Like most if not all moviegoers, I depend on the trailers preceding the film to give me an idea of what it's about to help me make a decision if I want to see it. When I saw the trailers for this film I thought it looked pretty entertaining since I've spent all of my life either in or around the military, including the Navy.
Well, after seeing the film the best I can muster to say is that I'm very disappointed. The film doesn't resemble the trailer enough and I feel that the trailer was deliberately designed to be misleading. There is so much difference I feel defrauded. The trailer contains flash footage of Navy Ships at sea, submarines, jet fighters, helicopters and aircraft carriers. These images give the impression that some amount of time in the film will be devoted to a Midshipman's experience on cruises throughout the Navy. None of those things are in the film at all.
The entire film centers around a rather lame and phony looking 3 round amateur boxing match at the Academy. That kind of thing should have had it's proper perspective in the career of a Midshipman at Annapolis, a very brief and minor one done for diversion from arduous studies. Beyond that, this seems to be a collection of gee, let's find some pretty looking people and put them in tight uniforms.
At least the actors themselves seemed to try and give the audience their money's worth. I think the best performance was by Vicellous Reon Shannon, who played a much picked on overweight student. Next was Jordana Brewster who still looked and acted more girlie than your average competent Midshipman. James Franco looked buff in the manner of young Hollywood and did OK with the material he was given but it lacked enough story substance to feel real.
In the final analysis, serious drawbacks in the film included completely inappropriate depictions of overt and blatant sexism, racial discrimination and hazing, none of which would be tolerated at all in the modern academy. Including those things constitutes a serious insult to the integrity and honor of men and women in uniform at a time when they are fighting and dying for the cause of freedom around the world.
Well, after seeing the film the best I can muster to say is that I'm very disappointed. The film doesn't resemble the trailer enough and I feel that the trailer was deliberately designed to be misleading. There is so much difference I feel defrauded. The trailer contains flash footage of Navy Ships at sea, submarines, jet fighters, helicopters and aircraft carriers. These images give the impression that some amount of time in the film will be devoted to a Midshipman's experience on cruises throughout the Navy. None of those things are in the film at all.
The entire film centers around a rather lame and phony looking 3 round amateur boxing match at the Academy. That kind of thing should have had it's proper perspective in the career of a Midshipman at Annapolis, a very brief and minor one done for diversion from arduous studies. Beyond that, this seems to be a collection of gee, let's find some pretty looking people and put them in tight uniforms.
At least the actors themselves seemed to try and give the audience their money's worth. I think the best performance was by Vicellous Reon Shannon, who played a much picked on overweight student. Next was Jordana Brewster who still looked and acted more girlie than your average competent Midshipman. James Franco looked buff in the manner of young Hollywood and did OK with the material he was given but it lacked enough story substance to feel real.
In the final analysis, serious drawbacks in the film included completely inappropriate depictions of overt and blatant sexism, racial discrimination and hazing, none of which would be tolerated at all in the modern academy. Including those things constitutes a serious insult to the integrity and honor of men and women in uniform at a time when they are fighting and dying for the cause of freedom around the world.