I watched Memphis Belle at the recommendation of a friend who is heavily into war films, and it was pretty average. Realizing that it was (obviously) a period piece regarding the last mission of the `Memphis Belle', a WWII fighter plane, I was a little forgiving of the cheesiness (the swelling, overdramatic music) and the fact that Harry Connick Jr. was pretty much cast in order to have a vehicle to sing a song, ala the war films of the 1940's. The special effects weren't too special, rather they employed some pretty bad animation to simulate air disasters, but the cast was actually pretty decent. Unfortunately, a lot of the primary cast members were grossly underused (especially John Lithgow and the always under appreciated David Strathairn, whose sole responsibility was to look grim for the collective five minutes he was in the film.
If you're looking to watch a good war flick, there's about three dozen that I could recommend before this one, but it certainly wasn't unwatchable so I would give it a 6/10 rating.
--Shelly
If you're looking to watch a good war flick, there's about three dozen that I could recommend before this one, but it certainly wasn't unwatchable so I would give it a 6/10 rating.
--Shelly