Tears of the Sun

This movie feels like a script written for John Wayne that someone finally got around to filming 40 years later without any sense that times have changed. There are some good action sequences, but it is filled with clich&eacutes, shamelessly one-sided, has cheesy wooden dialogue, and a numbingly predictable plot. Waters defies American diplomatic policy going back to the Monroe Doctrine, and the point of the movie seems to be that this is unqualifiedly a good thing and that it is the job of a Navy Lieutenant to determine what our foreign policy should be and then just carry it out. There is no sense of the complexity of American intervention into a tragic civil conflict and no sense of the consequences of his choices.

A.K. may have learned to care, but that does not appear to be true of Willis. He does all right with the weary, man-of-the-world, let-me-handle-this moments. But, for example, when he is called upon to give a stirring "be a man" pep talk to a shaken Nigerian who has just seen everyone he cares about killed, the best he can do is bark, "Cowboy the **** up!" Monica Bellucci may be as talented as her press reports claim, but there is no way to tell that from her kittenish performance here.