets way too much screen time. He got much more than the President and other important figures. Then there is costner's accent. Some people think that his Boston accent for the part is terrible. What I found more interesting was that sometimes Costner spoke with an accent, and sometimes he didn't seem to have one at all!
Vice-President Lyndon Johnson was made out to be just a dumb hick. Even Johnson's detractors will admit that he certainly wasn't dumb. The Adlai Stevenson (United Nations Representative)character wasn't anything the real person either. They made him out to be way too much of a wimp.

Another flaw was that on more than one occasion you could actually see the voice boom boxes (or whatever they are called)that record what the actors are saying, at the top of the picture. Seldom do you actually see this in a movie. So there was some bad editing. I saw this movie in the theatre and wonder if it was edited out of the videotapes and DVDs.
Still, the movie was entertaining. It was for the most part historically accurrate. There wasn't any of the Oliver Stone made up crap in this movie. You really got the feel of the pressure that everyone was under.

Besides Costner, the acting was very good. In this kind of movie, there is often a lot of overacting, but in this movie it was just right.

This movie had a good pace and had some interesting twists. I give it a 7 out of 10.