A Few Good Men

It's directed with taut efficiency by Rob Reiner.

Designed to get the audience rooting for this upper-class underdog, the movie accomplishes its task with military efficiency. But since the deck is stacked and the cards well worn, it hardly seems a victory to cherish.

By pitting Cruise against Nicholson in the film`s final courtroom confrontation, Sorkin and Reiner are pitting two notions of masculinity and two notions of stardom against each other.

A brisk and familiar courtroom drama of the old school, as pleasant to watch as it is predictable, Men more than anything else is a tribute to pure star power.

The whole film, with its steady, important-picture pacing, its foursquare visual style, and its pseudo-profundity, is a piece of glorified banality.

The literally in-your-face camera work can easily expose an actor's weaknesses, but, with the lens framed on Nicholson's bulldog visage, he lets loose with volcanic fury. His demagoguery and gung-ho self-righteousness are something to behold.

Surface level, I can see why this intrigued me. I can see why it was good in terms of building the tension and trying to at least arouse some aspects of suspense. But does that a good movie make? I'm not sure.

Aaron Sorkin is the puppet master of snarky word vessels.

Especially notable for its understanding of something — the conflict between the “elites” of blue America and the more traditional institutions of the military, police, and the like (30th anniversary)

The Cruise-Nicholson courtroom showdown that immediately lit up our American cinematic archive of great lines, with Nicholson's "You can't handle the truth!!"-still reverberates all these years later.