Reviews

I watched this movie a few hours before making this comment; but it has been out long enough that they are not only tons of comments here, but also a wider opinion that it is a good movie. So here, I will give my opinion of why I would call it a Perfect Ten, rather than "just" and eight (8) or nine(9).

Movies are supposed to accomplish a few key things, in my humble opinion:

1. suspend disbelief 2. entertain for their duration 3. enhance the audience, or at least provide something interesting to talk about afterwards 4. showcase the talents of the crew, actors, and management who worked on making the movie a reality

A movie doesn't have to be technically perfect, have 100% flawless continuity, or exacting dialogue in order to achieve a perfect score from me, because if the first two rules are met, then I won't notice those flaws during a casual viewing, and neither will 90% (or more) of the viewing audience.

Nonetheless, I should still be impressed by the "workmanship" and "production values", although in recent times "production values" has come to mean "eye candy" and "excessive use of special effects technology". So perhaps it is best I just stick to "workmanship"; the movie should seem like a quality product made by professionals.

Finally, something to talk about afterwards: for those who haven't watched it yet, here is where the spoilers start, so I advice you stop reading. Just go watch it, or read a few more comments by other people and then make a decision.

Okay, so, let the spoilers roll:

From the opening scenes, "A Few Good Men" held my interest. They set the tone for the rest of the movie by introducing the context, demonstrating the disciplined, ordered, co-ordinated m.o. of the armed forces, and slickly introduced Lt. Galloway and her struggle to manifest her intent with authority. Soon after we see what this show is about: an accidental death which occurred under questionable circumstances... but as we watch on, there's a lot more to it.

This is a movie that can leave people with different opinions by the end of it, but the important thing is that it provides the opportunity for intelligent discussion (or, less intelligent and more emotional discussion, if that's your cup of tea). Plus it inspired that all-time famous quote, "you can't handle the truth!".

The presentation is spot-on in that it is easy to forget you're watching a fictional movie rather than spying on real people involved in real situations; the suspension of disbelief is there. Also, the outcome of the case, and even the exact sequence of events, are not certain until the end (unless you read a spoiler or just guessed luckily).

All in all, for a drama, this was really interesting. It's not at all like other military-court films which also involve extensive action sequences, and in a way that's refreshing. Even more refreshing is that minimal romantic involvement - personally, I hate that every story has to also have a romance side-story in it as well (but maybe that's just my personal loneliness speaking).

Anyhow, the movie is great, you should see it.

The story behind this movie is very interesting, and in general the plot is not so bad... but the details: writing, directing, continuity, pacing, action sequences, stunts, and use of CG all cheapen and spoil the film.

First off, action sequences. They are all quite unexciting. Most consist of someone standing up and getting shot, making no attempt to run, fight, dodge, or whatever, even though they have all the time in the world. The sequences just seem bland for something made in 2004.

The CG features very nicely rendered and animated effects, but they come off looking cheap because of how they are used.

Pacing: everything happens too quickly. For example, "Elle" is trained to fight in a couple of hours, and from the start can do back-flips, etc. Why is she so acrobatic? None of this is explained in the movie. As Lilith, she wouldn't have needed to be able to do back flips - maybe she couldn't, since she had wings.

Also, we have sequences like a woman getting run over by a car, and getting up and just wandering off into a deserted room with a sink and mirror, and then stabbing herself in the throat, all for no apparent reason, and without any of the spectators really caring that she just got hit by a car (and then felt the secondary effects of another, exploding car)... "Are you okay?" asks the driver "yes, I'm fine" she says, bloodied and disheveled.

I watched it all, though, because the introduction promised me that it would be interesting... but in the end, the poor execution made me wish for anything else: Blade, Vampire Hunter D, even that movie with vampires where Jackie Chan was comic relief, because they managed to suspend my disbelief, but this just made me want to shake the director awake, and give the writer a good talking to.

They are a ton of comments about this movie already, but so far I don't think anyone has been able to really describe what makes it so bad - or, in some cases, so good.

What makes it good are superficial things which would interest you if you stop thinking and watch it in 5-minute intervals, or while doing something else, or with friends who are just out to have a good time. In fact, what I started doing during the action sequences was pretending I was watching someone play a rail shooter - the arcade-type games where you point a gun at the screen and shoot, and the action automatically moves alone as if you're on a train or other railed vehicle.

Just like a good rail shooter, you have lots of explosions. This has been noticed in other comments but the fact that this is the director's debut seems to suggest to me that he has, perhaps a habit of playing rail shooters and wants to re-create the feel. He probably also watched a lot of action movies and decided to copy some of their trademark moments.

Besides a lot of stuff being blown up, you get Lucy Liu and Antonio B., two of my favorite actors. They aren't bad in this movie, but this movie seems far below them. Their encounters are hampered by a contradictory plot which is so badly presented that it might have just been left out, and as characters you never really come to care about anyone because they are all just puppets hung onto the frame of this glorified rail shooter.

Not that this is showing on cable, I want to watch it again with a toy gun in my hand and pretend that I'm playing it like the rail shooter it was supposed to be. That might make it fun.

The sad thing about it is that it had potential. The basic plot features twists towards the end, strong main characters, compassion, and a child in danger... but the execution left me wondering what exactly the writers were thinking, and why on earth the director had based the film on explosions rather than sniping (as the title suggests) or that little thing we call a story. It just feels like less than a sum of its parts, no matter how you look at it.

The two main stars have both appeared in much more enjoyable films, do yourself a favor and watch them instead.

The Double Dragon games brought the hilariously over-dramatic kung-fu movies into homes in the form of a series of fun Beat Em Up type videogames with 2 player cooperative play. The catchy tunes, varied combos, and nearly impossible bosses coupled helped to push the NES into popularity.

This movie, however, shows that it wasn't influenced by John Woo or anyone with any Asian connections - unlike the videogames which were imported straight from Japan. As a result, it feels... forced... just about as bad as Street Fighter: The Movie seems (I haven't actually watched the latter).

Yes, the plot plays a vague resemblance to that of the games. However, no-one actually cares about the plot the the games. We watch it to see people get beat up, we play it to get past Yet Another Difficult challenge. Its like a cheap kung-fu (in days before such epics as Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, et al with actual budgets), but interactive and in low color.

The movie was almost void of action (they were fights, but too much talking with them), and had too much focus on the ... non-action stuff. It would have been better to stick a few episodes of Walker: Texas Ranger back to back, or something.

This may been one of the worse reviews I've written... but, save yourself the time, and go watch anything else instead. I'd recommend anything touched by John Woo in its place... or even playing the original videogames (you might need to find an emulator nowadays, but if the makers of this movie had played the games, maybe they'd have an idea of how to really have fun with a martial arts-heavy storyline).