Rating: Summary: Bruce Willis saves the Day Review: This reminded me of those good old-fashioned Saturday matinee movies where it's the good guys against the bad guys and the odds are a thousand to one against. I really enjoyed it and I was particularly happy to see Bruce Willis come back with a good action packed adventure. Willis has these roles down to a science. It's what he does best. It's a non-stop shoot em up adrenaline rush. The action looks realistic and so does the gritty splattering of carnage.
Rating: Summary: Moonlighting Tears Review: Disgraceful. I think that is the one word that sums up the sheer insensitiveness, the sheer intolerable ignorance, the untenable blinkeredness, the blithe focus on insulated ideals of American jingoism or (even more despicably) emotional manipulation for bottom-line Greenback payback that this movie uncovers. I use the greenback moniker as a reference to the Almighty Dollar because green is also the national colour of my (often deservedly) maligned nation - Nigeria. This ailing nation - another in that long-drawn series of failing African republics - happens to be THE LARGEST Negroid conglomeration on earth. Between 1967 - 1970 the east of the country was the epicenter of a well-documented, well covered, TELEVISED civil war which killed over ONE MILLION people: mostly children who starved to death in this fertile, littoral nation because of a genocidal naval blockade imposed by the military government of the day. That war was probably the most tragic of the very very many African blood baths till Congo wrenched the wretched record with its recently concluded attempt at apocalypse. Today Nigeria stands on the brink of a double-edged precipice: on the one side my country is 1 month away from its most important elections in its troubled 43-year history: an election to determine if democracy stays or if military rape is resumed after a 4-year hiatus. On the other hand it just lost a landmark International Court of Justice decision to eastern neighbor Cameroon over the oil-rich peninsula of Bakassi. Because of the humiliation of legal defeat, Nigeria has an armored battalion massed on the tiny peninsula - on the other side of the now defunct border is a similar force of intermittently belligerent French-backed Cameroonian gendarmes. All this is happening at a time when neighboring West African states such as Liberia and Sierra Leone are attempting recovery from horrifyingly fractious civil wars, which were only halted because of the decisive, multi-laterally backed intervention of Nigeria. Meanwhile, even as I write, the region's richest nation Ivory Coast is reeling from a suicidal ethnic insurgency within its army ranks. Without seeming to lapse into bathos, there's one other point that I must add to my indignant premise before knocking it on the head - on September 16th last year, Norimitsu Onishi/The New York Times published a well researched article about Nigeria's burgeoning film industry (daubed "Nollywood") which accurately detailed how Nigerian straight-to-video movies, "made on the cheap, with budgets of about only $15,000 have become huge hits, with stories, themes and faces familiar to other Africans." And how it was now conservatively estimated, as a $45 million-a-year industry: miniscule by Hollywood or even Bollywood standards, but huge for a poor continent with more emphasis on food than film. Now please, please can someone explain to me why "Tears" got made the way that it was? A film that whips up a SECOND civil war for Nigeria? A movie whose denouement involves a heroic escape to the "freedom" of Cameroon? A movie cast (with an almost guilty, but ultimately purulent condescension) with extras from - CKECK THIS OUT - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Congo, but none from Nigeria or Cameroon? A movie directed by Antoine Fuqua - an African American? Once again, Nigeria will have to leave judgement to others. Funso Oke. (Usually a laid-back anglicised movie-fan who liked Training Day and has watched Bruce Willis since "Moonlighting").
Rating: Summary: Very Noble Americans Review: This action film wastes no time and really gets down to business. Unfortunately the filmmakers decided not to give us any character development whatsoever. The audience does not even get a thumbnail sketch of what the main character (Willis) is even about. Who is he? What's in his past military record? What makes him tick? These are elements that separate a good action film from all the others. If it wasn't for Bruce Willis and his past screen exploits this film would have been a disaster. Bruce Willis brought a lot of his good-guy-against-all-odds qualities to his character in this film. But this is virtually only made possible by visual identification from his previous roles such as he played in the DIE HARD films. Even the conflict in this African country is not made politically clear. But that may not have been the focal point. The real saving grace for the film was its finale, which was very emotional. It put the role and purpose of the current American military in a more favorable and noble light than we have seen in a long time. We see American servicemen that are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to help the downtrodden and we see civilians in a foreign land actually weep for them. That made the film a worthwhile effort.
Rating: Summary: Apple pie and all that.... Review: In my opinion, this movie deserves a one-star rating (even though I found the last 20-minutes quite funny). I particularly liked Willis' final comment...."here, help her, she needs medical attention" when he's standing there seriously wounded (first, by a machete) then shot numerous times. I enjoyed the captain of the aircraft carrier miraculously showing up within minutes after the last altercation with the "rebels", as well. Particularly because it took the two fighter jets quite some time (at hyperspeed) just to get to the battle site. Corny, apple pie, terribly overacted... and most of all ridiculous. We all know, don't we, that Americans never need to load their guns... the bullets just seem to keep coming. I rate this one right in there with John Travolta's Broken Arrow. Same genre', only a bit more foolish. Believe me, this one will be forgotten quickly!
