Wednesday, August 17, 2005
The 'Great Raid' Review
Just came home from watching all 2.5 hours worth of The Great Raid. Once again Dave at Garfield Ridge took the words out of my mouth. If you want a more in-depth review, he's got a good one. I'll just throw my two cents in for now.
I was most proud of the portrayal of the Filipino resistance. Those guys really deserved the spotlight. Being an honorary Filipino brother from another mother (aka homeland) I felt the pride. Those guys always did fight like hell.
I hated every minute of the 'love crap' between the Manila-based blonde and the Major, but at the end of the movie when they mention her recognition by the President I realized that she was in fact a real person who did great things. I guess I can live with the love crap as long as it was intended to giver her some much needed props. Don't get me wrong, lovey stuff in movies is great... just not when it's in an almost 3 hour long war movie.
If I were a Ranger I'd be smoking a cigarette because watching the movie would have been similar to having sex. As a Zoomie, it was OK... just a little too long, but definitely a well-rounded film. You can tell they used the 3 years of shelf time to cut it just right. Yes in fact the movie is 3 years old. The studio shelved it to wait for the right time. Of course that meant waiting for a moment when no Cruise, Schwarzenneger, or Hanks movies were out.
And yes, the focus on the young and brave Captain wasn't all that bad. Guy didn't know how to keep his head down most of the time, but his role did prove that Captains are good for more than just making coffee.
On my 'Movies are like Liquor' ratings system I give 'The Great Raid' two servings of warm Cognac, with a chaser of Jack Daniels on ice to finish things off with a good kick in the ass that gives you that patriotic vibe you don't get too often.
posted by El Capitan at 1:47 AM
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