Didn't live up to the hype...

Rating: 6/10 (15 September 2003)

I was so excited to see this movie. The trailer looked awesome. The reviews that the studio put on the ads made it seem fantastic, like another "Braveheart" or at the very least a "Saving Private Ryan." After all, Randall Wallace and Mel Gibson were both involved, and "Braveheart," which they also worked on, is the most fantastic movie ever.
This movie let me down. The battle scenes were decent, but the movie was a lot of fluff. There was nothing of substance. Sure, families are upset when a soldier dies, I know that, I'm not stupid. There is no need to dedicate half an hour of this movie to the wives walking door-to-door delivering telegrams to families of soldiers that died.
I'm not saying the movie was horrible. It was a little better than an average movie, but with the hype and anticipation for it, it was a let down. There were too many characters to keep track of and to care about all of them (just like in "Black Hawk Down"), so when one dies (I won't say who) you don't feel much for them. It doesn't have as big of a dramatic impact as the makers intended.
If you saw this movie, I hope you didn't shell out 9 bucks for it. Rent it from the library or something.
6/10.