Herald rating: * * *
Running time: 123 mins
Rental: Today
Review: Ewan McDonald
Marine colonels Hays Hodges (Tommy Lee Jones) and Terry Childers (Samuel L. Jackson) fought side-by-side in Vietnam, where Childers saved Hodges' life by shooting an unarmed POW.
Hodges is invalided out of action so he gets a law degree and becomes a Marine lawyer. He also gets a divorce and becomes a drunk.
Years later, Childers is a much-decorated officer chosen to lead a rescue mission into Yemen when the US embassy comes under threat from angry demonstrators.
Childers is accused of ordering his men to fire on a crowd, who may have been unarmed but were certainly civilians, killing 83. Court-martialled, he persuades his old friend Hodges to represent him.
Jones and Jackson work well together, and for once here's a movie trial in which you won't pick the result.
Perhaps the two actors make the movie better than it really is.
It's the germ of an idea for a film but falls short because the directors and writers didn't seem to know what they wanted to say.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Latest from Lifestyle
How King’s return will take pressure off Kate
Charles’ resumption of public duties will help his daughter-in-law's cancer recovery.