If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

This shocking statement (shocking because now, four years later, the war is still clearly not over) promisingly begins what turns out to be an astonishingly bad film about the ongoing Iraq war. I am always wary when I read extreme reviews of movies on the IMDb (This is the best movie ever made, This is the worst movie ever made, etc), but in this case they are all true. This movie is so unbelievably bad that it's amazing it ever got released.Before I say anything else, I should admit that I bought the movie thinking it was some kind of documentary. I live in China so I bought a pirated copy that only had Chinese writing on it, so all I could read was American Soldiers: A Day in Iraq, which led me to believe that it was going to be something meant to inform the public about the reality of the situation on the ground, as they say. The reality of the movie, needless to say, was a tremendous disappointment.First of all, nothing is even remotely realistic. You don't have to be a battle-weary veteran to understand that war is not about occasional gunfights punctuated with casual breaks perfect for cheesy, D-movie bravado and beat-box dance sessions (I almost fell off the sofa when I saw that scene), and don't even get me started on the "Iraqis" in the movie. The accents are so bad and the delivery so talentless that it is impossible not to laugh (My home...is...your...home. It is...not...much....but it.....is....ours."), even when you think of the dismayed families of the fallen soldiers on whom the film is based, who must be shocked and insulted to see that their loved ones are being remembered with this ridiculous mess of a film. And by the way, did anyone else notice that all of the soldiers had backwards American flag patches on their shoulders? This is patriotic sacrilege and any real life soldier in Iraq with such a thing on his uniform would be viciously berated by his fellow soldiers and I imagine severely reprimanded by his superiors. Didn't anyone involved in making the movie think that such blatant defamation of the American flag might not be such a good idea in a war film, even as consistently bad as this one?Nothing is taken seriously in the movie at all ("Nobody likes being occupied, it's like living with your parents!"). The men all take turns with this idiotic schoolboy bravery ("I would give my life for the sarge!" "No I'M giving my life for the sarge!" " No, ME!" "No we'll ALL give our lives for the sarge!" "YEAH!!"), meanwhile the sarge seems to have sustained a mortal injury that renders him sleepy and a little bit sweaty for the majority of the film, but seems to just kind of go away toward the end. The "sets" are also ridiculous in the extreme. Iraq is re-created so badly and so unconvincingly that it may as well have been filmed in Canada (note: it was). There is some effort made to call attention to the fact that many soldiers joined the military because of September 11th and WMDs, but Iraq has nothing to do with either of them. This unjust inconsistency has cost thousand and thousands of lives and is even more disturbing when the film ends with this quote:"The greatest treasure our nation has is our enlisted men and women. When we put them in harm's way, it had better count for something. Their loss is a national tragedy."Sean Penn, in All the King's Men, said "Time brings all things to light." One can only hope this is also true about the reality of why we are in Iraq and who the real criminals are in the Bush administration. The only question is how high and how deep the corruption goes. In the meantime, let's stop making pathetic movies like this about the Iraq war. The news is depressing enough...

I want my $1.83 rental fee back. However ....I write novels, I've worked on productions. Anyone involved in writing or production can learn from this disaster.First, the palm trees. Not only are the palms fake, but the crew uses the same fake palms in scene after scene.Second, the locations. Travel the Middle East, study the cinder block construction, the roads, the curbs, the streetlights, the power poles. Take thousands of photos. A better idea would be to stage the action in the night. In this way, a production crew could create a more realistic background for the action.Third, interview veterans of Iraq. How often did they actually see an enemy? In this production, insurgents attack en masse every other minute.All the field details: the soldiers standing in groups to deliver dramatic dialog, walking and talking in the middle of the road, taking cover behind bushes? behind the glass and sheet metal of a car? A 7.62mmComBloc slug will punch through all the steel of a car and kill you. And the truck taking repeated hits from RPG's? The RPG's exploding in a ball of rising fire? Do the Iraqis load their RPG's with gasoline? And taking a wounded American to an Iraqi hospital? Who thought of that stupidity? Medevac in Iraq is 15 minutes from wound to surgery. Iraqis don't even have disposable needles. They don't have sutures. They don't have antibiotics.And a knife-fight to the death with an assault force of Iraqis? They hear the Americans firing pistols, then go silent? 'Oh, they're out of ammunition, let's let them knife us.' And after the climatic knife-fight, the soldiers take to the road with empty weapons? Who financed this trash? Send me money. I'll buy the stories of veterans, put together a righteous action-adventure drama.ghfrost google that name

Sidney J. Furie ("Superman IV", "Iron Eagle") hasn't made a good movie in his nearly five decades in the director's chair, and he wasn't about to start with "American Soldiers."It's not that this film had zero potential. The short-lived TV series "Over There" proved that a dramatized look at the ongoing Iraq conflict could be entertaining and real without crossing an uncomfortable line with men and women still dying on the frontlines. But stunningly clichéd dialog dogs "American Soldiers" from the opening sequence. There's the prisoner meet who is only too happy to share his evil plans for the future with his American enemies, reminiscent of something out of an old superhero cartoon. There's the forced "why are we here?" discussion. And who could forget the soldiers who offer some timely advice before dying, a crucial component of unimaginative movies.The acting is no better. I can usually handle a sub-par performance here and there, but these guys are so bad it detracts from whatever enjoyment may have been possible. Instead of being sucked into the story, you find yourself wondering if this was the best Central Casting could do. The actors aren't helped by the aforementioned dialog; in fact, you really get the sense that they know how terrible their lines are as they reluctantly recite them.The Furie staple of senseless violence (remember "Iron Eagle"?) is omnipresent here as well. The pattern is detectable within 10 minutes: clichéd dialog, horrible acting, big, fiery explosions, repeat. Of course things blowing up is a part of war, but Furie uses it as a misguided means to liven things up rather than portray the brutality of conflict and its impact on GIs. There are moments where you'll swear this film's target audience is violence-obsessed adolescent boys (again, remember "Iron Eagle"?).But enough about the negative. No one expects a direct-to-DVD film from Sid Furie to be a masterpiece. The truth is, "American Soldiers" does not deserve to be in the IMDb's bottom 100, where sits as of this writing. Trust me, there have been much, much worse. "American Soldiers" even has a few decent moments once you're willing to forgive its shortcomings. But depending on your viewing habits, that's a big if.

I must say that I am in "shock and awe" at how bad this movie is. This film takes the traditional stereotypes and strings it together with a few action shots and creates... this. I just caught the movie on cable and I kept on watching like a sucker because I thought they would tie everything together. I am a former soldier and I just shook my head at how many unsatisfactory items came forth. Personally, I don't have a problem with the premise of the film. I get the fact they wanted to draw some non stop action to create the plot but if you are going to try to put realism into the "dramatic" scenes, do some research. I was appalled not by the "CIA torture camp" but rather the lack of leadership in the group. A "sarge" (what?) that can't focus the troops... national guard officers who can't take charge and a group of young soldier's who just float along. Unbelievable to say anything on this movie but disappointment. I found it insulting to the training and leadership that exists in the Army. From a movie standpoint, the acting isn't bad but the script is awful. The action scenes create realism but it is sabotaged by such inaccurate portrayals of what happens during the action that it is embarrassing. Avoid if possible, cheer up if you did see it. (after, you aren't the only sucker)