There was a good movie in here somewhere

Rating: 5/10 (23 February 2018)

I just recently re-watched this after forgetting why I had shunned it on late night cable all these years. There is a lot of great stuff in this movie, it has a good director, a great cast- Nick Cage , Mark Ruffalo and Peter Stormare three of my faves, and the acting isn't that bad. The movie has good historically interesting subject material and the screenplay is not terrible. Yet this flick, while still fun to watch at 3AM, is a horrendous train wreck.
First and foremost of its flaws is the sound. The musical score is just flat out awful. It's misplaced and overbearing. Imagine trying to watch Saving Private Ryan with The A-Team theme playing incessantly and you get the idea. Also the whole sound editing of the battles is hugely off, WWII was a battle of big guns and here it sounds like a Sunday Civil War re-enactment.
Adding insult to injury, while the battle scene choreography is visually excellent, it looks as realistic as a M.A.S.H. episode because of the location. Like M.A.S.H. it's just obviously filmed in America. Sorry but my suspension of disbelief just can't be stretched into believing the well manicured landscapes of Hawaii and Southern California were the battlegrounds of WWII.
The final nail in the coffin is that all the naval battle scenes are obvious stock footage. Stock Footage! Need I say more?