Reviews

This movie has always been a real disappointment for me. While its portrayal of the Marine training sequence is powerful and memorable, Kubrick continues to do a less-than inspiring portrayal of combat in Vietnam. Approaching the diaspora from a different angle than Stone, Kubrick hits upon some of the classic themes left (appropriately) untouched by Platoon. Yet, in some cases the ubiquitous slow-motion violence is needlessly gratuitous and the round-the-body one liner reflections and face-the-camera montage interviews are cheesy, if not reminiscent of other great 'camera-focused' escapades like Kevin Pollak's "Opposite Sex" and the recent "that 70s show".

Pop music is played too often as if FMJ begins to lean towards a self-indulgent glorification of the 60s, even in inappropriate and distracting places. Who can forget Joker and his colleagues (the few bright spots of the film: character development), but the movie fails to depict the subject matter in a realistic or subdued matter when needed.

It seems as if to Kubrick, Vietnam is not a war where Americans were forever traumatized, but rather just another stage for pop culture to spotlight the trite 'duality of man' in an 'animal setting'. I hated the movie. This movie does little justice to the memory of those who were in Vietnam. The movie immediately strays and wavers, becoming an uncomfortable hybrid between 'popular nostalgic war formula' and 'psychological thriller' and proceeds to do both very poorly.

When my friend bought this on DVD, a group of us sat down to watch it, anticipating a horror movie that would torment us in nightmares to come with gory deaths and haunting climaxes. However, the very act of having to sit through this entire movie will be what's giving me nightmares from now on! Emblematic of what happens when Hollywood has too much time and money to blow, this was simply a waste of people's time and money. Rife with stereotypes (get the black woman always being hip with the mixing even amidst the 'gore', or the 'high school quarterback's story) that bordered on the comical and farcical, it's hard to think that this wasn't satire or some other horrible joke. Watching the 'biographies' afterwards was downright unbearable. Could not give it a worse rating.

Finding this piece sandwiched between a stale prequel and a rehashed 80s machomovie on a UPN affiliate's midday Saturday program would be misleading. It deserves better and definitely uses its talented leads' best attributes to its maximum advantage. Bracco and Walken team to provide a movie that while perhaps predictable to those familiar with their genre, do the streetwise, 'troubled minds' routine that they are so good at portraying. For a chance to ride a psychological roller coaster a la Fuqua's "Training Day," dive back into the world of early '90s TV movies to find "Scam"!