Man, when I’m wrong, I’m wrong. I had been predicting that James Franco (Harry in the Spider-Man films) was going to be a big huge star as soon as he started getting his own leading roles. Well… after seeing Tristan and Isolde… and now after seeing the Annapolis reviews, I may be eating my words.
I’ve commented on this site before that Annapolis looks like nothing but a poor man’s An Officer and a Gentleman (Awesome fricken movie if you haven’t seen it yet). As a matter of fact… it look EXACTLY like it… except James Franco is no Richard Gere and Tyrese Gibson is no Louis Gossett Jr.
So now the Annapolis reviews are floating in… and they don’t look pretty:
“Annapolis is so gung-ho about the United States Naval Academy’s ability to turn boys into fighting men and rebels into scrappy team players that it could easily be confused with a military recruiting film.”
Stephen Holden, NEW YORK TIMES“… an exhausted wheeze of bankrupt cliches and cardboard characters, the kind of film that has no visible reason for existing, except that everybody got paid.”
Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES“The only impressive thing about it is the monotony and thoroughness with which it replicates cliches from older, better movies and hammers them into pop alloy to an up-with-me beat beat beat of its musical score.”
Stephen Hunter, WASHINGTON POST“Actually, the lyrics to In the Navy are more sophisticated than Annapolis, which was assembled by the handy-dandy Disney make-a-movie kit and is loaded with parts borrowed from other films.”
Bill Muller, ARIZONA REPUBLIC
As of this moment, Annapolis is carrying a pitiful 12% on Rotten Tomatoes. Don’t bother… not going to. What a waste of potential. Franco should fire his agent and hold out for better roles to try to launch his “leading man” career… because crap like this isn’t going to hack it.
The reason the Navy doesn’t support the film, is that the film is all wrong. Getting an appointment is a long procedure, once gotten, you report on a specific day, with the rest of the class (I-Day) where you begin Plebe summer. You don’t get your appointment letter personally delivered and be told to report the next day. The Academy does not allow the kind of hazing shown in the film, doesn’t allow fratranization with officers, and in fact, during Plebe summer, usually the summer is run by upperclassmen, not officers in the Navy or Marines. They don’t do ‘activities’ in front of ‘Mother B'( the largest college level dormatory in the world) and in general, what is portrayed is far, far from the truth. It was shot in Philadelphia, as the Academy had refused to allow them on the grounds. In one word, then entire film is WRONG, when it comes to the representation of the Academy and its traditions.
Joy, which scene were you in?
I was an cadet in the film and I observed the shotty work. I told some of the other cadets that if the producer doesn’t edit the movie to the hilt, the movie will go down the drain. I hope they cut me out.
Oh, I am so glad this movie sucks, since I said so in the previous post when most of us were thrashing it by looking at the trailer.
I haven’t watched it yet and not planning so, since I am pretty sure the plot will be very predictable, the acting shall suck, scenes portaying heroic actions on stupid situations (that’s Hollywood), etc etc etc…
Stamoz.
Yeah, this looks pretty horrible. I think James Franco is really talented, and YES, he had better fire his agent and try to get away from these horrible films FAST. He needs to get into a film where he actually has a chance to act, not just wear costumes and make faces.
The Ironic thing about critics calling this nothing more than a recruiting film for the Navy is that the U.S. Navy does not support the film. That’s right! The Dept of the Navy refused to endorse or support the film at all. In fact, when press for the movie went national, the Dept of the Navy put out a statement to all its people saying that they dont support the film and for it NOT to be shown on Naval Institutions or for anyone in the Navy not to go see it at all since it might give them the impression that it accurately represents Annapolis.
Ouch!!!
Even more damning is the PUBLIC statement that the Navy put out basically telling people not to go see Annapolis because it does not accurately represent the Navy!
Wow!!! Can this film have any more going against it?!!! Annapolis was pretty much made to look like a recruiting video and the Navy STILL didn’t want it, which is really ironic because I think they DID support down periscope and the McHales Navy remake! Please correct me if im wrong.