A little too long ...

Rating: Null/10 (13 August 2006)

I have watched true-story disaster survival stories on the Discovery / Nat. Geo. channels and am familiar with many of the amazing acts of heroism surrounding 9/11 event. A wonderful aspect of this movie is about showing America at its best after such a horrible tragedy. This being said however, the movie just didn't work for me.
Many of the scenes involving the family seemed unnecessarily stretched out. Horrific as the situations involving the main characters were, their scenes seemed a bit repetitive and again, drawn out. This movie was more 'situational' - not much happened in this movie as far as action. The disaster effects were pretty minimal. I was surprised that the whole movie seemed to have a low-budget feel - a surprise given the talent involved.
I did like seeing their reproduction of the ground-level area of one of the WTC buildings. Seeing the shops and modern structures gave me a greater insight / feel of what it was like to actually be there. Also amazing was to see what was going on in the lobby/ground level. It almost seemed like a 'safe zone' for those coming from above. I also liked learning of the determination and 'can-do' attitude of the US Marines character.
Overall, I think this movie could have been made much better. It's a tough one though - sensitive subject matter, so perhaps it ended up being what it was due to an over-focus on just one situation at the cost of avoiding everything else. I recommend seeing documentary versions of the 9/11 survivor stories instead.