Spent all the money on pyrotechnics, forgot to hire any talent.

Rating: 2/10 (19 June 2002)

The one shining light in this movie was Adam Beach. His performance was moving and honest. I could not have asked for more from a lead character (ahem, Mr. Cage).
There are many, many things wrong with this movie. My favourite is the astoundingly awful cinematography. At one point in time it appears that footage of a navy destroyer has been cut directly from a 1950s war movie. The colour is awful, the footage is grainy. It entirely does not match the feel of the movie.
The acting, besides the aforementioned performance of Beach, was atrocious. Nicholas Cage does some sort of Rambo with emotional issues thing that totally does not work here. None of the stereotypical soldiers we meet can actually soldier or even ACT like soldiers (bullets are flying! stay low, people!), or have any personality beyond the standard "types" that we've meet in ever war movie ever made. The newly-wed with a sweet wife back home, the racist who learns to love and accept the token minority, the tough guy from the inner city, etc.
The script and story line were cliched and all too familiar. I went to see a movie about Navajo code talkers. What I actually saw was yet another WWII buddy movie that only had a passing relationship to the story of Navajo soldiers in the Pacific. There is a good story here, a GREAT story here, but Windtalkers is not it.
Go see this only if you want to know how NOT to make a war movie. Otherwise go rent The Thin Red Line and feel safe in the knowledge that you have not wasted 2.5 hours of your life.