Annapolis (Widescreen)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: C-
Playing like a very bad recruitment film, Justin Lin’s
amazingly poor Annapolis (2006) wastes the underrated James Franco as a
young Naval officer also taking on boxing.
We are also supposed to believe Tyrese Gibson is his drill sergeant, but
his performance is so many miles away from Louis Gossett Jr. and Denzel
Washington that it cripples an already very problematic screenplay by Dave
Collard.
The film makes being in the military as lite as an episode
of McHale’s Navy minus the laughs and is directed with such a lack of
energy and enthusiasm that Jarhead, Three Kings and Full Metal
Jacket have nothing to worry about.
The inverse of that is that is may be intended as some kind of
backhanded recruitment film, but since it will put the vast majority of viewers
to sleep, looks like it even failed in the one respect it was supposed to work
at. Skip this one.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is softer than
expected with colors manipulated for the worse and dull overall camerawork by
cinematographer Phil Abraham, but then what was he supposed to do with
this? The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix has a
few good moments and is the highlight of the DVD by default. Extras include a dull audio commentary, two
featurettes, previews for other Disney releases and deleted scenes with
(thankfully) optional commentary that would have not helped this project one
bit.
- Nicholas Sheffo
