| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
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| Story: |
B+ |
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| Acting: |
B |
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| Direction: |
B |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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Fitting tribute
by Jobert (movies profile)
Aug 24, 2006
9
of
10 people found this review helpful
A lot of people say it's too early to make films about 9/11. Will Jimeno, who is played by Michael Pena in this film, says that it's not soon enough. To me, film can just as easily mend wounds as it can open them. Films like this and United 93 are sometimes hard to watch, but it helped me come to terms with the events that day.
As a film, the movie definitely succeeds in showing the 'normalcy' of that Tuesday morning. Then the first tower is hit and everything starts to fall apart. People panic, the authorities aren't prepared, debris is everywhere. The visuals and the overall ability to capture the mood of the day are dead on in this movie.
Speaking of the visuals, there is one shot in the film of a person jumping (falling?) from the Tower 1. I remember vividly watching a man jump from one of the Towers as it was happening live on CNN.
Ok, the acting was pretty good. I heard that Cage first turned down the role of Sgt. McLoughlin because he wasn't sure if he could play someone older and more 'weathered'. I think he does an admirable job. Michael Pena also is good. He had, to me, one of the best performances in Crash, and here he shows that he can hold his own against an A-list actor like Nicholas Cage. Maggie Gyllenhaal and Maria Bello are fine in their performance, but nothing I would consider Oscar-worthy.
Overall, the film is good. A memorable and fitting tribute not just to the two Port Authority police officers the film is based on, but to everyone that died that day and to everyone that went to help out. It didn't hit me on the same level as Paul Greengrass's United 93, but Oliver Stone definitely redeems himself after Alexander tanked. I don't mind Hollywood making films about 9/11, but I just hope they don't oversaturate the market like it did with WWII movies during the 1940's through 1960's. |
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