The Finest Hour

The best part of this film was the two minutes of documentary footage from the First Gulf War. Everything else was ridiculously stupid and unbelievable. Now I was a soldier, not even special ops, yet the training and combat scenes made me cringe. However, I do highly recommend it for Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment!

Rob Lowe and Gale Hansen star in this action movie that touches on romance. Rob Lowe plays a fairly sleezy character while Gale Hansen manages to 'wow' us once again with his superb acting talent. Gale, from Dead Poets Society fame, finds himself in a rather unusual role playing a Navy SEAL.

Both men do a good job with their given roles, but it has to be said that Mr Hansen pulls off his character with both charisma and sensitivity as he falls in love with his best friends wife.

Top marks to his acting ability for this - i was totally mesmerised by his actions.

Just sad to say though, that he isn't in many movies - i could watch the man for days without a break :OD

Evelyn

I have to admit, I only knew about this movie because my boyfriend was actually In The Navy during the time this movie was being filmed. Come To find out, he was stationed aboard the USS Kincaid, also known as the Kinky D, while this film was shot, and she is featured in the film multiple times. So now my boyfriend claims he starred in a movie with Rob Lowe, because he was aboard the USS Kincaid DD965 as they filmed her for use in the movie. I thought it was pretty good and he loved the Naval nostalgia.

Rob Lowe and a bunch of great locations cannot fix this mess. Set in the 80s, with action in the first Gulf War, so the history is

Filmed like a third rate 90s TV show, every fault of the actors, script, FX, and more is brutally apparent. Also comically badly edited, with choices like a VO explaining a time jump that happens 2 minutes before it makes sense to have it.

For military buffs, the equipment in action sequences is 90s video game quality. A comically fake SDV. Paragliders. Scopes mounted to the slides of VP70s so they can snipe with them, and then smoke drifts up old west style. Rob Lowe is an excellent Sabrina. Oh, some enemy stuff is 60s Japanese monster movie quality. Oh, the big silver rocket!

Romantic sub-plot is way too dominant, which is awful as it's so ham-handedly played.

Do not be fooled. Much of the training is well done, but it falls apart outside of that.

I think the last Aussie reviewer hit the nail on the head. This movie despite being based on the experiences of an elite US naval frog team at war is surprisingly value-neutral when it comes to extolling the virtues of the US military, or even the reasons for going to war. This may have to do with the fact that the writer/director, Shimon Dotan, is an Israeli. In short, I enjoyed this movie, because it introduces some character development in a genre where it is often conspicuously absent. The casting of Rob Lowe as the career jackass was a stroke of genius! That said, there are aspects of honour and sacrifice inherent in his role, which he does bring out. However, like others I felt Gale Hansen stole the show with his role as the strong-willed and dependable leader contrasting with Lowe's as the antithesis. I like the fact that everything didn't work out at the end, and the monologue delivered at the end summed up the whole experience nicely. Go see it.