I think the problem with this film is the actors are always placed on a extremely high pedestal and any slip up or under par performance and they are shot to bits. I definitely agree with people when they say this film wasn't a 10 star blockbuster but also disagree with the ratings of 3 or below. I believe De Niro and Travolta performed as well as they could with the script that was provided.
Nicolas Cage was to be Benjamin Ford originally but was replaced by De Niro, I think i would have expected Cage to lower the standard of this movie a lot if he actually was cast in the end.
One of the main criticisms of the film was Travoltas accent. I mean it could have been a lot worse but it still was noticeable. I think casting a actor with a genuine accent would have been the smartest bet. After all De Niro would have been all it took for me to watch this without Travolta in it at all.
I'm not familiar with the war at all so can't comment on any of the accuracy of it or any faults they have with it.
The main part of the movie with the cat and mouse chase through the woodland around Benjamin Fords home was very suspenseful not know what the outcome of there very own war of revenge. The couple of torture scenes may be hard to watch by some people as they are quite graphic. Apart from the accent issue i enjoyed the movie. The story was there and the actors defiantly were. Maybe the script could have done with slight tweaking but if you can overlook that then you will enjoy it. 5.5/10