The bad news: to say that this was formulaic and cliché ridden is an understatement; there was almost nothing in this movie that I hadn't seen before, either with Clint Eastwood, Mario Van Peebles, Marsha Mason and Eileen Heckart in HEARTBREAK RIDGE, or with Louis Gossett Jr., Richard Gere and Debra Winger in AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN.
The good news: I'm glad to see the US Coast Guard get its due for a change. I'm a retired Army officer (with some time in the Air Force), but I had an uncle, who passed away two years ago, who was a retired Coast Guard Senior Chief, and I think he would have been pleased with this movie. I don't recall any movie made about the Coast Guard since before World War II, and it's about time this often forgotten and taken for granted branch of the military got its recognition. Also, I'm not considering this a spoiler but I'm clicking the spoiler warning box anyway: the very ending is NOT formulaic, and the fact that it isn't makes up for it being an almost entirely formulaic movie.
The good news: I'm glad to see the US Coast Guard get its due for a change. I'm a retired Army officer (with some time in the Air Force), but I had an uncle, who passed away two years ago, who was a retired Coast Guard Senior Chief, and I think he would have been pleased with this movie. I don't recall any movie made about the Coast Guard since before World War II, and it's about time this often forgotten and taken for granted branch of the military got its recognition. Also, I'm not considering this a spoiler but I'm clicking the spoiler warning box anyway: the very ending is NOT formulaic, and the fact that it isn't makes up for it being an almost entirely formulaic movie.