The War

Rating:
Summary: A Real Struggle
Review: When Kevin Kostner does supra-realistic (as in Waterworld or The Postman) I can tolerate the lapses in factuality. This movie supposedly takes place in Mississippi in 1970 according to the blurb on the back cover. He plays a Viet Nam vet who has kids approaching their teens. It is an important part of the plot that he went through boot camp with a buddy that he had to decide to leave behind after a fire fight in Nam. If Kostner has almost preteen kids, he started raising a family before the war became escalated so it is highly unlikely he would have gone to Nam.

But granted that were the case, there are at least two parallel plots. One is the Kostner must struggle with having left that buddy behind. The other is that his kids are trying to build a treehouse which they must defend against a thuggy rival group. Kostner must pass on his values to his own kids. In a scene in which one is reminded of a Viet Nam fire fight, Kostner's kids and their allied defend the treehouse and incidentally save the life of one of the thuggies.

Life is a war, says one of the characters, where you forget what you were fighting for. I'll agree with that. It was a real struggle to muddle through this movie. You forget why you wanted to see this movie in the first place. Kostner's character dies trying to save a co-worker. If there is a redemption here it is only for Kostner. His family will move to a larger house, but only because of a flukish bank need to write off a bad debt for only a few hundred dollars.

Does his family learn what really is worth fighting for? I would say that the movie shows that they already knew. If the reader thinks otherwise, the reader can write down what s/he thinks the family learned and spin back to the beginning. Like I said, a real struggle.

Rating:
Summary: One awesome movie!
Review: Wow,The War was a good movie.It was the only movie to make me cry
besides Armaggeddon.Elijah Wood is so adorable,and Kevin Costner
is cool.All of the actors did a wonderful job in this movie!

Rating:
Summary: and critics dont like it that much
Review: You know, i dont understand sometimes why the critics gnaw on such films as this and "pay it forward"
i dont know what they expect from a film but this one delivers.
Elijah Wood is perfectly cast alongside kevin costner(who is a co-star). "The War" in question is not what you would expect to find in this film, it refers to one of two possibilities.
1)the war that is going on in kevin costner's head, having just returned from one, and the problems the family has to face or
2) the war between the kids, which would be my guess. I dont realy know what else to say but i will tell you that Elijah is a pleasure to watch. personaly, he is a far better actor than McCauly culkin ever was. He has a natural gift for accents (eg. the adventures of huckleberry finn).
so if you are looking for a film that gives you more out of it than you would expect then this is the one. there is a message or two in this one, so check it out. you wont be dissapointed, i gaurantee it.