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 You must be kidding! Mar 11, 2010
I have the impression that Hollywood always hire the same extras for the bad-guys parts, be it native-americans, germans, japanese, latinos, russians, north-koreans, vietnamese, africans, arabs and - I hope soon - aghans, because they're always are...
Definitely retarded: they always swarm in packed hordes to make easy kill dozens of them with one grenade (or one claymore) or slash them by the hundreds with machine guns. And they're so stupid that after seeing they're being killed in the same place, they keep on charging the same spot! Their stupidity is more remarkable when they actually have the chance to really kill a good guy, they always lose time saying something in their barbaric language, or make some fierce grin and gesture before... being killed by another good guy he didn't see!
Eternally bad shots: no matter they carry excellent MP-40s, or Dragunovs, or AK-47s (apparently belt-loaded because they never reload) and shoot thousands and thousands of rounds, they always miss because the good guys never receive even a little scratch of that black cloud of bullets these dummies send... but the marksmanship issue changes dramatically when johnny fires back with only a Colt pistol, because bad guys begin to hit the dirt by the hundreds (it still amazes me how many bullets a pistol magazine holds!). It's a perfect equation... [Hundreds of enemies shooting in automatic] versus [one good guy firing back short bursts] equals [good guy wins, all enemy dead].
Always highly visible even when you can't see them: Good guys - never covering, always walking, never crouching - always kill bad guys by the thousands, no matter how camouflaged in the bush, no matter how hidden in their trenches, no matter how safe behind concrete, now matter how invisible in the dark. It seems that the good guys load their guns with intelligent bullets that follow the enemy, no matter how many curves they have to make to reach the sucker.
Their units never have air or ground support: good guys can spend days in the same position and never a missile, or a mortar, or a shell lands in their zone killing all of them. An when a miserable RPG reaches them, it only lifts earth and makes our heroes shake their heads. It doesn't matter that when an RPG explodes it throws hundreds of fragmented metal around (maybe johnny is immune to metal). At the contrary, when good guys call air or ground support, we know it's the end of the movie, because there will be no more enemies to kill.
They're respectful in the most awkward moments: when a good guy is hit (99% of the times non-fatal) the bad guys stop their attacks so our heroes can take care of the victim, share some tears and spill their usual heroic and patriotic crap, we can hear some sucky melodramatic score music and even (the worst) suckier flashbacks of their lives before... When we see this last thing we know the guy croaks.
I don't wanna enumerate more stuff because someone's gonna accuse me of anti-patriotic, or al-qaida sympathizer, or obamaist, or healt-insurance-socialist.
All I say is that war movies SUCK, not for only being bad but for treating the viewers like dummies... or bad guys.
Anyway, this move was a gift, so I only lost time... and a friend.
 Tears of the Sun (Special Edition) Mar 08, 2010
Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters and his elite squadron of tactical specialists are forced to choose between their duty and their humanity, between following orders by ignoring the conflict that surrounds them, or finding the courage to follow their conscience and protect a group of innocent refugees. When the democratic government of Nigeria collapses and the country is taken over by a ruthless military dictator, Waters, a fiercely loyal and hardened veteran is dispatched on a routine mission to retrieve a Doctors Without Borders physician, Dr. Lena Kendricks. Dr. Kendricks, an American citizen by marriage, is tending to the victims of the ongoing civil war at a Catholic mission in a remote village. When Waters arrives, however, Dr. Kendricks refuses to leave unless he promises to help deliver the villagers to political asylum at the nearby border. If they are left behind, they will be at the mercy of the enormous rebel army. Waters is under strict orders from his commanding officer Captain Bill Rhodes to remain disengaged from the conflict. But as he and his men witness the brutality of the rebels first-hand, they are won over to Dr. Kendricks' cause and place their lives at risk by agreeing to escort the villagers on a perilous trek through the dense jungle. As they move through the countryside on foot, Waters' team, experts at evasion and concealment, are inexplicably and ferociously pursued by an army of rebels. They are confounded until they discover that, among the refugees, is the sole survivor of the country's previous ruling family, whom the rebels have been ordered to eliminate at all costs. Waters and his small band of soldiers must weigh the life of one man against their own and the refugees they feel obliged to protect. If you like gritty, realistic action movies then this will not disappoint.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Enjoyable Unrealistic Jan 11, 2010
