O Veterano

I have to say, I didn't expect much out of this, but I was pleasantly surprised. The story is really fascinating, and has some unexpected twists that make the characters a lot more complex than I expected. I didn't think Michael Ironside was overacting, so much as showing just how desperate, and lost he was. His performance made sense for the unhinged man he plays.

And, y'know, it's nice to know Ally Sheedy is still getting a paycheck, even if she isn't an 80's brat packer anymore.

Anyway...I'm not a huge war movie fan, but this one had a lot of interesting layers, and the contrast between the war scenes and the stifling hotel scenes worked really well.

The Vetern isn't too bad.what I found interesting is that they actually blended 2 movies. All the scenes of the soldiers are from a movie called Going Back from 2001

This is a pretty good movie. Not the best ever, but definitely underrated with just 3*. It is good acting, nothing fancy or shocking in the script, it just makes you think. It is not a classical Vietnam war movie ( as The Platoon) or post Vietnam war trauma movie (Deer Hunter, Born on 4th of July), you just have to see it for yourself. Its not only M Ironside with the good acting, its also the supporting actors. And by the way, I haven't seen M Ironside for a long time, does he appear in any good movie lately?!?! I voted it 7*, still maybe it worths just 5 or 6, but I wanted to improve the rate, it obviously worths more than 3*! However, maybe its not quite connected to this specific movie, but I wonder how can it be rated only 3*! Usually, before watching a movie I check on IMDb's site and almost never watch movies rated less than 4 or 5*, I made an exception with this one (I just felt it) and now I don't feel that it was wasted time! Is it possible that I ignored some other underrated movies?! I'll have to check! As for 'The Veteran', if you are not a Rambo fan, then you will like the war scenes shown in the characters' flashbacks. I have actually felt that those ordinary guys (regardless that they were marines) were facing death at each step, and these are not just empty words. I've felt the same watching 'The Platoon', but you cant draw a parallel between the 2 movies, they are totally different, its just how it made me feel when I imagined myself in their skin.

One of the worst films I've ever seen that purports to be about Vietnam or Veterans. No, wait... it's just a poor film in every way.

The writing is painfully bad, the acting is weak, and the scenes in Vietnam (or was it Thailand or the Philippines?) were wasted. If you could get back to Vietnam to film the Majestic hotel, why not something more than that? Virtually the entire film takes place in a hotel room in Saigon with some of the most painful dialogue you'll ever see on screen. It's as if it's trying to be a parody of all bad spy-war films.

They obviously did NOT bother is a military consultant or technical adviser for the combat scenes. It would be impossible to write a spoiler because by the end you couldn't care less what happens. It is just awful.

Usually I am ready to champion a film that's been pretty much slagged off by everyone else. I mean, it only had 215 votes and, besides, it has Ally Sheedy in it. Surely it can't be that bad?! Sorry to say but it was indeed exceedingly low rent at best. I was pretty unconvinced from the word "go". The opening cab ride, where a short news flash on the car radio takes the entire journey, suddenly had me seeing the flashing red lights that portend a real stinker. Nothing about any of the characters had any sense of authenticity and you could not really care about any of them. The war scenes were hoke and the whole thing is a badly written, badly directed and badly acted mess. There are plenty of ways to spend an hour and a half. I wouldn't waste it watching this.