Delayed Reaction: Rules of Engagement

What I Guessed It Was About: There's a near-war conflict going on somewhere. The Middle East is a safe guess. The movie follows land troops caught in the middle of something, trying to stay alive, and a general who keeps telling them not to engage. Tensions rise. I'm pretty sure that if I continue this guess any further, I'll turn it into Behind Enemy Lines, so I'll stop here.

The Pitch: Courage Under Fire, but we know what really happened.

How I Came Into It: This blended in with several other war movies from this period. Behind Enemy Lines is the main one I confused it with. There are much better comparisons I now realize. A couple times, I thought of The Rules of Attraction instead, which then lead me to Laws of Attraction...It's a cluster fuck of stream of consciousness.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Every once in a while I like a good reminder that every level of government is dominated by people more concerned with covering their ass than searching for the truth. Not knowing where the movie was going, I didn't make notes of all the specifics of the inciting event when it happened, so I felt like I was being interrogated by the movie as well. That was pretty cool (or a sign that I need to pay more attention when I'm watching movies. It's best not to dig too deeply into this).

Why I Wish I Hadn't: This has the unfortunate structure of the most exciting scene is at the beginning of the movie. Sure there's courtroom tension and outbursts as the movie carries on. It's a letdown though. There's no fixing it either. Like, say, The Impossible, it's the story they are telling. It's still good, but the build is more difficult.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend