American Soldiers

Sidney J. Furie ("Superman IV", "Iron Eagle") hasn't made a good movie in his nearly five decades in the director's chair, and he wasn't about to start with "American Soldiers."

It's not that this film had zero potential. The short-lived TV series "Over There" proved that a dramatized look at the ongoing Iraq conflict could be entertaining and real without crossing an uncomfortable line with men and women still dying on the frontlines. But stunningly clichéd dialog dogs "American Soldiers" from the opening sequence. There's the prisoner meet who is only too happy to share his evil plans for the future with his American enemies, reminiscent of something out of an old superhero cartoon. There's the forced "why are we here?" discussion. And who could forget the soldiers who offer some timely advice before dying, a crucial component of unimaginative movies.

The acting is no better. I can usually handle a sub-par performance here and there, but these guys are so bad it detracts from whatever enjoyment may have been possible. Instead of being sucked into the story, you find yourself wondering if this was the best Central Casting could do. The actors aren't helped by the aforementioned dialog; in fact, you really get the sense that they know how terrible their lines are as they reluctantly recite them.

The Furie staple of senseless violence (remember "Iron Eagle"?) is omnipresent here as well. The pattern is detectable within 10 minutes: clichéd dialog, horrible acting, big, fiery explosions, repeat. Of course things blowing up is a part of war, but Furie uses it as a misguided means to liven things up rather than portray the brutality of conflict and its impact on GIs. There are moments where you'll swear this film's target audience is violence-obsessed adolescent boys (again, remember "Iron Eagle"?).

But enough about the negative. No one expects a direct-to-DVD film from Sid Furie to be a masterpiece. The truth is, "American Soldiers" does not deserve to be in the IMDb's bottom 100, where sits as of this writing. Trust me, there have been much, much worse. "American Soldiers" even has a few decent moments once you're willing to forgive its shortcomings. But depending on your viewing habits, that's a big if.

I can't believe this director is still making movies. I mean, look at the movies he's made, they're almost all rated less than 4 stars. I wish there was a negative rating here so I could give it at least a -5 for such a terrible movie. The acting is completely and extremely lame. The soldiers look like they have never seen and/or touched a gun before, and it scares me. Think about it, those guys are the people who are supposed to protect our country and they can't even shoot straight. My 5 year old cousin can even shoot better that (with a toy gun of course.) It makes me wonder why the hell I wasted 2 hour to watch this stupid movie. I guess I've lost some IQ after watching it.

I love war movies. I watch them all and have probably covered 80% av all the war movies on IMDb.com no matter how they are rated because some people just have bad taste. I watch black and white war movies and foreign movies you name it.

But this movie is horrible. The acting is like watching bay watch but in Iraq.

they have all the gear and the environment but they cant perform at all. the plot is thin even for a war movie.

You cant connect to anyone in the movie at all.

Its also lacking realism they stand 2 meters from each other and fire rpgs and saw machine guns for like 5 minutes but don't hit anything.

I think this is the worst war movie i have ever seen.

worst acting I have ever seen. These soldiers are the worst shots in the world. The only thing worse is their acting. These soldiers see more action in one day than most see in a lifetime. Good idea for a movie but the over acting kills me. the only good acting was from the enemy.

The props were toys too. Don't waste you time I did for you. Started out OK, but died quickly. Must have been a very small budget. I hope they didn't pay anyone.

don't waste your time.

So many goofs, I wondered if it was a spoof.

After spotting this in the Video Store, I thought I'd check this flick out. After 20 minutes, I had realised I had made a major mistake. This movie is extremely pathetic. I don't know what the makers were thinking, but it looked like a amateur home video with actors just plucked off the street. The acting was poor and the plot is just horrible. It seemed like that ideas were just made up as the movie went along. The director seemed like he had no clue on making this movie.

After half an hour of wasted time, I had to stop the movie. This atrocity was just too much for me.

Don't even look at the cover of the movie, don't even consider hiring it, just keep looking elsewhere for better entertainment.

1/10.