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     Yet another WWII flick to come out in the past 5 years, and this is the worst of them all. Terrible is a word that describes this movie. Bad is another. I don't know what's worse, the fact that I paid 8 dollars to watch the terrible thing or the fact that I had to sit thru almost 3 hours of it. Alright, let's do the breakdown.

     What was good? Not much, I'll say that right off. But there are some things. Cuba Gooding, Jr. does a decent job as does Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale. However, there was nothing spectacular so combined they earn half a star. Then the thing that most people wanted to see, the fight sequences. They were pretty good, atleast at first and therefore it earns another star... This is it. Those are the only things I liked in the whole movie, therefore it receives a whopping 1 and a half stars.

     So, now the much longer segment to the critique, the bad things. Ben Affleck, I had more respect for you than this. What happened? Did you leave all your talent with Good Will Hunting? Because I haven't seen anything decent since then...200 Cigarettes (no!) or perhaps Forces of Nature (no!) Bounce (ehhhh), but cerainly nothing spectacular. And nothing's changed. He did a pretty bad job but I'll admit he had little to work with. I think he needs to fire his agent.

     Ok, so aside from acting, what else was bad? As I said, Cuba Gooding, Jr. does a very good job...for the whole 3 minutes he's in the film. They threw his character in to add the ethnic element and then don't even give it the respect it deserves by developing the story. I would've preferred to learn more about his character.

     Ok, the dialogue. I noticed the only good lines in the movie were ones that are famous historical lines, such as the comment by the leader of the Japanese army. Beyond that it was just terrible. Dramatic moments were so contrived and cornball that they became funny, not sad.
Next, the father / son scene in the very beginning. What??!??? I just hit my son and yet I'm a war veteran so it's ok. Is that they best scene that they could come up with?

     Also, I think this movie proves that Michael Bay cannot direct. Instead of using simplicity to show emotion he has to use special camera tricks because he couldn't display confusion and chaos without it. I disagreed with most of his choices. He either stayed so far away from the action to get wide shots of his explosions that you feel left out of the action or he got so close that you couldn't figure out what was going on. He should watch Saving Private Ryan and take notes on what to do with a war movie.

     The pace of the movie was horrible. It only took nearly 2 hours to get to what everyone wanted, the action. The first hour and a half were waisted on the weak story line. Speaking of which, look up predictability in the dictionary and you'll see a picture from this movie. So many cliches I couldn't count. It's called being original, Jerry Bruckheimer should try it.

     The story...can I throw up now? Wow, Kate Beckinsale plays a slut. Let's not play it any other way than that. She sleeps with a guy on their first date, and then she wonders why she's misunderstood. And who wants to root for a jerk like Ben Affleck's character. After the bar scene I wanted to kick his ass myself.   Randall Wallace, the writer of this movie did Braveheart, which I love.  But I think, like Affleck, he used all his talents on it because all he's done since is the horrible tv show Dark Angel and a movie that should be burned and never be exposed to anyone again, The Man in the Iron Mask.  This movie is another good basis for a film that he's screwed up.

     All in all, the supporting cast is okay (minus Jon Voight who plays FDR) leads are decent minus Affleck, story is terrible and drags for almost 3 hours, and the action is good. Don't bother with this movie, it's not worth your time or money.