(Blue Chips, Cruising, The Exorcist 1 & 3, The French Connection, Jade, The Hunted, Rules of Engagement, To Live and Die in L.A., TV: 12 Angry Men)
Producers:
Richard D. Zanuck and Scott Rudin
Screenplay:
Stephen Gaghan
Music:
Mark Isham
Cast:
Col. Hayes Hodges: Tommy Lee Jones
Col. Terry L. Childers: Samuel L Jackson
Major Mark Biggs: Guy Pearce
National Security Advsior William Sokal: Bruce Greenwood
Captain Lee: Blair Underwood
General H. Lawrence Hodges: Philip Baker Hall
Mrs Mourain: Anne Archer
Captain Tom Chandler: Mark Feuerstein
Ambassador Mourain: Ben Kingsley
Rules of Engagement
puts two Hollywood heavyweights together on the big screen and when I sat
down to watch this film I thought it'd be the type of courtroom drama that's
difficult to get into and sustain interest but it turned out to be the
opposite and both Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Hayes Hodges and Samuel L.
Jackson as Col. Terry L. Childers, the man who saved Hodges' life in
Vietnam back in 1968, spark off each other very well indeed.
Fast-forward 28 years later and Hodges has retired from the army. Childers
continues and is sent on a tough mission to Yemen to help out Ambassador
Mourain (Ben Kingsley), but as push comes to shove he needs to help
the ambassador and his family escape. Mission accomplished, but Childers and
his men are still being fired upon by snipers on the roof-tops and in the
crowd. A quick decision is made to return fire which wipes out the enemy but
a stack of civilians too and when the US Army's investigators get there the
day after there's no trace of any weapons.
While the story was created by Vietnam veteran James Webb and the
technical advisor, Captain Dale Dye, who also has a cameo in the film,
worked on
Platoon and
Saving Private Ryan,
the plot does sound a bit predictable because a case is built against Childers
to put him in the frame for murder, but there's a conspiracy along the way
and it's the question of who's involved, be it Major Mark Biggs (Guy Pearce),
National Security Advsior William Sokal (Bruce Greenwood), the
ambassador or the man on the grassy knoll. Childers calls back Hodges to help
him fight the case and of course it'll test their enduring friendship, etc., etc.
There are top-flight performances as usual from the two leads, plus an excellent
turn from Guy Pearce as their opponent in court. The concept of the
film doesn't lend itself to Oscar-winning material, but it's still a highly
entertainming two hours, although like most films that end in a courtroom drama
it's worth a rental first to see whether it stands up to repeated viewings in
your opinion.
The picture and sound quality are first rate on this disc. The colours are
bright and the detail crisp. The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation is
well-filled by director Friedkin, although I haven't been able to compare with
the Super-35 fullscreen version.
The average bitrate is 6.38Mb/s, often peaking over 9Mb/s.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound (English and French) opens fire
in all combat scenes be they in Vietnam or Yemen and Mark Isham's
score expertly builds up the tension in the courtroom scenes.
In the extras dept. is a 13-minute second of Interviews with the
director and principal cast members, a made-for-TV Featurette that runs
for 23 minutes and a feature-length Director's Commentary.
More chapters are required as there's just 15 spread throughout the 2-hour
film. Dialogue and subtitles are in both English (and hard of hearing)
and French. The main menu has some animation mixed with the score.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
