The Great Raid

Martin recommended to me “The Great Raid” as one of the new movies with high rating. Since I haven’t heard anything about it, I agreed to rent it.

Directed by: John Dahl
Genres: Action, Drama, War
Cast: Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, Robert Mammone, Max Martini, James Carpinello, Mark Consuelos, Craig McLachlan, Freddie Joe Farnsworth, Laird Macintosh, Jeremy Callaghan, Scott McLean, Paolo Montalban, Clayne Crawford, Sam Worthington, Royston Innes
IMDB raintg: 7.4
My rating: 2.0 [rate 2.0]

And that was a big mistake. This film is one of the worst war movies that I have ever seen. It’s terrible and was extremely difficult to finish. I don’t remember any other movie that I was so glad to see the ending credits of.

What’s so wrong with it? Well, for starters the drama. Since there is only one battle in this film, and the one which preceeds the end by a mere few minutes, there supposed to be something else for the audience to wait with. Supposedely there was some drama. But it was very indirect and scattered. And…

…actin sucked really bad. Noone even made an attempt to act. Maybe that was due to…

…dialogues, which were officially the worst dialogues you can ever have in the movie. War heroes were talking so much propaganda that they didn’t have enough space to squeeze in a joke or two. Neither they talked anything serious. Same old crap about honor, courage, bravery, and saving lives of innocent people. C’mon! I can’t believe anyone can take that crap for more than three seconds and only if two of them are coming out of some stand-up comedian.

Camera, photography, music, and special effects were so cliche that I have already spent more time describing them in this one long sentance than the makers of the film thought while making those.

Oh, and the trick of cutting budget by just having one battle scene doesn’t work anymore. It was something they used about 40 years ago or so. Because every movie lover knows that if you are only to make one battle, you’ll have to make it so major that it will cost you more than a few smaller ones. Furthermore, having the main (and the only) battle in the film take place during the darkest night the Hollywood has ever seen is yet another way to spoil the impression.

Now, that’s enough.