Annapolis

I can almost picture a group of High School Freshman sitting around thinking up a plot for a movie. But the only life experience they have come from other movies they have seen. So the dialogue might go something like this:

Brook: Like, Oh my God...Officer and a Gentlemen was the best movie eveeerrr!

Cameron: Whatever. That movie is older than your mom.

Brook: No way! Like, we should write a movie script about being in the Navy or something. That would be SO cool!

Josh: Yeah...we could use all of the ideas and just make it sound different. We could have a guy who is rather street smart trying to make it to be an Officer but acting like he really doesn't want it even though he does.

Brook: And we can have a suicide, too! That was Sooooo sad. It would really make this movie good.

Josh: And don't forget a bada$$ drill sergeant who makes everyone do military kind of training.

If this had been the actual exchange that led to the creation of Annapolis it would not surprise me. This movie did not contain any new material. The overused and somewhat cliche formula that they followed in this movie made it terribly predictable. The characters were one dimensional, the plot has been done to death, and the big budget did not make the movie believable. There were some bright spots. There were a few interesting exchanges...where the dialogue actually made me think...the acting was decent given the poor material they had to work with and the recreation of the military training wasn't too bad. Other than that...this movie put me to sleep.

In regards to the writing in this film...the plot is weak. And I'm being gracious using that terminology. The dialogue, on the other hand, is actually decent at times. One of my favorite exchanges was between the main character and another guy who is struggling to keep up with the training regimen. Our main character, Jake Huard (played by James Franco) asks his roommate why he has Huard's back. The roommate responds that Huard is his "Mississippi." When asked for clarification, Huard is told that Mississippi is the only reason why his home state of Alabama never finished last. "You are my Mississippi." I don't remember the exact exchange but that is my best attempt at paraphrasing it.

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