This was a movie I really enjoyed watching. It on top of that had a first rate cast, with lots of big names in it. Too bad that the movie with its themes is too moralistic though. The movie tries to send out a message and tries to make a statement but it does this too forced with its sequences and distracting story-lines. Because of this it becomes totally unlikely, which causes it to simply not work out.
Nevertheless the movie is more or less still being saved by the fact that the movie does not pick a pure dramatic approach with its story but also at times a pure comical one, also with some of its characters. This of course makes the movie a pleasant one to watch, even though the story goes over-the-top at times. I also must add that most of the movie its comical feeling and moments also really work out thanks to mostly mainly the musical score from Danny Elfman.
What a great ensemble cast this movie has. A movie with a cast like deserved to be better known and seen by more. Ray Liotta, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, Lea Thompson, John C. McGinley, John Mahoney, Keith David, Eli Wallach, Lynne Thigpen, Troy Evans, Jeffrey Tambor, these are all some big names and they are all in this one film. You would expect that it perhaps is a bit overkill but all of the roles are well balanced out throughout the movie
The movie tries to tell an important story of the treatment of war veterans and their medical care once they've returned to the States, or rather said the lack of medical care and all of the red tape that goes with it. But basically the hospital sequences in the movie "Born on the Fourth of July" give a way better and more powerful image of this, even though it's not entirely about the same subject as this movie.
Problem with this movie is that it too badly wants to make a statement and send out a message. It sort of downgrades the movie but luckily the movie its entertainment still makes this a perfectly watchable one.
7/10
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