Review of A Few Good Men (1992) by Teresa S — 02 Mar 2011

A FEW GOOD MEN is considered a classic by many, but largely because of its memorable catchphrases, which gave it a place in the pantheon of pop culture, as most people would come to know it through parody. It's no wonder that between this and THE WEST WING, Hollywood employed Aaron Sorkin to act as a script doctor, working in quips here and there in various films. Like a lot of Sorkin's work, A FEW GOOD MEN is overcooked, but it lacks the steady hand of a Mike Nichols (CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR) or the flair of a David Fincher (THE SOCIAL NETWORK). Instead, Rob Reiner is behind the camera, and seems content to let the actors devour everything around them.

I've never been a detractor of Tom Cruise, as despite his inescapable star power, he always commits himself 110% to whatever role he plays. However in A FEW GOOD MEN, Cruise seems to be competing for going the biggest in each scene, his performance almost feels like he's projecting to an in-house audience, as does the rest of the cast.. People will defend the movie from this criticism by saying that A FEW GOOD MEN was originally a play, which is fine, except when big theatrical acting makes its way into what is a chamber piece film. None of the characters feel realized in any way, they all feel like cogs that serve some sort of function, such as Kevin Pollak's painful inclusion as a sort of dictionary of military lingo for the audience.

Despite some good moments, I never really found A FEW GOOD MEN to be engaging as a story either. It was never suspenseful, the big reveals and the big message about what it means to be a soldier come off as cute but trite. This is because A FEW GOOD MEN is a movie that holds the audiences' hand, everything is so on the nose it leaves nothing to contemplate or discuss afterward. Everything goes exactly as you think it will ahead of time, it fulfills every expectation and promise and never bothers to surprise or challenge anything, even though it clearly thinks it does all of these things. It's big, loud, overly serious tone is often mistaken for great drama. A FEW GOOD MEN may work as a play, but it doesn't work as a film.