Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Instant Favorite.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Although not reaching all way through, Oliver Stone and the actors deliver enough tension and drama to make the film worth its 129 minutes.The pros: The acting by Cage, Peña, Bello and Gyllenhaal. The feeling of authenticity in the scenes under the collapsed buildings. The storytelling power and potential of the events. The cons: The fact that despite the power of the story and fine performances, the movie never reaches the heights it could have.

So I heard that 10% of the money earned from this movie was going to 9/11 charities to help survivors and families of to poor souls who died. Except, over 60 million dollars was wasted on this and it didn't even make a million dollars. The families and survivors would have been better off if Mr Stone just drove vans filled with the money wasted on this up to their doors. I would have had more respect for him than I do after watching this waste of time and money. I doubt any of them have watched it because they know what happened to themselves or their loved ones. I really hope some of those actors gave their money made from this to the families and survivors. How disappointing (I can't believe this got any reviews above 5 that weren't driven by national pride or feelings of guilt).

Nicolas Cage stars in the unforgettable true story of the courageous rescue and survival of two Port Authority policemen who were trapped in the rubble on September 11, 2001 after they volunteered to go in and help in this drama,World Trade Center.It also features Maria Bello, Michael Peña, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon.Director Oliver Stone once again is at helm in a film that offers a powerful and provocative story based on the real events that involves John McLoughlin and William J. Jimeno, both of whom cooperated with producers. Sergeant John McLoughlin and William J. Jimeno were two officers assigned to New York City's Port Authority who were working their beats on a quiet day in early fall when they received an emergency call. The day was September 11, 2001, and they were among the policemen who attempted to evacuate the World Trade Center towers after they were struck by airliners piloted by terrorists. Both were inside the fifth building of the World Trade Center when the towers fell, and were two of the last people found alive amidst the wreckage. As they struggled to hold on to their lives as rescuers sifted through the rubble, their spouses -- Donna McLoughlin and Allison Jimeno clung to the desperate hope that their husbands would survive and be found. As the both their families waited for word on the fate of the two men, they watched as a city and a nation came together with strength and compassion in the face of a tragedy.As a visually stunning tribute to lives lost in tragedy, World Trade Center succeeds unequivocally, and it is more politically muted than many of Stone's other works as the director concentrated on one of the catastrophe's stories and has fashioned it well with almost palpable physical detail, and with performances that never sink to exploitation. Granted, it's only the film's historical context that distinguishes it from any other dramatic rescue story, but in focusing on the goodness of humanity in response to the evil of terrorists who remain unnamed and off-screen, the film creates an emotional context as powerful as anything Stone has done since Platoon. Even as he resorts to some questionable tactics typically lacking in subtlety, Stone refrains from much of the blunt-force film-making that has made him a critical punching bag, rising to this challenging occasion with a heartfelt and deeply American portrait of unity whether personal, familial, and national. Flaws and all, World Trade Center serves an honorable purpose, reminding us all that for those fleeting days in September 2001, America showed its best face to a sympathetic world.

This movie obviously have good intentions when the actual survivors helped write this, but in the end, it left me unaffected and bored.I actually had to stop the movie once and watch it a couple of days later. This is a movie right? It feels more like an audio-book since more than half of the movie takes place in darkness. You can barely make out the people on screen and I actually felt relieved in the scene where fire comes flying by the actors. Finally we can see something! Of course the fire dies out and the screen turns so dark I can see my own reflection. I have seen plenty of other movies and documentaries where people are trapped and it really doesn't need to be this dark. The script is a complete disaster. When Jimeno is brought to the hospital and his wife talks to him... I actually felt bad for the actors. It was so cheesy and so predictable it made me cringe. In fact, most of the script in this movie is either incredibly cheesy or way over the top. I felt bad for McLoughlin having to listen to Jimeno while they are trapped, his voice becomes nails on a chalkboard. So as you can imagine: Having to listen to that grating voice while you can barely make out the characters or anything on the screen... ugh!I feel bad writing this as I know the two wives helped write this, but I found both their characters annoying. And their relatives were as well, especially Jimenos relatives. They seemed to come from those comedies where the in-laws/relatives are obnoxious and pure horror to be around. One of Donnas children comes off as a spoiled brat with no manners and the rest of the children are fillers with no personality. Heck, even the wives themselves have no personality, they are just whining and crying that they are missing their husbands. When they are reunited with their husbands I felt nothing! The only character who seemed remotely like-able and I wanted to give a hug was the black woman at the hospital. And she was on the screen for tops 5 minutes. Maggie's character (who I honestly can't remember the name of) is apparently so distraught that her relatives gets her medication to prevent a miscarriage, but you never get the feeling of her being this distressed. Most of the time she just walks around with the same expression on her face, you can never tell what she is feeling. When they actually suggest to the character the medication she just seems like she would say "Okay, sure." with a shrug on the shoulders. But because of her constant devoid staring, I have no clue what the character was supposed to feel.I feel this movie would have been much better if the movie had started with developing the families in their every day life, then have the disaster and them worried about their husbands. These random flashbacks while they are trapped makes it very hard to relate to anyone of them. I'm sure the real people are a lot more interesting than portrayed in this movie and I felt more sorry for the people involved by reading about the survivors on Wikipedia than while watching this "audio-book" devoid of emotion.