Rating: Summary: This movie was EXCELLENT! Review: I'm not going to go into the nuances of filmmaking or pontificate about the lighting, dialogue, etc. This movie is the best war movie since Black Hawk Down, and is now one of my all-time favorites! Tears of the Sun, IS EXTREMELY RELEVANT! to today's events, and although the story is not factually written, it is rooted in Recent political and military events that are real! Cambodia, ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, etc. All will come to mind when you watch this film. It shows our soldiers as not only Americans, but compassionate patriots who are willing to risk their lives not only for Americans, but for humanity. Hollywood is gonna hate this movie, because it shows our troops the way they should be shown, FAVORABLY, and deserving of our respect and admiration!! If your on the fence about war, WATCH THIS MOVIE, you might just change your mind!!
Rating: Summary: The Brave Review: Antoine Fuqua definitely has an eye for mayhem and for the things that titillate and thrill us, as in his "Training Day." In "Tears of the Sun," he tackles the war film and has as his stars Bruce Willis and the impossibly beautiful Monica Bellucci. The plot is an interesting one with Willis (as A.K. Waters) sent to evacuate Bellucci (as Dr. Lena Hendricks) and some missionaries from an impending "racial cleansing" by a band of Nigerian rebels. Lena refuses to leave unless Waters also brings along a group of Nigerian citizens that live in the Mission; and so begins the central conflict of the film. The combat scenes are on par with and often better than any similar scenes within recent memory including those in "Black Hawk Down" and "We Were Soldiers." Fuqua shoots these scenes close to the vest and his mise en scene crackles with an otherworldly fire that burns with unrelenting pathos... very similar in mood to "Apocalypse Now." Bruce Willis' A.K. Waters is a stoic, a professional soldier who always follows the party line. But he finds himself, maybe for the first time in his career, doing something that his heart and gut tells him is right. Monica Bellucci is stunningly gorgeous but as she proved in "Melena," she is also a forceful actress. Though you might have thought that "Tears of the Sun" might be another Bruce Willis/Die Hard epic set in Nigeria, it is anything but. What it is, is one of those films that wears its emotions on its sleeve which unexpectedly creeps under you skin and into your heart.
Rating: Summary: terrible...terrible Review: I just recently saw this movie and I thought it was incredibly boring. There was absolutely nothing to this movie that I even remotely liked. There was way too much filler, The dialouge was stupid and the moral of the story resembled that of a pokemon movie. I want my money back!
Rating: Summary: NOT ENOUGH TEARS! Review: I would walk long distances to see Bruce Willis in action. However, in Sun he has toned down a bit and has let some of the supporting actors do most of the heavy stuff. Cole Hauser, Johnny Messner, Paul Frances, carry the load and do a good job. Tom Skirritt has a cameo. Monica Bellucci, is very real an is not afraid to have mud on her face. I understand she has a very hard to watch scene in 'IRRREVERSABLE,' a scene that has turned many heads, I will see it when I can. All in all an action flick with great cinematography,(Mauro Fiore) and good editing (Conrad Buff) I give it a 3/5 ciao yaaah69
Rating: Summary: GREAT MOVIE--GOOD BRUCE WILLIS Review: AN EXTREMELY BRUTAL AND VIOLENT LOOK AT THE TURMOIL IN AFRICA. FIRST HALF OF THE MOVIE IS A LITTLE SLOW BUT ONCE THE ACTION STARTS IT ROCKS AND ROLLS. A STRONG STOMACH IS NEEDED FOR SOME OF THE AREAS. A GREAT MOVIE FOR NAVY SEAL OR SPECIAL FORCES FANS. CAN'T WAIT FOR IT ON DVD. A FITTING MOVIE FOR THE TIMES RIGHT NOW AS TO WHY WE CAN'T SIT BACK AND WAIT FOR IRAQ TO DISARM ITSELF. SOME WILL LIKE THIS PICTURE WHILE OTHERS WILL DISLIKE IT, BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. AS A VIETNAM VET I TIP MY HAT TO THIS MOVIE FOR SHOWING THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE OUR FIGHTING MEN ENDURE AND PAY TO PRESERVE FREEDOM AND HUMAN RIGHTS.
Rating: Summary: Tears of the Sun Review: Bruce Willis has hit a home run with this movie. Tears of the Sun makes me feel a roller coaster of emotions. It starts slow but finishes with a bang.
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