Rules of Engagement

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Review by Nonia Bidness

This film deserves to immediately lose all its stripes, be court marshaled for impersonating a movie, and sentenced to life imprisonment in hell.

I actually would have left during this movie, that’s how bad it was, except that I wanted to be able to give a full report of it being bad all the way to the end. I was barely able to refrain from groaning out loud by the last quarter of the film. Part of the fault of this movie was a sloppy trailer which gave away the entire story. Surprisingly, however, it was even worse than one would have thought from seeing the trailer.

The acting was mediocre, the dialog very weak. Even though my knowledge of courtroom tactics is basically limited to having served on one jury and watching several years of LA Law, I know that some sort of logical and persuasive argument is a general ingredient. None occurred in this film. Implausible event followed implausible event, such as Tommy Lee Jones just hopping over to Yemen for an afternoon of evidence gathering and coming back later that day. Like the prosecution bringing in a North Vietnamese soldier to testify – someone who’s name would not have even been in any records any where.

The battle scenes were choreographed to show different ways blood can spill out and different ways bodies can fall or be blasted to their death. There were many attempts made to tug at heart strings and engage our emotions, and at first I wanted them to work but wasn’t able to pretend to be that stupid for that long.

To sum it up this film fails on every level. Its military action is unrealistic, the character development is weak, it is a lousy courtroom drama, and it fails to entertain. This is the worst film I have seen this year.

Please save your time and money.

Nonia Bidness April 14^th, 2000