One day, the moviegoers of America will stop going to see these false, forced and cliched 'real-life' stories. Until that time, we will continue to be subjected to generic Hollywood corn like Men of Honor. Aside from the presence of Robert DeNiro, there's almost nothing at all to recommend about this film. Not one frame of this movie even comes close to resembling something fresh or original. Surely actors like Robert DeNiro and Cuba Gooding Jr. can choose their 'glamour roles' with a little more sense.
Young Carl Brashear (Gooding) loves being in the water. We know this because we are shown him swimming through a garbage-strewn creek during the opening credits. So with the pesky character development out of the way, we can begin the parade of cliches. After enlisting in the Navy, Carl realizes that there are very few opportunities for a black man, so he cleverly decides to go jump in the ocean during the 'White Boys Only' swim time. This (of course) catches the eye of the one non-racist officer (Powers Boothe) who promptly jails Carl, and then immediately promotes him thanks to the old Hollywood reasoning: "Hey, you got guts...I like your style...Blah Blah Blah."
Carl immediately clashes with Master Chief Billy Sunday (DeNiro), and the bulk of the movie consists of the requisite 'boot-camp' stuff that was old-hat in Hollywood about 35 years ago. The usually reliable Michael Rapaport shows up to play the one white boy who supports Carl, but he delivers his dialogue in a humiliating display of stuttering, and you're left wondering why his character even exists. Carl withstands all the nasty taunting and abuse, all the while maintaining his composure. As graduation time approaches, the script makes a sharp left into unintentional hilarity. Cartoonish and unrealistic characters, attitudes, and motivations fill the screen.
Is that Charlize Theron playing Robert DeNiro's wife or is she his daughter? We later assume she's meant to be his wife, although the fact that we're left to assume is further proof of the laziness of the script. As Commander 'Pappy', Hal Holbrook gets to play perhaps the silliest role of his career. As the insane and extremely racist Commander, he's the character we're supposed to hate. Unfortunately, his dialogue is quite funny, and I'm pretty certain that it wasn't supposed to be.
Once Carl gets out of the diving school, Men of Honor just breaks down completely. We've already spent about 90 minutes on the 'training' story, but this movie has about three more plots to barrel through before the closing credits. I can't remember another movie in recent history that had this many endings! Carl becomes a war hero, suffers a nasty leg injury, loses his wife, opts for a brutal operation, learns to walk again, AND gets to preach and emote in one truly silly courtroom scene. All of this happens in the final 30 minutes.
The only saving grace of Men of Honor is, of course, Robert DeNiro. His abusive and profane portrayal of Billy Sunday is just entertaining enough to keep you from checking your watch every 9 minutes. Unfortunately, this movie is about Carl, and that means we're subjected to Cuba Gooding Jr for two hours straight. Heck, we all know how great he was in Jerry Maguire, but his whole schtick is getting pretty old: Cuba sweats, Cuba shakes, Cuba rolls his eyes, Cuba stares off into the distance, etc.
What's especially disturbing about Men of Honor is how casually (and liberally) it simply STEALS components from other movies. The entire first half if this film IS An Officer and a Gentleman with some nice racism sprinkled in to make it seem new. If you like being able to predict the actions of every single character onscreen, then this movie is for you.
While it's certainly not a poorly made film, perhaps adding at least one new idea into the screenplay would have been a good idea. I know this movie is meant to be based on the life of Carl Brashear, but I'd bet a year's full of movie passes that his life looked nothing like this cliche-ridden and lazy movie.
Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Robert De Niro deliver powerhouse performances (Chicago Tribune) in this triumphant epic inspired by the life of Carl Brashear.M...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.