A terrific entertainment if a somewhat
uneven film. "A Few Good Men" was a huge hit when it came out in 1992 and
was nominated for Best Picture. It's a courtroom drama set among the
military and it was written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by the talented
Rob Reiner so what's not to love. Well, Demi Moore for starters. Moore
wasn't much of an actress and cast here as a ball-bustin' attorney she's
clearly out of her depth. The male lead is Tom Cruise as a smart-alecky
young lawyer; it's one of his pin-up performances, easy on the eye but
hard to listen to.
There are, however, several decent
performances among the supporting cast; Kevin Bacon as the young
prosecutor, Wolfgang Bodison as one of the accused, the always excellent
J T Walsh as a decent officer, fer Sutherland, very good as an officer unworthy of the uniform and then there's Jack Nicholson who eats the rest of the cast for breakfast, lunch and dinner and then spits them out. Nicholson is scenery-chewingly brilliant as the commanding officer who runs his base like it were a prison and he gets all the best lines or maybe he just makes every line he's given sound like the best line. Of course, where the film really scores is in the courtroom. Even second-rate courtroom dramas are fun and this is among the best. In th end, it may not be another "Anatomy of a Murder" but it is definitely several rungs up the ladder.
A terrific entertainment if a somewhat
uneven film. "A Few Good Men" was a huge hit when it came out in 1992 and
was nominated for Best Picture. It's a courtroom drama set among the
military and it was written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by the talented
Rob Reiner so what's not to love. Well, Demi Moore for starters. Moore
wasn't much of an actress and cast here as a ball-bustin' attorney she's
clearly out of her depth. The male lead is Tom Cruise as a smart-alecky
young lawyer; it's one of his pin-up performances, easy on the eye but
hard to listen to.
There are, however, several decent
performances among the supporting cast; Kevin Bacon as the young
prosecutor, Wolfgang Bodison as one of the accused, the always excellent
J T Walsh as a decent officer, fer Sutherland, very good as an officer unworthy of the uniform and then there's Jack Nicholson who eats the rest of the cast for breakfast, lunch and dinner and then spits them out. Nicholson is scenery-chewingly brilliant as the commanding officer who runs his base like it were a prison and he gets all the best lines or maybe he just makes every line he's given sound like the best line. Of course, where the film really scores is in the courtroom. Even second-rate courtroom dramas are fun and this is among the best. In th end, it may not be another "Anatomy of a Murder" but it is definitely several rungs up the ladder.
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