Waste of time

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

For so many years this was my favorite movie. The plot, the acting, the scenes are all superb. Tom Cruise may be the lead but every actor brought their A Game for this film. Aaron Sorkin and Reiner rounded out a brilliant ensemble to make this a totally enjoyable experience. Enjoy every moment.

Tom Cruise Shit his pants in this movie around 20 minutes.

Let me get started by saying there's no story even resembling reality here. Navy lawyer Kaffee (Tom Snooze) is a little pee-on, yet he decides all on his own to take a sensitive case to court, a maneuver which would have found him stone-walled as soon as the higher echelon discovered he was filing to try the case.Of course, we wouldn't have a movie without writer Aaron 'Copy-n-Paste' Sorkin's silly plot. We also wouldn't get to see Jack Nicholson's fine performance as Colonel Jessup. After all, he makes this his show while concomitantly dwarfing the poor excuses for actors on hand (Tom Snooze, Dummy Moore, and Kevin Haddock). Therefore, let the carnage begin.We are introduced to Kaffee when he is LATE for a meeting showing up without a PEN (he's a lawyer - with a briefcase and everything - but he forgot his pen). Naturally, his commander is understanding. This is where the smart-alek chutzpah begins as Kaffee is proved to be a selfish fool, but all his contemporaries mysteriously still admire him.The next ignorant screw-up by Kaffee happens as he arrives at a superior's office where Kaffee plops down in a chair while munching on an apple. As he sucks the dripping juices off his wrist, the silliness is snapped back to the old 'understanding commander' gag, rather than the more believable (and preferable) event of the superior barbecuing Kaffee for being such an arrogantly clueless putz.As the film drones on, Kaffee has not realized that he should probably go to the nearest five-n-dime store and purchase a package of pens (this running joke was meant to be funny..... it was not). Kaffee's stupidity and total lack of military bearing was more than just Sorkin's failed attempt at comedy. It was also very annoying which resulted in a dislike of Kaffee. What a jerk.When the BIG SCENE materializes (where, in the court room, Kaffee gets Jessup to 'admit' to ordering a forbidden 'Code Red'), we are supposed to believe that Jessup's career is over. This is a half-witted plot point by Sorkin as Jessup could easily appeal and just say that he was angered by the arrogant Kaffee (who truly is an obnoxious little fart). Following Jessup's demise, we see Kaffee stand proud to serve in the Navy, something he's balked at for the preceding 2 hours-plus.As previously stated, this is Nicholson's movie. But added to that, there is no story here, at least if one strives for reality in a film, which is what all involved in movies strive for. When Kaffee (who was specifically chosen by the Navy to plea-bargain this case) decides all by his lonesome to try the soon-to-be-general Jessup in a court of law, the Navy would have escorted Kaffee back to his little cubical and shoved a stale donut in his mouth to shut him up, all of this while they begin to process his foolish butt out of the Navy.Rent, watch, enjoy, but don't forget..... there's no realistic story here.

Half way through the movie, I found myself utterly unable to endure such a dumb plot, dumb characters, and dumb thematic message. One part of me really really wants to turn this off, but another part reminds me of the reason to watch this at the first place: no not for Tom Cruise or the director whoever he is, but for Jack Nicholson. Until then he was only in the movie for two scenes, and magically these two scenes work well. Jack delivered his lines in such a masterful way that he somehow hides how trite they really are; and when he can't hide it, he simply alters it and makes it great ("you can't handle the truth"). Almost all other acting are horrible. Tom Cruise delivered a few good lines, but his character is entirely predictable and cliché, which brings us to the character design. The character design is so lazy and bad. No character is lovable, except perhaps Jack Nicholson, who probably does not have a character at the first place as well but he somehow makes the character come true. Tom Cruise has one of the easiest motivation for a writer to conceive-- his dad is a great lawyer so he has this burden on him, nice and easy. And the film uses this newspaper stall thing to build up Tom's character, which works so unbelievably bad that you would wonder what's the purpose of the scene, and what's the purpose of filmmaking, and what's the purpose of life. The heroine is an extremely unlikable character. I really wanted to like her but she just goes around like a grumpy prick that I cannot relate to her at all. The two soldiers, especially Dawson, are terrible. Somewhere in the middle of the film, Dawson I think shouted out something to Tom Cruise, and as audience I am supposed to feel for his sense of honor, but I can't because his acting is so so bad. The other lawyer guy is forgettable. I do not know why he was there. Is he there to make a reaction face? But whatever he was quite bad as well. Overall, the only good character is Jack Nicholson, and not thanks to the writers, but thanks to his experience and talents. I am giving this film a four entirely because of his acting, and some of Tom Cruise's.