Review of World Trade Center (2006) by Sol H — 16 Dec 2010

An absolutely terrible film that clearly got a free ride because it was about 9/11 and nobody dared slag off a film that handled 9/11 so respectfully.

I went in, not knowing anything about the true story but had mapped out every little thing that would happen from about 5 minutes in -including pregnant wives and several years later flashforwards at the end.

A good hour is spent with Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena lying in some rubble, talking crap. Then some people dig them up, Nic Cage has a horrendously cheesey dream sequence where his wife tells him not to give up, then we see that because they saved something like 20 people from the rubble and some cops showed up to give people free hot dogs as their way of chipping in, 9/11 was a triumph of the American spirit. God bless America. The ending is the worst kind of emotional exploitation and what's annoying is that for the most part, it seems to have worked for this film.

Also, some of the direction and editing was fucking dire which was why I was genuinely stunned to learn that Oliver Stone had directed it after I watched it.

Personal enjoyment: 4/10.

Actual quality as a film: 4/10.