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The Movie: "Men Of Honor" is an instance of a great story and character whose tale is not told as well as it could be on film. "Men Of Honor" stars Cuba Gooding, Jr as Carl Brashear, the first African-American to become a navy diver. Starting off as a cook, Carl quickly makes his way through the ranks because he has the desire and the dream to be nothing short of one of the Navy's top divers. So far, it sounds good, and Cuba Gooding, Jr makes this character completely engaging and interesting. We want him to win. It's too bad that the movie around him is often not nearly as successful. We are presented with the bad guy, master diver Billy Sunday(Robert Deniro), a rascist who, at first, doesn't want Carl to succeed. Deniro's performance is certainly not one of his better recent performances; his over-the-top performance feels out of place. Charlize Theron plays Sunday's wife, and is hardly in the film; she is fine when she's on-screen, but the character is not terribly well-developed. The story is as we would expect. Carl rises above the challenges that he has to confront at every step of the way through the Navy. I found it exciting when he does succeed, because Gooding really makes us want Carl to overcome the obstacles. At the same time though, the film doesn't really give us any tension as to whether or not he will succeed. The film around him is often too "Hollywood", with a prime flaw being Mark Isham's sappy score which tries to manipulate our emotions. Gooding's performance is great enough to make us root for him - we don't need the score and the rest of the movie telling us how to feel. I didn't dislike sitting through "Men Of Honor". I found it moderately entertaining and thought Gooding, Jr. (who also nearly saved his recent "Instinct") was great in the role. I just wish that the movie would be more subtle, take things down a notch, and provide a less-"Hollywood" look at this inspirational tale. |