A forced war movie

Rating: Null/10 (19 December 2002)

Like Ali, an interesting story made into an uninteresting movie. The filmmakers must have had a checklist for things to include in this movie like 40s race relations, what the soldiers were going to do after the war, the leader ravaged by battle, ect. When the characters are not engaged in war movie cliches, they are involved in over-choreographed battle ballets making war look like a circus rather than a struggle. Multi-angled shots of explosions, slow motion shots of people flying through the air, and kung-fu knife fights took me right out of the movie. There is a place to use fancy explosion scenes and choreographed fights, but not in a war-is-hell movie like this tried to be. If you like watching blood spill, knife fights, and explosions in slow motion, then this is the movie for you, and a fast forward button.