Men Of Horror

Men of Honor Dir: George Tillman Jr. Starring Robert DeNiro Cuba Gooding Jr Charlize Theron 2000 R, 128 m RATING: 3 out of 10

Gooding and DeNiro attempt to liven up this bland tale of the black (good) man triumphing over da man (bad).

Why are two talented actors who should know better starring in a rehash, made-for-TV-plotted film taht manages to wallow in cliches and stale scenes from the onset until its thoroughly predictable, melodramatic end? Men of Honor takes the underdog-denied-a-chance-for-greatness-due-to-racism-clasism-or-other-ism theme and tries to make it seem fresh by incorporating this overused theme in a Navy diving setting.  Cuba Gooding stars as a Navy recruit who can't get an equal opportunity because he's black and goes up against the harsh, callus Robert DeNiro who attempts to stop Gooding from realizing his dream. Cuba Gooding Jr and Robert DeNiro should have known better than to star in film with such an eye-rolling, deja vu premse that offers no suspense and pure predictability.  Will Cuba triumph over evil? Will DeNiro follow the advice of a bigoted general?  Will Charlize Theorn ever stop drinking?  Will Cuba's love interest find herself making him choose between his career and family? Will anyone care? One day Holywood will attempt to combine all the lackluster and overworked ideas and themes so horribly that it might make an action movie taht involves a serial killer trying to reach his dream of killing more people than ever (thereby being the best) but being held down by and then coached and trained by a hard-ass retired cop who ends up being a softy.  Until then, the closest we have is Men of Honor, a contrived, feel-good exercise in unoriginality and hack work.  The film's only attribute is that it wasn't put through MTV-editing.

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