This was a good action/drama from the director of Training Day. There are some comparisons to Black Hawk Down, but I find this movie to be the lesser of the two and has less action. Bruce Willis is good as a grizzled special ops leader charged with extracting an American national in Nigeria during a political upheaval. The movie tugs at the heart with the tale of genocide that is all too prevalent in Africa even today. The problems I have with the movie are with realism. Willis as a special ops vet would not have gone against orders several times to be a hero. He would have completed the mission as ordered. Also his commander would not have shrugged off his insubordination so casually. Military men do what they are told whether they think it is right or not. Special ops guys always do as they are ordered to the letter, that is why they are special ops. I found the doctor character annoying, so I spent most of the movie wishing Willis would have left her behind. That aside, it is a well made movie and worth a watch for any action fan who likes a good story with their guns.
HEARTRENDING, GUT WRENCHING, DEEPLY MOVING Dec 22, 2009
I saw this movie on T.V. two nights ago. (We don't get to movies in theatres, my husband has hearing aids and can't handle the noise!) I'd wanted to see it for some time, because the simple blurb in the T.V. magazine preview indicated something special. It's unfortunate most people will simply think it's just another Bruce Willis 'actioner'. I haven't read all the reviews but I may be one of the few women to write one. I won't repeat the details of the script, simply list my own observations.
Story: all important, in both books and movies. This story was played out with clarity and compassion. Certainly it became a little gung-ho at the end, but one could become deeply involved in the action scenes, the portrayals of the members of a small, highly trained military unit, and the simply accepted fact, once unknown in the movie world, of Africans as human beings.
Acting: Bruce Willis has matured well. He played his role perfectly and believably, conveyed all the feelings of a man and a soldier in terrible circumstances with admirable economy. Seldom has a wooden expression served its owner so well! The men under his command were equally believable in their roles. Monica Bellucci as the doctor I could not quite warm to. She did all that was required of her, yet I couldn't quite believe in her character as I did the men's. After the movie finished I wondered what an actress of the ilk of Meg Ryan or Susan Sarandon would have made of the role. And Tom Skerrit didn't quite click as the senior officer.
Blood and Violence: I don't handle these well. I've refused to see the Mel Gibson produced movies for that reason. But, as in 'Gladiator', the brutality and cruelty of human beings to one another, as depicted, was acceptable because it was part of the storyline. It was neither explicit nor graphic; it wasn't thrown in for the sake of sensationalism.
Why gut-and-heart wrenching? In a phrase, I cared for the people and what happened to them. In a word, realistic. Why deeply moving? Because after the end of the story I realised how fortunate we in the western civilisations are, to live in even comparative safety.
P.S. And its title is similar to that of my favourite science-fiction story, The Sun's Tears by Brian M. Stableford, published in 1974!
1 of 12 found the following review helpful:
Not the film as originally written or made Nov 05, 2009
I think that it is important to note that this film was moved halfway 'round the earth and the entire plot changed BECAUSE OF THE SO-CALLED "ACCIDENTAL" DEATH OF KEVIN TOD SMITH, who goes uncredited in THIS version. Originally, it was shot in China, and was Smith's first "big American film role." Apparently, Bruce Willis couldn't take the competition of a taller, more-skilled, more handsome, funnier, more physically-adept and built like a brick house "co-star." Although I doubt that, had Kev lived, he would've gotten THAT much credit from Mr. 5'7" New Jersey Boy. If they'd finished this war-mongering diatribe in China, and left Tod's scenes in, I might want to watch it. But as a Willis vehicle, it sounds like a load of crap.
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