Great Raid, The

USA 2005, 132 minutes
Dir. John Dahl
Rating: [R]
Genres: Action/Adventure / War

Feat. Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Fiennes, Marton Csokas

Aroview: Forthright retell of one of WWII's most daring missions, where a group of US Army Rangers plotted to rescue 511 American POWs from a Japanese prison camp in the Phillipines where they faced imminent death as the Japanese Army retreated in 1944.

Evoked with a certain polished aplomb by dir. Dahl (THE LAST SEDUCTION), this drags dramatically, with none of the lead cast really able to offer much beyond the rather revisionist heroics of its story, which comes complete with dispensable Philippino guerilla helpers and thoroughly hoary sentiment. War junkies will find most interest in this obscure side-story of the Pacific War.