An average movie

Following his reputation, many hoped/expected that Oliver Stone would make one of his controversial political dramas à la ‘JFK’ but unfortunately, the whole thing turned out to be surprisingly tame. Indeed, it was criticized as being too cautious and easily playing on the emotions. On the other hand, he made ‘JFK’ a couple of decades after the murder actually took place so it might have been untactful to mess around so soon with this tragic event. For once, Nicolas Cage toned down his usual hysteria and played it pretty straightforward which was something rather expected if you consider the material. Personally, I don’t think the whole thing was completely worthless though. Indeed, the first part when they get there and got involved in all the disaster was actually terrific. However, as soon as they got stuck under the rubble (which is actually most of the running time when I think about it), it all became really mushy and not really interesting. It seems that, for once, Oliver Stone wanted to make an emotional and respectable drama which wouldn’t hurt anyone’s feelings but, in the process, he made a rather underwhelming feature. Still, even though the whole thing was rather disappointing, I still think it is actually worth a look, if only for the first 30 minutes and especially if you are interested in Oliver Stone’s work.

6/10